GEO-6 Regional Assessment for Asia and the Pacific


Asia and the Pacific countries are signatories to major multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, the Ramsar Convention on wetlands of international importance, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). In addition many countries, for instance Bangladesh, the Philippines and Thailand, have set up national councils for sustainable development to facilitate mainstream economic, social and environmental objectives across all development sectors. The MEAs, together with efforts to achieve sustainable development at the national level, formulate a rather comprehensive global environmental governance system. However, these MEAs will not be able to make a substantial difference without equipping both existing and new environment and sustainable development institutions with strong accountability mechanisms.


The region has also seen an increase in regional and bilateral environmental agreements such as the 1986 Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region (Noumea Convention), the 1995 Agreement on Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin, the Ganges River Basin water- sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh (1977 and 1996), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. In addition, individual countries have adopted successful policies, either as a response to the changing landscape of global and regional agreements or developed domestically


112


but separately from global or regional agreements. Examples include Green Development/Growth Policies in Cambodia, Fiji and Mongolia, specialized ministries such as Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Sustainable Development and Wildlife and Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change, and initiatives such as King Bhumibol’s philosophy of a Sufficiency Economy in Thailand, and Gross National Happiness along with detailed indicator systems in Bhutan.


The MDGs have had a tremendous impact on development and the environment over the past 15 years in the region (Figure 3.1.1). During this period, a parallelism could be found between the implementation of major MEAs and MDG 7 on environmental sustainability, in one way or another. This section assesses environmental performance in the region with reference to MDG 7 while also touching on cross-cutting global and regional MEAs.


The MDGs were a significant departure from general to more focused policy attention and resource allocation for the promotion of socio-economic development in developing and least-developed countries, based on eight development goals and their targets. Governments across the region have incorporated the MDG framework into their national development planning and have benefited tremendously.


Despite increasing efforts and resources for implementing the MDGs, the region overall has been off track to achieve many of the targets, in particular those under Goal 7.


Goal 7 had three targets and ten indicators. Target 7.A, to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources, is an overarching and broad target that comprises both policy integration and implementation. Integrating the principles of sustainable development into planning was relatively easy for countries, but implementing and measuring progress in reversing the loss of environmental resources was found difficult due to existing policy-implementation gaps in most of the countries. This target was a symbolic, directional reminder to all actors implementing MDGs that they should not be


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227