Global Environment Facility Council

At the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the United States put forward a view of sustainable development that addressed all of its three pillars -- economic, environmental, and social. Our view was that unless all three pillars are strong, the edifice of sustainable development cannot stand. The United States also put forward a concept of partnerships that was in many respects based upon the partnership philosophy developed by the GEF during its first 10 years.

In the White Water to Blue Water Partnership, the United States and its many partners are addressing the interrelationship of land use and land use policy on the marine environment. This Partnership is designed to build capacity for cross sectoral approaches to ecosystem management to address upstream sectoral impacts on downstream sectors.

In the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, the United States and its many partners are seeking to conserve the outstanding biological diversity and wildlife resources of the Congo Basin. The focus will be on a landscape approach to support a network of national parks and protected areas, sustainable forest management and sustainable livelihoods for local communities. This Partnership is designed to promote economic development, alleviate poverty, improve governance, and sustain biological diversity in an integrated manner that recognizes that the three pillars of sustainable development support each other. There are 29 partners, including key NGOs, six Congo Basin governments and the governments of the U.S., South Africa, France, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Japan, and Great Britain.

Like the U.S.-led partnerships, the GEF’s new focal area of land degradation must address all three pillars of sustainable development. Or perhaps since I am speaking in China I ought to speak of the legs of a tripod and of the harmony and success which is achieved when each leg of the tripod is equally strong.

The U.S. would urge the GEF Council to act to ensure that this new focal area is properly integrated with the existing focal areas of Biodiversity and International Waters (as well as the other existing focal areas) and that it too addresses each leg of sustainable development. We would also urge the GEF Council to act to encourage GEF projects that might complement key Type 2 Partnerships that were announced by the U.S. and other governments, NGOs and the private sector at WSSD. For example, it would be excellent if the GEF would consider a Land Degradation or a Mega-Biodiversity project to complement the Congo Basin Forest Partnership and the White Water to Blue Water Partnership.

At the heart of the U.S. concept of sustainable development is the importance of good governance, transparency, and public participation in decisionmaking, another area in which the GEF has led the way.

In closing, I would like to voice once again the U.S. support for the new focal area of land degradation and the hope that the U.S. can work together with the other members of the Council, the GEF Secretariat, the Implementing Agencies, and the other Parties to the CCD to make this new operational program an example of excellence that can truly make a difference for the peoples of the world and the conservation of the natural resources on which their livelihoods depend.