On the occasion of World Environment Day (WED), internationally celebrated every year on 5 June, United Nations called for worldwide awareness of the vital necessity of environmental protection and enhances public and political actions on this issue. This year, the theme of WED was “Deserts and Desertification" and UN's slogan was “Don't Desert Drylands!", which occupy more than 40% of Earth's land area and are home to more than 2 billion people.

The main celebrations of WED 2006 were held in the City of Algiers, Algeria, drawing attention to the importance of caring for the world's vast areas of arid land. In his message on 5 June, 2006, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reminded the world that “Across the planet, poverty, unsustainable land management and climate change are turning drylands into deserts, and desertification in turn exacerbates and leads to poverty”. Annan added, “There is also mounting evidence that dryland degradation and competition over increasingly scarce resources can bring communities into conflict... Desertification is hard to reverse, but it can be prevented. Protecting and restoring drylands will not only relieve the growing burden on the world's urban areas, it will contribute to a more peaceful and secure world.”

CELEBRATIONS

World Environment Day is a people's event celebrated with colourful activities, including street rallies, bicycle parades, green concerts, essays and poster competitions in schools, tree planting, recycling and clean-up campaigns.

WED was also celebrated in Turkey on 5 June. Part of the Day's activities took place at “Sincan Wonderland” in the town of Sincan, near Ankara, under the coordination of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and UNDP. Outdoor activities such as children's folk dancing and gymnastics performances, clown shows and public concerts created a lot of fun. Primary school children also contributed their part to the World Environment Day by producing slogans and paintings on environmental protection and climate change, in a competition organized by the Ministry and the UNDP within the context of Global Environment Facility programme. 280 primary schools in Ankara province participated in the competition. The jury, formed by the representatives from both the Ministry and UNDP, chose 10 best slogans and awarded the students with prizes. Among the gifts presented to the children by Katalin Zaim, UNDP's Environment and Sustainable Development Programme Director, and Bünyamin Karaca, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry were digital cameras, DVD players, MP3 players and electronic dictionaries. Some of the award-winning slogans were:

• “Let's not waste natural resources, let's not change our climate” by Meltem Akbulut, 5th grade;
• “Let's put an end to producing greenhouse gases which can bring disaster to human kind”, by Uğurcan Gökkaya, 7th grade;
• “Let's keep our air, water and earth clean, and continue to enjoy all seasons”, by Burakhan Hakbilen, 5th grade.

“TARGET: ZERO EXTINCTION”

On the eve of the Environment Day, a new fund to prevent biodiversity decline in Turkey was launched by Doğa Derneği (Nature Society), which is BirdLife International's affiliate in Turkey, UNDP Turkey and the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry. “Turkey's Nature Fund” aims at initiating the most urgent conservation actions in 305 Key Biodiversity Areas identified by Doğa Derneği.

The official launch of the campaign took place on 4 June, 2006 at CNN Türk, one of the main media sponsors of the campaign. CNN Türk's broadcasts called for public donations through SMS on cell phones; and at the end of the day, more than 50,000 YTL was raised, which seems sufficient to save the last 80 members of Urfa's Gazelle species. However, a total of nearly 2 million YTL is yet needed to be able to save Turkey's 198 endangered fauna species and 2,746 flora species... During the campaign launch, the profits from an internet auction of paintings by 18 famous Turkish artists also supported the fund.

The Nature Fund was established by the Dutch Government and the British and Dutch partners of BirdLife International, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Vogelbescherming Nederlands.

Among the 10 prioritised projects are the Conservation of Threatened Orchid Species in Southern Turkey, the Rediscovery of the Anatolian Leopard, the Conservation of Sultansazlığı Wetlands, the Preservation of the Last Remaining Demoiselle Cranes and the Globally Threatened Great Bustards.

“We are very pleased to launch Turkey's National Fund, one of the first national initiatives dedicated to prevent biodiversity decline”, said Güven Eken, Director General of Doğa Derneği. “Turkey is one of the most biodiversity-rich countries in the world and has a global responsibility for the prevention of species' extinction -a united goal of the contracting parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the European Union. We expect that this partnership will initiate larger support from the private sector for biodiversity conservation.”

UNDP Turkey's Deputy Representative Sarah Poole said, “As UNDP, we are very happy to be involved in this campaign, since we give great importance to sustainable development and protection of biodiversity. UNDP supports the sustainable management of agriculture, fisheries, forests and energy, and a pro-poor approach to the conservation of protected areas, biotechnology and the development of viable, new markets for ecosystem services. We invite the public and espacially the private sector to join us in this cause.”

