ECLAC Releases Report
Of Deforestation, Gas Emission In Latin
America
SANTIAGO - The Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) published
a report Thursday about the advances and
difficulties of fulfilling the seventh
Millennium Development Goal (MDG7)
concerning environment sustainability in the
region.
Despite the significant advances in some
areas, continuous deforestation and non-stop
rising of carbon emissions here are
compromising the achievement of the goals,
according to the ECLAC.
The deforestation rate here doubles the
world average. Between 1990 and 2005 nearly
69 million hectors of forests were lost, a 7
percent shrink of the forest coverage in the
region, the report said.
Of the total loss of forest, 86 percent took
place in South America,particularly in the
Amazon, causing the carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions to have risen nearly 41 percent
between 1990 and 2005, asserted the report.
The targets associated with the seventh
Millennium Development Goal aim to integrate
the principles of sustainable development
into country policies and programs and
reverse the loss of environmental resources;
to halve the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking water
and basic sanitation by 2015; to have
achieved a significant improvement of the
lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers
by 2020.
The report "Millennium Development Goals:
Advances in Environmentally Sustainable
Development in Latin America and the
Caribbean" showed that from 1990 to 2005 the
total surface of protected areas skyrocketed
120 percent, consumption of Ozone Depleting
Substances (ODS) diminished by 85 percent.
And coverage of drinking water and basic
sanitation rose by 10 percent and 17
percent, respectively.
Also the urban population living in slums
has decreased by 31 percent, but still there
are 100 million people living in
unacceptable conditions, the ECLAC said.
The ECLAC therefore calls for stepping up
efforts to drive environmentally sustainable
development, in order to cope with
environmental challenges effectively, thus
to adjust the current development model to
new frontiers of growth with more added
value and innovation.
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