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Friends of the Earth International
That is the core premise of the Joint Civil Society Statement 'Ending Corporate Capture of the United Nations'‚ initiated by Friends of the Earth International and nine other organizations in the run up to the UN Rio+20 Conference.
The statement, which has circulated since April 19, is currently endorsed by more than 250 society organizations from around the world.
In response to the statement, the UN Global Compact office says it has always been careful to make clear that "the UN and the business community do not share the same core objectives; merely, that in some key areas, business, civil society, the UN, and governments have common areas of interest."
However, the initiators of the statement maintain that the UN Global Compact initiative turns a blind eye to corporate malpractices, and facilitates corporate co-optation of UN processes and outcomes.
Thus while the Global Compact claims that businesses that have signed 'adhere to internationally accepted standards', in reality many of them consistently fail to comply. That is because, contrary to what the Global Compact says, there is no credible accountability mechanism. The Global Compact only expels companies if they don’t report on human rights violations, not for perpetrating these violations as such.
According to Paul de Clerck, Corporates Campaign Coordinator with Friends of the Earth International, "The Global Compact response completely ignores the core of the message, which is that they give far too much influence to the private sector and have forgotten that it is the UN's role to protect people and nature against corporate crimes. As a result, the UN is increasingly promoting false solutions that do not serve the public interest but mainly help companies to increase their profits."
This observation is not only shared by the ten initiators of the statement but by the international NGO-community at large. In a recent statement made by the NGO Major Group at the UN Rio+20 talks in New York, civil society has warned governments and UN organizations alike precisely against the danger of corporate capture. The NGOs call on governments to adopt a strong regulatory framework for large corporations with mandatory reporting requirements and accountability mechanisms, rather than relying on mere voluntary commitments or corporate social responsibility.
Rio+20 negotiations in New York ended last week with no major agreements, but to extend the talks for another round before Rio+20 conference itself.
“We believe that if Rio+20 outcomes are expected to be the real ‘Future We Want’, the resumption of informal negotiations on May 29 will need to shift towards addressing the structural imbalance in power between corporations and UN Member States. The Green Economy is being used as a mechanism to allow corporate interests to capture the environment and development agenda at the UN," said Anil Naidoo of the Council of Canadians, one of the ten initiators of the Civil Society Statement to end corporate capture of the UN.
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Farms with just one or a handful of different crops encourage fewer species of pollinating and pest-controlling insects to linger, ultimately winnowing away crop yields, according to a new study.
Up to half of the detrimental impacts of the "landscape simplification" that monocropping entails come as a result of a diminished mix of ecosystem service-providing insects, a team of scientists reported Oct. 16 in the journal Science Advances.
Monocrop palm oil plantation Honduras.
SHARE Foundation / Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0
"Our study shows that biodiversity is essential to ensure the provision of ecosystem services and to maintain a high and stable agricultural production," Matteo Dainese, the study's lead author and a biologist at Eurac Research in Bolzano, Italy, said in a statement.
It stands to reason that, with declines in the sheer numbers of insects that ferry pollen from plant to plant and keep crop-eating pests under control, these services will wane as well. But until now, it hasn't been clear how monocultures affect the number and mix of these species or how crop yields might change as a result.
Aiming to solve these questions, Dainese and his colleagues pulled together data from 89 studies cutting across a variety of landscapes, from the tropics of Asia and Africa to the higher latitudes of northern Europe. They tabulated the number of pollinating and pest-controlling insects at these sites — both the absolute number of individuals and the number of species — along with an assessment of the ecosystem services the insects provided.
In almost all of the studies they looked at, the team found that a more diverse pool of these species translated into more pollination and greater pest control. They also showed that simplified landscapes supported fewer species of service-providing insects, which ultimately led to lower crop yields.
The researchers also looked at a third measure of the makeup of insect populations — what they called "evenness." In natural ecosystems, a handful of dominant species with many more individuals typically live alongside a higher number of rarer species. The team found as landscapes became less diverse, dominant species numbers dwindled and rare species gained ground. This resulting, more equitable mix led to less pollination (though it didn't end up affecting pest control).
"Our study provides strong empirical support for the potential benefits of new pathways to sustainable agriculture that aim to reconcile the protection of biodiversity and the production of food for increasing human populations," Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, one of the study's authors and an animal ecologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany, said in the statement.
The scientists figure that the richness of pollinator species explains around a third of the harmful impacts of less diverse landscapes, while the richness of pest-controlling species accounts for about half of the same measure. In their view, the results of their research point to the need to protect biodiversity on and around crops in an uncertain future.
"Under future conditions with ongoing global change and more frequent extreme climate events, the value of farmland biodiversity ensuring resilience against environmental disturbances will become even more important," Steffan-Dewenter said.
Reposted with permission from our media associate Mongabay.