Environment and Food

Our natural resources are limited. Sustainable development and as such sustainable management must harmonise with nature and ensure the judicious use of natural resources. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, defined sustainable development as its political mission statement, which the Johannesburg 2002 UN Summit explicitly confirmed. Since then protecting the environment and climate change have defined the international political agenda.

By now people in industrialised countries are also suffering from the effects of environmental pollution. But developing countries are still by far the hardest hit. Not only do they feel the effects of climate change more powerfully in the form of floods, storms and other natural catastrophes that destroy their livelihoods; Environmental damage also destroys the positive results of development in many places. The spread of deserts destroys farmland crucial to survival. Air pollution causes illnesses that only acerbate the already underfunded health care systems in developing and transition countries. The World Health Organisation estimates that around one fourth of all avoidable illnesses can be attributed to environmental damage or poor environmental conditions.

Environmental issues do not respect national boundaries. If increasingly larger areas of the Brazilian rain forest are razed, the earth’s "green lung" will die and a large part of our global diversity will be lost forever as well. Water is an extremely precious commodity the world over. Today more than two-thirds of all sources of fresh water are considered seriously contaminated. In future the number of conflicts that errupt over access to water will increase, both as civil disputes and across national boundaries. If we are to manage our precious water supplies fairly and sustainably, if we want to protect the world’s unique natural resources, the environment, and the ultimately our climate, we must skillfully blend economic efficiency with environmental and social compatibility. Nations, civil society and the business community need to join forces on both a national and an international level. We have to combine our political power – as the agenda developed in Johannesburg and Rio demands.

Inwent’s capacity building programmes focus primarily on environmental and energy policy, climate change and protection. Natural resources management, in particular of water, land (desertification), tropic forests and biodiversity in addition to rural development and food security are also central to our work.

United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)