By Arti Mulchand, Straits Times 16 Jan 08;
SINGAPORE has a duty to share what it has learnt about protecting the environment with its rapidly developing neighbours, a top United Nations official said yesterday.
'You have made mistakes but you have repaired them,' said UN biodiversity chief Ahmed Djoghlaf during a tour here.
He said: 'My plea is that this experience...is shared with the world and your neighbours, which are growing.
'You have a moral responsibility to help them avoid the same mistakes.'
Dr Djoghlaf, who is the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), is here to deliver a public lecture on biodiversity and climate change at the Civil Service College at 9am today.
On Monday, he also signed a deal between the CBD and the Philippines-based Asean Centre for Biodiversity. The deal aims to promote environmental protection in the region.
Yesterday, the 54-year-old traded in his jacket for a pair of binoculars and walked around the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve, one of Singapore's best conservation success stories.
The reserve, which was set aside in 1989 after being discovered by a group of avid birdwatchers, is testimony to the need for a cooperative approach to conservation, he said.
He had high praise for the country's ability to marry development and environmentalism.
Dr Djoghlaf said that events such as the eco-friendly World Cities Summit in June, which will be held on the sidelines of the Singapore International Water Week, demonstrated that the country was a 'leader in urban environment issues'.
Singapore's push for conservation is encouraging especially in a rapidly urbanising world that is pushing an increasing number of the world's plants and animal speciesto the brink, he added.
A huge challenge, Dr Djoghlaf said, is posed by the fact that scientists have identified only a fraction of the species on earth. That means mankind does not know how many have already been lost or what else might be at stake.
Some 85 per cent of the world's species live in tropical forests which, by some estimates, are disappearing at a rate of 13 million hectares a year.
What is worse, Dr Djoghlaf added, is that the interdependence between humans, plants and animals is not entirely understood.
He said: 'It is all interconnected...So it's not just about protecting nature. We are talking about protecting life.'
