Our Planet Volume 15 No 2 The magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme WOMEN, HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT Thoraya Ahmed Obaid Miles to go… Nafis Sadik Practical consensus Lena Sommestad and Rejoice Mabudafhasi Power shift Mary Robinson Equally effective Noeleen Heyzer Peace of mind, piece of land Mamphela Ramphele Fuelling change Marina Silva Unprecedented opportunity Margot Wallström Chemical inheritance Our Planet www.ourplanet.com 8 Equally effective Mary Robinson, formerly President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Executive Director, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative 10 People 3 Editorial 11 Peace of mind, piece of land Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, iammetta Positano/UNEP/Topham UNEP UNIFEM F 4Miles to go before we relax 22 Books and products Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and 23 Chemical inheritance Executive Director, UNFPA, the Margot Wallström, European United Nations Population Fund Commissioner for Environment 6Practical consensus 24 Toxic trespass Dr Nafis Sadik, Special Envoy of the Sharyle Patton, Director, Ezequiel Becerra /UNEP/Topham Ezequiel Becerra UN Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS Health and Environment Program, in Asia and formerly Executive 13 The young ones Commonweal Director, UNFPA and Secretary- Kathryn Bushkin, Executive Vice General, International Conference President and Chief Operating Officer, 27 First empower on Population and Development. Board United Nations Foundation Adrienne Germain, President, member, United Nations Foundation International Women's Health 14 Fuelling change Coalition Dr Mamphela Ramphele, retiring Managing Director, World Bank 29 Citizen engagement and Senior Advisor to its President Lois Abraham, attorney, and Jane Roberts, retired schoolteacher, 16 At a glance: Women, health and co-founders of 34 Million Friends the environment of UNFPA enren Yang/UNEP/Topham enren 18 Aishwarya Rai 30 Adding feminine perspective W Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai describes Beverly Miller, Secretary, 7Power shift a unique attempt to tackle the spread Governing Council of UNEP Lena Sommestad, Minister for the of HIV/AIDS among women in India Environment, Sweden, and Rejoice 32 After all ‘nature’ is female Mabudafhasi, Deputy Minister for 20 Unprecedented opportunity Ana Lorena Gudiño Valdez, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Senator Marina Silva, member of graduate in biology and member South Africa. Co-chairs of the Network Brazil’s Federal Senate and Minister of the Youth Environmental of Women Ministers of the Environment for the Environment Network of Mexico Our Planet, the magazine of the This issue of Our Planet has been made possible by the generosity of the United Nations Foundation/Better United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Fund. PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP, the United Nations Foundation or the editors, Tel (254 20) 621 234; fax 623 927; telex 22068 UNEP KE nor are they an official record. The designations employed and the presentation do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever e-mail: [email protected] on the part of UNEP or the UN Foundation concerning the legal status of any country, territory or city or its authority, or concerning www.unep.org the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The non-copyrighted contents of this magazine may be reprinted without charge provided that Our Planet and the author or ISSN 1013-7394 photographer concerned are credited as the source and the editors are notified in writing and sent a voucher copy. Director of Publication: Eric Falt Our Planet welcomes articles, reviews, illustrations and photos for publication but cannot guarantee that they will be published. Editor: Geoffrey Lean Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and artwork will not be returned. Coordinator: Naomi Poulton Subscriptions: If you wish to receive Our Planet on a regular basis and are not currently on the mailing list, please contact Mani Special Contributor: Nick Nuttall Kebede, Circulation Manager, Our Planet, for subscription details, giving your name and address and your preferred language Circulation Manager: Manyahleshal Kebede (English, French or Spanish). Design: Roger Whisker Change of address: Please send your address label together with your new address to: Mani Kebede, Circulation Manager, Our Web Editor: Chris Cypert Production: Banson Planet, UNEP, PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya. Printed in the United Kingdom Front cover: All UNEP/Topham, left to right, from the This magazine is printed using vegetable-based inks on paper made from 100 per cent recycled waste