Asia-Pacific Forum on Environment and Development
12-13 January 2002
Bangkok

Bangkok (United Nations Information Services) -- The Phnom Penh Regional Platform on Sustainable Development for Asia and the Pacific's most important action was the unanimous adoption of seven initiatives or "Super Seven" to reflect the region's priorities, said UN ESCAP's Executive Secretary, Mr Kim Hak-Su, in his opening statement at the Asia-Pacific Forum on Environment and Development.

"These 'Super Seven' regional initiatives relate to capacity-building; poverty reduction; cleaner production and sustainable energy; land management and biodiversity conservation; freshwater resources; oceans and marine resources, including vulnerability of small island states; and atmosphere and climate change," added Mr Kim. "Therefore whether it is the promotion of sustainable development or the implementation of Agenda 21, the future of Asia and the Pacific is of critical importance to the rest of the world."

The first substantive meeting of the Asia-Pacific Forum, which brings together two dozen of the region's leading thinkers, began today at the UN Conference Centre. The initiative is by Japan's Ministry of Environment.

The High Level Regional Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development was organized by ESCAP, in collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Environment Programme at Phnom Penh in November 2001.

The Phnom Penh meeting was the culmination of a regional preparatory process where governments and other stakeholders conducted an assessment of the implementation of Agenda 21 (an environmental blue print) and identified the key sustainable development issues for the region.

One of the ways to achieve progress towards sustainability, Mr. Kim said, is to make the following five choices: reject poverty as an acceptable human condition; confront and manage the inexorable process of globalization; conserve our natural resources; improve governance; and provide the needed financial resources for sustainable development.

"However our real success towards that end will hinge upon the timely implementation of the initiatives identified in the Platform. I thus exhort this Forum, in its message to the Johannesburg Summit, to give its full support to the Regional Platform, in particular to the proposed regional initiatives and their implementation through concrete programmes and actions," said Mr Kim.

The Forum would initially prepare a message for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in August and planned to meet a further five times before completing its final report in 2004.

The meeting is organized by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan; Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Thailand; UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific; United Nations Environment Programme; Thailand Environment Institute; and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.

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