Transcript General without Komi Oil Spill

Africa Regional Consultation on Disaster Reduction: A
Preparation for the World Conference on Disaster
Reduction
Johannesburg, South Africa, 2 to 3 June 2004
Environmental Protection and Disaster Reduction
Presented by
Dr. James Kamara
UNEP/DEPI Disaster Management Branch
Introduction
The environment is made up of the earth,
water, atmosphere and biosphere which
form the environmental pillars.
Environmental pillars provide the
physical resources and ecosystems
services on which human life depends.
Growing evidence that many
aspects of the environment are
still being degraded, for example:
• In 1996, 25% of the world’s 4,630
mammals and 11% of the 9,675 bird
species were at significant risk of
extinction. More than half of the
world’s coral reefs are threatened by
human activities. 80% of the forests
that originally covered the earth have
been cleared;
• Africa is the only continent on which
poverty is expected to rise during the
next century. 500 million hectares of
land have been affected by soil
degradation since about 1950;
• An estimated 21 million barrels of oil
run into the oceans each year from
street run-off, effluent from factories,
and from ships flushing their tanks;
and,
• Climate change threatens to destroy
the majority of the world’s coral
reefs, as well as wreak havoc on the
fragile economies of Small Island
Developing States.
UNEP has the mandate for providing
leadership and encouraging
partnerships in caring for the
environment by inspiring, informing
and enabling nations and people to
improve the quality of life without
compromising that of future
generations.
Human - Environmental Protection
- Disaster Reduction - Nexus
Sustainable development rests on
three pillars, namely, society,
economy and environment.
Environmental protection is a major
component of sustainable
development and is consistent with
poverty reduction as well as with the
prevention and mitigation of
disasters.
In Africa, the trends of increasing
demographic pressure is escalating
environmental degradation, increasing
human vulnerability and the intensity of
the impacts of disasters.
Factors increasing the severity of
catastrophic disasters in Africa:
• Widespread and uncontrolled
deforestation and destruction of
vegetation cover which also disrupts
catchment areas;
• Impact of climate-induced changes
on the environment and social
system. Increase in drought, flood
and other extreme events negatively
affect food security, water resources,
human health, industrial production
and infrastructure. Changes in
precipitation and land use intensities
worsens desertification;
• Growing human populations
having to live in vulnerable lands in
cities and along coastlines;
• Lack of or existence of weak early
warning environmental emergency
and disaster management systems
in many countries in Africa; and,
• Unfortunate human and politically
induced conflicts and situations
impacting adversely on the
environment, for example, the so
called environmental refugees and
displacement. These interfere
grossly with security access, food
security and environmental
sustenance.
As the frequency of disasters increase,
it has become evident that neither
government authorities nor local
communities can afford to meet the
rising cost of compensating affected
people for the losses incurred.
Affordable solution lies in
environmental protection and in
prevention and preparedness for
disasters.
The environment plays an important
protective role from the effects of
disasters, for example, important
wetlands functions include: water
storage, storm protection, flood
mitigation, shoreline stabilization and
erosion control.
Many communities all over the world
depend on natural resources for their
livelihoods. They are vulnerable to
changes in the environment and to the
impacts of extreme natural events.
When the environment becomes
degraded all forms of life are
threatened.
UNEP’s work focuses in inspiring
people to protect the integrity of the
environmental resources and use them
in sustainable manner through
promotion of development of better
policies, plans and programmes for
effective environmental management
at the national, sub-regional, regional
and global levels.
Environmental protection and disaster
risk reduction support and
complement each other.
Environmental protection and disaster
management must therefore always be
integrated into any policies, plans and
programmes for disaster risk reduction.
Disaster reduction are measures taken
to reduce the vulnerability of the
socio-economic system and the
environment to disasters.
Measures cover a wide spectrum of
activities ranging from avoiding
disasters all together (prevention) to
measures aimed at limiting the
severity of a disaster when it strikes.
Examples of measures include
integrated policies for environmental
and disaster management,
sensitization and awareness raising,
capacity building, forecasting
disasters, early warning and
responding to disasters, information
on damages, restoration and
rehabilitation, and environmental
and disaster vulnerability mapping.
Community-based environmental
protection and disaster reduction
approaches are therefore very
important in reducing impacts of
disasters because it is at the
community level that the physical,
social and economic risks can be
adequately assessed and managed.
Questions