wfn.org | WCC - Ecumenical team at PrepCom for WSSD

["Sheila Mesa" <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release, PR-02-04
For Immediate Use
29 January 2002

"Defending the earth is not a project. Defending the earth is a
way of life"

Ecumenical Team at second Preparatory Committee for the World
Summit on Sustainable Development

An ecumenical team of more than 20 people from all continents,
representing churches, regional ecumenical organizations and
Indigenous Peoples' communities is attending the second
Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD).  

The composition of the team at this week's meeting in New York,
USA, "reflects the priorities of the World Council of Churches
(WCC) for the World Summit itself," says Dr Martin Robra from the
WCC "Justice, Peace and Creation" (JPC) team. According to Robra,
the main issues are:

- Southern Africa: The Summit will give churches in Southern
Africa an opportunity to share their concern about sustainable
livelihood for the people in the region with a wider public. The
WCC is working closely with the South African Council of Churches
(SACC) on this issue; the SACC will be represented in New York by
Rev. Sipho Mtetwas.

- Indigenous Peoples' communities: The WCC supports Indigenous
Peoples' communities and their unique perspectives on
sustainability. Representing Indigenous Peoples on the ecumenical
team, Esther Camac Ramirez (Costa Rica), Moses Gutierrez Roja
(Bolivia), and Willy Alangui (Philippines) will ensure that
Indigenous concerns remain high on the ecumenical team's agenda.

- Economic globalization: Building on the work of ecumenical
teams at the World Summit on Social Development (Geneva 2000) and
at the UN process on Financing for Development, Sr Wendy Flannery
(Australia), Joy Kennedy (Canada), and staff of the UN Liaison
Office of WCC member churches will continue an ecumenical
critique of economic globalization.  

- Climate change: The WCC has participated in the many
inter-governmental negotiation committee sessions on climate
change held under UN auspices since 1989. Support for the Kyoto
Protocol and its implementation will be a major feature of the
WCC's advocacy work at the WSSD. Elias Abramides (Argentina), a
member of the WCC team to the Climate Change conference, will
represent that concern in New York.  

"The WCC believes that the failure to implement many of the
promises made at the 1992 UN conference on the Environment and
Development in Rio de Janeiro (UNCED) points to a lack of
political will to fulfil the Rio pact between the environmental
agenda and the need for social development. But it also reveals
the inherent tension between the stated goals and the means
chosen to reach them. There can be no doubt: destructive
processes have continued and are continuing since UNCED, " Robra
explains.  

According to Robra, previous WCC delegations to the UN
Commission on Sustainable Development sessions stated clearly
that sustainability cannot be achieved by current economic
approaches premised on unlimited economic growth and a continuous
and unregulated expansion of production and consumption for the
world's rich. "Those who work for life with dignity in just and
sustainable communities must take this into consideration. Often,
resisting the exploitation and destruction caused by a wrong
understanding of development is not so much a choice as an
imperative for people's survival," he explains.  

"More and more, people are deprived of the resources essential
for their survival. Their living conditions are deteriorating.
Those who are already impoverished and marginalized suffer most.
Without access to money and the market economy, their lives
depend on what support the community can give and what nature has
to offer. A shift in perspective and of the economic paradigm is
required. Defending the earth is not a project. Defending the
earth is a way of life," Robra concludes.  

For further information, please contact the WCC International
Affairs Liaison Office, 
tel.: (+1) 212 867 5890

**********The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of
churches, now 342, in more than 100 countries in all continents
from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic
Church is not a member church but works cooperatively with the
WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which meets
approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated
in 1948 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in
Germany.

World Council of Churches
Media Relations Office
Tel: (41 22) 791 6153 / 791 6421
Fax: (41 22) 798 1346
E-mail: ka@wcc-coe.org 
Web: www.wcc-coe.org 

PO Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland