LOC16:38
13:38 GMT
GENEVA, June 5 (KUNA) -- "This year's theme "Forests - nature at your
service" reminds us that we destroy forests at our peril," Director General of
the International Labour Organization (ILO) Juan Sumavia said here Sunday.
"Their fate dramatically illustrates how social development, economic
growth and environmental sustainability are inextricably intertwined," noted
Sumavia.
"The un-sustainability of the prevailing model of growth has been
increasingly laid bare - economically, environmentally, socially and
politically. Environmental degradation is one manifestation of the imbalances
produced by this inefficient model of growth. Another is its failure to yield
sufficient opportunities for the decent work that people need.
"The economic crisis which it did produce has forced millions of people out
of work and pushed many more back into poverty. Globally, there were 27.6
million more unemployed people in 2010 than before the crisis. The number of
workers in extreme poverty in 2009 is estimated to have been over 40 million
more than it would have been without the crisis. And the pre-crisis situation
was already unacceptable", he explained.
Environmental degradation and misuse of the forest resource and the
deep-seated crisis of jobs and decent work are interconnected.
In an inefficient growth model with a marked deficit of decent jobs, the
quest for survival along with the unbridled exploitation of resources fuels
unsustainable use of forests with loss of jobs and livelihoods. It also and
fosters intolerable labour practices such as forced labour.
Yet forests are at the service of job creation. We must also take steps to
ensure that they are at the service of decent job creation.
Tens of millions depend directly on forests for their living. For 60
million indigenous and tribal peoples, forests are not only the economic basis
of their survival but also the very foundation of their cultural and spiritual
identity. Some 14 million are employed in the formal forestry sector. And the
survival of a much larger number depends on informal and often subsistence use
of forests.
ILO research has shown that there are significant sustainable employment
and income opportunities in Amazon forests. Another study in collaboration
with China suggests that reforestation can create several hundred thousand
temporary and permanent rural job opportunities.
Under the Green Jobs Initiative involving the United Nations Environment
Programme, the International Trade Union Confederation, the International
Organisation of Employers and the ILO, "our recent global study "Skills for
Green Jobs" highlights the role of training in controlling deforestation
(Brazil), job creation for low income and unemployed youth (Republic of
Korea), and contributing to poverty reduction (Uganda)," he pointed out.
Brazil is building decent work standards into forest management in the
Amazon region. Similarly, programmes for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) increasingly recognize
that the co-benefits of employment, income and local governance are critical
for the success of these schemes.
"We must use the opportunity of the Rio UN Conference on Sustainable
Development in 2012 to make progress towards an inclusive growth model with
policies that are efficient for people, for productive investment and for
nature," concluded Samuvia. (end)
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KUNA 051638 Jun 11NNNN