Alvarez bats for poverty alleviation

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson T. Alvarez brought up before the the the United Nations recently the aspirations of poor developing countries like the Philippines for real and palpable progress through sustainable development for all.

Speaking before the preparatory committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development at the United Nations headquarters in New York last week, Alvarez pleaded in behalf of Third World nations for the full implementation of Agenda 21 established 10 years ago at Rio de Janeiro.

He said that the alleviation of poverty, which has caused massive natural resource depletion, is central to the vision of sustainable development. He said that something must be done about the uneven creation of wealth and increased income inequality that had pushed larger hordes of people to the margins.

Alvarez said that while development is primarily the responsibility of each country, the national efforts of developing countries to achieve sustainable development are not enough, particularly in this era of fast globalization.

"We therefore stress the imperatives of multilateral cooperation in the sustainable management of natural resources, including lands and forests, oceans and coastal water resources," he said.

He said that developing countries need adequate and appropriate mechanisms to cushion the negative effects of international commerce on their economies and on the carrying capacities of their natural resources

Alvarez batted for more external financing, more trade and investment flows in areas that would promote the sustainable use of environment and its linkage to sustainable economic growth and well-being, especially the poor.

"We would like to see financing bereft of onerous conditionalities, and we would like to see true and effective debt relief to enable poor and middle-income countries to tap endogenous capital for deve-lopment," he said.

He said that there is an urgent need to facilitate technology transfer as embodied in Agenda 21 through improved mechanism and more accessible to developing countries at lower costs.