material. It is top: G. G. Peralta, C. K. Kashyap, Reichling, Shan bleached without any damage to the environment. Dan, Lisbeth Oliveira, David Manders, J. M. Nobbe 2 Our Planet close to a third of their calorie intake is women who have devised novel collecting and supplying it. agricultural methods including pro- They often bear the brunt of a ducing food in underground tunnels. In natural disaster, such as famine or southeast Mexico, women keep as drought, and shoulder the respons- many as nine breeds of local hens – as ibility for keeping offspring alive. In well as ducks and turkeys – in their pastoral societies, men migrate to new back gardens, selecting the best to pastures when cattle die, or move away suit local environmental conditions. to pursue other activities. Women and Thus they are actively conserving children may also leave, but generally genetic diversity and contributing to as a group to hunt famine foods, pods conservation. and other tree products to sell in Desertification afflicts up to half of distant markets, says the book. It is China’s population. In a dry and published in association with the degraded area 1,000 kilometres west Women’s Environment and Develop- of Beijing women have mobilized ment Organization (WEDO) – with communities to plant willows and financial support from the United poplars to halt the deserts and create UNEP Nations Foundation, whose sister body fertile land for vegetable production. the Better World Fund has generously The role of women and their ‘know- From the desk of sponsored this issue of Our Planet. how’ is often undervalued and ignored. All too often they are treated as KLAUS TOEPFER Front line second-class citizens with fewer rights United Nations and lower status than men. It is high Under-Secretary-General Women are often in the front line in time that national and international terms of overcoming poverty, manag- policies reflected gender differences and Executive Director, ing land and waterways, and sus- and gave far greater weight to the UNEP taining communities. During times of empowerment of women. stress and insecurity, they must forage further and further for food, water and Gender dimensions fuel. During times of plenty, the fields and kitchen gardens they tend are So we must breathe life into the gender his edition of Our Planet cele- mini-laboratories where domesticated dimensions enshrined in the United brates women, and underlines and wild plants and animals are se- Nations Millennium Development Ttheir unique vulnerability to lected and tested for their agricultural Goals. We must build on the outcomes environment-related health problems, and medicinal value. of the 1992 United Nations Conference from water and sanitation issues to Studies of 60 kitchen gardens on Environment and Development, the ones of indoor air pollution. managed by women in Thailand chron- 1994 International Conference on The special role that women play in icled 230 different vegetable and other Population and Development (ICPD), the lives of their communities is species, many rescued from a neigh- the 1995 World Conference on Women highlighted in the new UNEP book bouring forest before it was cleared. and the 2002 World Summit on Women and the Environment, which Village women in the Kanak Valley in Sustainable Development, and cement underlines how they are the unsung the Province of Baluchistan, Pakistan, them at this tenth anniversary of ICPD. heroes of conservation, often out- can readily identify 35 medicinal plants For if we ignore the role of women, pacing men in their knowledge, and they commonly use. They say that the all our hopes and aspirations for a nurturing, of domestic and wild plants plants ‘grow up with no masters’ – better and more stable world will be and animals. Largely thanks to them meaning that they have no husbands to harder to achieve ■ many species, some with important boss them around. drought or pest resistant properties, survive and remain in cultivation. Traditional knowledge YOUR VIEWS We would really like to receive your Intimate understanding A study in Sierra Leone found that feedback on the issues raised in this women could name 31 uses of trees on edition of Our Planet. Please either Women, especially in developing fallow land and in forests while men e-mail [email protected] or countries, are the farmers, feeders could only name eight. Here men’s write to: and carers in their communities, traditional knowledge is declining with Feedback, Our Planet relying on an intimate understanding formal schooling and emigration 27 Devonshire Road of nature. They are also the primary whereas women are retaining theirs – Cambridge CB1 2BH providers of water. In the mountain and often acquiring the men’s. United Kingdom areas of East Africa, they may expend In Yazd, the ‘desert