For more information:

www.dogadernegi.org
Esra Basak
Campaign Officer Doga Dernegi
esra.basak@dogadernegi.org
Tel: +90 555 477 26 66
Fax: +90 312 448 02 58

UNDP AND ENVIRONMENT

World Environment Day (WED) was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP: United Nations Environment Programme.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is an organ of UN which provides leadership and encourages partnerships in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

Established in 1991, GEF helps developing countries fund projects that protect the global environment. GEF funds support works in six priority areas:

•  Frameworks and Strategies for Sustainable Development

•  Water Governance

•  Sustainable Energy

•  Sustainable Land Management

•  Biodiversity

•  Chemicals Management

For more information about GEF, please click: http://www.gefsgp.net/v1/

Environmental projects by UNDP Turkey

UNDP Turkey works closely with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, General Directorate of Electrical Power Resources Survey & Development Administration, Ministry of Transport, State Planning Organization and several Municipalities to integrate environmental concerns into development policies and programmes.

UNDP Turkey is also an implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Under this funding umbrella, UNDP Turkey supported and continues to support the development of medium and large scale projects in the strategic focal areas of GEF, such as Climate Change, Biodiversity, Land Degradation, International Waters, Enabling Activities, Capacity Building and Adaptations to Climate Change. In recent years, several GEF projects were initiated. UNDP Turkey also plays the implementing and supporting role to the GEF Regional Projects, namely the “Programme of Capacity Building for the Removal of Barriers to the Cost-Effective Development and Implementation of Energy Efficiency Standards and Labelling in EU Candidate Countries” and the “Black Sea Ecosystems Recovery Project, Phase II”.

The GEF Country Dialogue Workshop, held between 21-23 June 2006 in Ankara, also provided the opportunity to the national partners to learn more about the GEF-supported projects and funding mechanisms.

UNDP Turkey, in collaboration with EU and State Planning Organization, is at the initiation phase of the project on “Integration of Sustainable Development into Sectoral Policies”. The overall aim of this project is to enable Turkey to integrate sustainable development principles into national and local/regional development planning and implementation, both at the macro-economic and sectoral levels, as most explicitly stated in the Implementation Plan of the WSSD and the Sixth Environmental Action Plan of the EU.

The GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) is an integral part of Global Environment Facility (GEF), whose mission is “to make the connection between local and global environmental challenges and between national and international resources”. SGP is a world-wide programme administrated by UNDP, providing grants to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for activities that address global problems related to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, protection of international waters, as well as mitigation of land degradation and climate change. It is based on the presumption that global environmental problems can be solved by local communities, who, with small amounts of funding (up to USD 50,000) can take steps to make a significant impact on the condition of the environment and their sustainable livelihood. SGP has been run by the UNDP Turkey office since 1993 on a decentralised basis, and has disbursed small grants worth about USD 2 million to over 100 projects throughout Turkey.

For more information on specific UNDP Turkey activities relating to Energy and the Environment, please refer to the links provided below:

• BTC Small Investment Fund - Protecting Biodiversity
• Global Environment Facility - Small Grants Program (GEF-SGP)
• Climate Change Programme
• Meteorology / Oceanography network of excellence (MONOE)
• Regional climate change scenarios for Turkey
• Abatement of GHG emissions produced due to transport sector in terms of controlling/prevention of climate change
• Combustion of Biomass and Biomass/Coal Compositions term of controlling/prevention of climate change
• GEF/UNDP Project on "The Black Sea Ecosystems Recovery Project, Phase II."
• Integration of Sustainable Development into Sectoral Policies

Sad but true! Facts and figures on desertification: Drylands cover nearly 41% of the Earth and are home to nearly 2 billion people (one-third of the world's population); It is estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of drylands are already degraded. The problem is most acute in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The total land area affected by desertification is estimated as between 6-12 million sq.kms (for comparison, the countries of Brazil, Canada and China are all between 8-10 million sq.kms). Drylands support a huge diversity of life, including some of humankind's most ancient cultures. More than 60% of the world's ecosystems are in decline, or even degraded to an extent that we can no longer rely on their services. These include drylands, as well as forests, fisheries and even the air we breath. It is estimated that desertification and drought account for a $ 42 billion yearly loss in food productivity worldwide. Nearly one-third of the world's cropland has been abandoned in the past 40 years because of erosion. Each year an additional 20 million hectares of agricultural land either becomes too degraded for crop production, or become lost to urban sprawl. Dust eminating from the Saharan Desert has been implicated in respiratory problems as far away as North America, and has affected coral reefs in the Caribbean. Restoring soil lost by erosion is a very slow prcess. It can take 500 years for 2.5 cm of soil to form. Day!   But disturbing as these statistics are, they are preventable. And that is the message of World Environment