Close window

ECO FORUM - WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2006

Celebrating World Environment Day 2006, Action for Cooperation and Trust (ACT) organised a three-day event which brought together over 140 participants from across the island, including local and international experts, academia, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the media, decision-makers, educators and other interested individuals at the Holiday Inn in Nicosia. The forum discussed potential solutions to the problems of desertification in Cyprus, and Corporate Environmental Responsibility within the framework of the United Nations Global Compact. Desertification - the theme of this year’s World Environment Day - is of particular concern in Cyprus where the water balance is increasingly negative, mainly as a result of agricultural activity, and where erosion is a major issue, due to mining and quarrying. Business plays a key role, both as a factor in environmental deterioration of the island, as well as holding the keys to potential solutions.

In a pre-recorded opening message, Michael Møller, United Nations Special Representative to the Secretary General in Cyprus, explained that both communities shared a common ecosystem, which recognises no boundaries and emphasised the need for bi-communal cooperation to ensure its preservation. Nicolas Jarraud, Environmental Officer for ACT continued along the same lines, stressing the need to work together to find island-wide solutions to environmental issues of common concern. Using the example of the avian influenza crisis earlier in the year, Dr. Jarraud said: ‘Everybody recognised that the buffer zone would not stop contaminated birds from flying across, that the island is a single epidemiological area, and that only concerted action could keep the island safe.’ Dr. Jarraud also stressed the need to emphasise the solutions, rather than focusing only on the problems facing the ecology of Cyprus.

Dr. Miroslav Vosatka of the Czech Academy of Sciences explained the role of Mycorrhizae (a symbiosis between plant roots and fungi, one well-known manifestation of which are mushrooms and toadstools) in helping plants colonise stressed environments, as well as their role in preventing desertification: ‘mycorrhizae are a life insurance policy for plants,’ he said. Professor Willem van Cotthem promoted his own solution to desertification with a mixture designed to help soils in arid climates to retain water, that is known as ‘TerraCotthem’. Tobias Salathé from the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, who has been instrumental in ensuring the protected status of the Akrotiri Salt Lake, explained the causes of desertification and the importance of wetlands in arid areas. ‘To avoid further land degradation,’ he argued, one should ‘include market and non-market economic benefits of wetlands to estimate their total economic value, which is often greater than the value of converted ecosystems.’ Two former senior members of the Geological Survey Department, George Petrides and George Constantinou, condensed a 10,000-year history of water use in Cyprus into a highly informative 20 minute presentation. They highlighted the fact that agriculture consumes over 75% of all the fresh water available in Cyprus, and emphasised the need for converting to crops which have lesser water needs. The audience was then treated to a film on the ecological value of the wetlands of Cyprus, produced by a bi-communal team of academics and environmentalists from across Cyprus and abroad.

The afternoon lectures focused on the environmental principles of the Global Compact, the UN's global initiative for Corporate Social Responsibility. Christopher Louise, UNDP-ACT’s Communications Manager, introduced the session by explaining Principle 7 – to support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; Principle 8 – to undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility and Principle 9 – to encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. ‘The Global Compact is not a substitute for effective action by governments,’ he said, ‘but an opportunity for firms to exercise leadership in their enlightened self-interest.’ In his keynote lecture, Stefanos Fotiou of the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris placed emphasis on sustainable tourism. He explained that tourism has both the potential to harm sustainability – because of factors such as the ecological footprint of transportation, land use, water use, energy use and waste generation – and the potential to encourage sustainability through job creation, generation of local incomes and even promoting conservation by seeing nature as a valuable resource. Alp Cengiz Alp, of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce, outlined some of the environmental problems in the Turkish Cypriot Community, namely: waste management, extractive industries, water management, rapid housing development and pollution. He explained that companies in the Turkish Cypriot Community need to do more to apply the precautionary principle (principle 7 of the Global Compact) in the implementation of their activities. One of the key needs he mentioned was to introduce a rigorous system of environmental impact assessment. Mr. Yiannis Fessas from Proplan Ltd. stressed the importance of sustainable construction, which he defined as ‘the creation and responsible management of a healthy built environment based on resource efficient and ecological principles.’

Day two of the conference was made up of dynamic workshops involving various stakeholders and facilitated by guest experts. The workshop on the environmental principles of the Global Compact led by Mr. Fotiou, benefited from the involvement of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce. It led to an agreement by those assembled that a common, bi-communal initiative must be launched to encourage corporate leaders in sustainable development to exchange ideas and lead by example. The afternoon workshop on promoting dialogue between environmental NGOs and the media on the subject of the environment was led by three former BBC correspondents (Alex Kirby, Tim Grout-Smith and Lily Poberezhska) and elicited interest from a variety of media organisations from across the island. Journalists from both communities confirmed their desire to cover stories island-wide, but that major environmental issues should be framed in a local context to generate public interest. It was also agreed that environmental stories need to be de-politicised, and aimed instead at raising public awareness of issues that indeed affect the lives of all people in Cyprus.

The Ecoforum ended with a lunchtime celebration at the ACT offices, a useful opportunity where local and international experts mingled to discuss future projects with a range of environmental stakeholders. The momentum created by this year’s conference is being carried forward by the participants and ACT is already planning a follow-up stakeholders’ forum later this year.

For more information about the Eco Forum - World Environment Day 2006, click here.

If you would like to learn more about how to get involved in island-wide environmental projects, contact Nicolas Jarraud, Environmental Officer: nicolas.jarraud@undp.org.