The United Nations is a world of its own. If you want to find your way among the jungle of organisations, conferences, working groups and projects, you need one thing: a dictionary with English abbreviations. And if you look up UNEP, you will find: "United Nations Environment Programme". This is not simply a name on a plan, but a UN organisation with headquarters in Nairobi (Kenya).
Since 1972, UNEP has promoted the wise use of the environment and developed international resources for environmental protection. It collects environmental data, prepares conferences, draws up management plans, establishes networks of environmental technologies and supports institutions in creating sustainable development. It co-operates with other UN organisations, governments, research institutions, industrial enterprises as well as groups and associations in civil society.
The UNEP defines itself as the "voice for the environment" in the United Nations system. The major media interest in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that this voice is increasingly heard beyond the confines of UN administrative bodies. The IPCC was co-founded by the "World Meteorological Organisation" (WMO) and the UNEP. In December 2007, the IPCC was awarded a joint Peace Nobel Prize with Al Gore.
Top Goal: Maintaining Diversity of Species
If you want to be successful in politics, you need visions. The vision of the "World Conservation Monitoring Center" (UNEP-WCMC) can be summed up in one concept: bio-diversity, the diversity of life forms on our planet. The centre with headquarters in Cambridge (Britain) collects global data on the diversity of species and tries to convince political decision-makers that bio-diversity needs to be maintained, not least for the sake of the human race.
Since 1992, the WCMC's projects have included several Arctic projects charting animals and plants, establishing protected areas and setting up data bases. For example, a distribution chart was drawn up of all waterfowl and waders "travelling" to the Arctic in summer to breed there. The long-distance record is held by the arctic tern with 35,000 flight kilometres. These birds breed in the northernmost areas and spend the winters in the Antarctic.
The "Arctic Bird Library" is another project, linking 129 portraits of birds which mainly live in the Arctic with distribution charts, photographs, videos and sounds.
The focus of all WCMC activities is always on the entire ecosystem. "Arctic biodiversity is more than just polar bears", the organisation declared on the occasion of the International Day of Bio-Diversity on 22 May, 2007. Four inhabitants of the polar region were chosen to make the public aware of the importance of Arctic biodiversity and the threats it faces: the ivory gull, the reindeer, the lake trout and the knot.
The ivory gull feeds on the left-overs of polar bear meals, and like the king of the Arctic is dependent on sea ice for its survival. The reindeer is the main source of income for the indigenous peoples of the high North. The lake trout is the fresh water fish with the northernmost populations. It is a symbol for Arctic rivers which pump over 4,600 cubic kilometres of fresh water into the Northern polar seas every year. The knot represents the large number of migrant birds breeding in the Arctic. It spends the winters in southern and western Africa.
The task of the numerous UNEP centres around the globe is to collect and process environmental data for administrations and for the public. The GRID-Arendal (Global Resource Information Database) has its headquarters in Arendal in Norway. Its website includes an Arctic environmental atlas giving information on topography, geology, soil, permafrost distribution, tectonic plates, population density, protected areas etc.
Achim Steiner is the Director of the UN Environment Programme
Germany apparently enjoys a very good reputation world-wide in the field of environmental protection. Between 1998 and 2006, former Federal Minister, Klaus Töpfer, was the head of UNEP, and since June 2006, the German politician, Achim Steiner, has been at the helm of the United Nations Environment Programme. Steiner is a member of the Senior Management Group (SMG), the cabinet of Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, and bears the title of Under Secretary General of the United Nations.
At the age of 39 years, Steiner, who was born in Brazil in 1961, became Secretary General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's largest conservation association, with headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN activities include the publication of the "Red List of Endangered Species". Its membership comprises not only over 800 non-governmental organisations, but also state conservation departments, governments, and over 10,000 scientists from 140 countries.
After studying philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford, graduating with a Masters degree in economics and regional planning at the University of London, Steiner did voluntary work in a Pakistani village for the "Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit" (Association for Technological Co-Operation GTZ), and went on to lead a nature conservation project in South Africa. As an advisor on sustainable planning, he then moved to Oman, Vietnam, the USA, South America and Oceania. Finally he became the director of the international secretariat of the "World Commission on Dams".
Whether it is the IUCN or the UNEP, the director needs to be able to conduct a choir of many voices. When asked what he would do if given a large sum of money, Steiner answered: "I would donate a third of it to promote exchange between people who find it hard to communicate with each other – this is the only way we can create a new awareness and really achieve change."
Transforming the UNEP into a goal-oriented and result-oriented organisation is at the top of Steiner's task list. At a 2008 Monaco conference, the UNEP executive director named a further political issue: "The transformation of the 'brown' global economy into a modern 21st century green economy.“
Mathias Orgeldinger
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