Address of Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
President Ramos, distinguished guests from all over Asia and
Pacific, Friends of the Earth.
We gather together here in Manila, not just to talk about the
past, but to change the future. We gather together, representatives
of the Asian-Pacific region, to take charge of our environmental
future.
We gather together at this historic convocation, to bring together
all elements of decision-makers with respect to environmental
planning - from heads of government to parliamentarians, to scientists,
to academics to try to communicate with each other and reach a
common strategy, so that we can engage the rest of the world with
a united vision at the International Conference in Berlin next
month.
It is significant that Parliamentarians meet in the beautiful
city of Manila. For Manila has been in the forefront in the battle
for global values. Not long ago, Manila witnessed the triumph
of freedom. We, in Pakistan, fought for freedom too, in your courage,
our own courage, in your defiance against tyranny, our own defiance.
And in your triumph, our own triumph.
Ladies and Gentlemen, for too long we have been content to blame
the developed world exclusively for the problems of the developing
world. God knows they are not blameless. But frankly neither are
we. There has been enough damage, there is enough blame, for us
all.
Clearly the developed world has made the 20th century into a
100 year rampage of exploitation, abuse and violation of this
planet. Often with the natural resources ripped from their colonial
conquests, the developed world has rapidly industrialized without
plan or thought of consequence to the environmental impact of
their own action. And we have all suffered for their shortsighted
abuse.
That is why we are here to day - not necessarily to dwell on how
the current crisis came to be, but to analyze what the situation
is with respect to climate change and global warming and the greenhouse
effect that threatens to choke our futures. We are here to exchange
ideas and exchange technologies. We are here, for the first time
in history, to draft a regional climate change action plan. We
are here to systematically affect the future.
We in the Asian-Pacific Region have a vital, vested interest
in implementing a reasonable and rational global plan to address
climate change. Although we encompass over half of the world's
population, we produce less than a quarter of the earth's global
greenhouse emissions. In other words we are paying a disproportionate
price for the excesses of other regions, particularly Europe and
the Americas.
Our region also is most vulnerable to the changes in weather
and temperature patterns which have resulted from the effects
of human activities and the destruction of the earth's protective
ozone layer. The vast number of deaths from tropical storms over
the last decade have been among our people.
Many of our nation island states - including the glorious Philippines
- are especially vulnerable to polar cap melt downs and the subsequent
rise in ocean levels. Indonesia and Sri Lanka could be tragically
impacted.
Our fellow SAARC country of the Maldives sits only three meters
above the ocean level. The slightest change would quite literally
wipe this archipelago nation away.
Some of the most populous nations, including Pakistan, China,
Bangladesh, and India, have exposed populations in coastal and
delta areas that have been tragically impacted by coastal flooding
and cyclones in the past. Millions have and will be dislocated.
These delta populations are most obviously vulnerable to the impact
of polar cap melting and global warming in the future.
Now they are even more vulnerable. But we are here to be their
defenders. Resources, technology and determination are our weapons
and self-defense. The primary threat to Pakistan is to our agricultural
resources, which are at risk because of the expected extraordinary
jump in the monsoon floods over the next few decades. Our crops
are also vulnerable to heat stress and temperature rise.
Whether it is our coastline or our agricultural bases, whether
it is the power of the cyclone or the terror of the typhoon, whether
it is polar meltdown of global warming, the Asian-Pacific region
is vulnerable and must come together to take a defensive plan
of action to avoid a catastrophe. That is why we are here in Manila
today, and will be in Berlin next month. The Earth, at long last,
is uniting to save its future.
And for us in Pakistan, this consolidation of interest and action
could not come too soon. Rapid population growth, which my government
is acting to control, has put maximum pressure on our renewable
resources.
And as often is the case, the poor amongst us are the most vulnerable
to problems within society - to erratic climatic changes. Those
most dependent on the land and the weather for their way of life.
For Pakistan, as for much of the region, we must band together
and plan to control the current situation, and defend against
the potential future change to our local climate conditions. We
must adopt flood control measures to deal with the surge in monsoons.
We must change our farming practices to adapt to the changing
climate.We must develop heat resistant plants, vegetables, crops.
We are mindful of our obligations.
That is why we, in Pakistan, have initiated a programme to respond
to such needs at the national level. The centre-piece of the programme
is our national conservation strategy, the NCS. The NCS is a unique
strategy, already viewed by others as a model for emulation.
