Jul 7, 2005

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AP World News

G8 Leaders Told It Pays to Protect
Forests

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By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer

July 6, 2005, 4:16 AM EDT

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. environment chief has a
message for leaders of the world's major industrialized nations:
scientists have shown that it pays to preserve forests, coastal
waters and marshes.

Klaus Toepfer made the case that
investing in the environment will go a long way toward meeting U.N.
goals to reduce poverty, supply clean drinking water and fight the
spread of infectious diseases.

"Our
motto is environment for development," he said in an interview last
week.

The Group of Eight meets in Scotland on Wednesday and
will address global warming and climate change -- and Toepfer
expressed hope that the leaders will see the link between this
critical issue and development.

British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, who is hosting the summit, wants an agreement among G-8
leaders on the scientific threat posed by global warming and the
urgent need for action.

But the United States rejects the
Kyoto Protocol, which calls for cutting carbon dioxide and other gas
emissions believed to contribute to global warming. President Bush
has called for shifting the debate away from limits on greenhouse
gas emissions to new technology that would reduce environmental
damage without restricting energy use.

Toepfer, who heads
the Nairobi-based U.N. Environment Program, said scientific data
show that destruction of the environment is a direct cause of many
problems faced in the world today -- including poverty, declining
health, hunger, undrinkable water, disease, migration from rural to
urban areas, and conflict.

"So the environment is not a
luxury, not a Gucci accessory bag or a fancy silk tie affordable
only when all other issues have been resolved," he told a U.N.
ministerial meeting last week. "It is the oxygen breathing life into
all the goals. It is the red ribbon running around our common
aspirations for a healthier, more stable and just world."

Toepfer said the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment -- a recent
study compiled by 1,360 scientists from 95 nations who pored over
16,000 satellite photos from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration and analyzed statistics and scientific journals --
underscored that the environment is critically important for
development.

The study found that humans had depleted 60
percent of the world's grasslands, forests, farmlands, rivers and
lakes. It also found that 12 percent of birds, 23 percent of
mammals, 25 percent of conifers and 32 percent of amphibians are
threatened with extinction -- and that the world's fish stocks have
been reduced by 90 percent since the start of industrial fishing.

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