In our strategy, we sought to integrate the views of government
as well as nongovernmental sectors, the mass media, academic institutions,
the private sector, judicial institutions, local government institutions,
and others. The strategy mobilized key stakeholders into undertaking
actions of a supportive nature. Thus the strategy has hundreds
of "owners," each one acting individually as well as in concert
with others.
But we need to do much more. We must reforest in those areas
that have been particularly depleted, a situation aggravated by
the ecological impact of the ten-year-long struggle of the Mujahadeen
against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which caused three
million Afghan refugees to rush to the sanctity of our soil, further
depleting our natural resources, especially our forest areas.
We must protect our population living on the Indian Ocean coast,
and effectively plan to prepare for natural disaster by relocating
people and infrastructural investments from the most vulnerable
parts of our country.
We must be more judicious in the use of irrigational techniques
and pesticides to address the impending environmental crisis.
These are our most specific and urgent needs.
But the last 20 years of environmental dislocation has taught
us that none of us - not as people and not as nations - exist
in isolation.We plan and act in Pakistan, but if we do not do
it in concert with our neighbors, we cannot impact long term trends.
We can plan and act in Pakistan and all through our region, but
if it is not coordinated with the actions of the developed world,
and especially those that have most degraded our common environment,
we cannot hope to succeed.
That is why Manila is so vital.That is why Berlin is so critical
to the survival of man. That is why this conference is so fundamental
to the community of nations.
All of us - government leaders, parliamentarians, scientists,
environmentalists - must band together to exchange ideas, experiences
and technologies. There is much information that we have compiled
over the last decade, but there is even more that we do not know.
We know that human activities are changing the chemical composition
of our atmosphere. We know the buildup of greenhouse gases is
changing the radiation balance of the planet. The heat trapping,
earth warming properties of those greenhouse gases is indisputable.
What we don't know, and what we must learn and prepare for, is
the effect of these climatic changes on temperature, on precipitation,
on soil moisture and on sea levels. We do not know, but must learn
and anticipate the effect these changes in temperature, precipitation,
soil and sea level will have on ecological systems, human health,
and the socioeconomic sectors of our various economies.
The programs that have been adopted by the developed world over
the last decade to deal with the onerous atmosphere impact of
their own environmental abuses are now starting to have a real
impact on the environmental problem. The technology is working.
Now the technology must be applied to the developing world. Now
the technology must be expanded through regional cooperation and
action, to the undeniable and inevitable impact of ozone depletion
and climate change. It will not happen over night. It will not
happen without cost.
It would only be fair that those who have primarily polluted
the environment take on a major responsibility of cleaning it
up, not just in their own countries, but through cost-effective
international cooperation. Let the developed world apply their
successful technologies to our noxious problems. We inhabit the
same planet, and the greenhouse effect cannot be localized. In
other words, we are in this together.
But it is critical that the problem of ozone depletion and greenhouse
effect not be used as an excuse for arresting the economic and
social development of the developing world.
All through our region, major economic expansion is taking place.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines and others are finally
taking off on economic development. And with economic development
comes social amelioration. All of this within the framework of
democracy and human rights. We cannot allow the developed world's
century long abuse of our common environment to be the excuse
for another century of economic abuse and social inequity.
Since the onset of the industrial revolution two divergent cultures
have uneasily coexisted on our planet: the culture of abundance
and the culture of subsistence. The culture of abundance has not
felt the driving need of self interest in creating concrete channels
of cooperation with the culture of subsistence. But now the future
of both cultures is at stake. Environmental degradation threatens
both our cultures. It threatens the world. The Berlin Conference
offers the possibility of a partnership of lasting value between
the North and the South.
We can't and will not be forced to choose between development,
democracy and environmental order. All three interact. All three
are universal rights.
As we gather together here in Manila, let us think about all
of these factors, and primarily of our responsibility to our people,
not just now but in the future.
Our constituency transcends those who are in this room. Our constituency
transcends those who sit in our Parliaments. Our constituency
even transcends those currently living in our countries.
We have been granted the awesome responsibility to save a future
for a generation yet unborn. We must not shrink from that responsibility.
We must welcome it. We must seize it. We must act upon it. Remembering
always, the ancient adage:
"We have not inherited the earth from our fathers. We have merely
borrowed it from our children."
Thank you, and may the blessings of Allah be upon you and your
work.
