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Vol. 8, No. 4 October-December 2002
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United Nations Sasakawa Awards for Disaster Reduction ADPC extends its hearty congratulation to the Laureate 2002 of the Sasakawa Award, Professor Sergueï Balassanian, President of the Armenian Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (AASPEI), other recipients of the Certificate of Distinction Mr. Muhammad Saidur Rahman, Bangladesh, Director of the Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre, Ms. Fernanda Teixeira, Secretary General of the Mozambique Red Cross, and the Emergency Monitoring and Forecasting Agency, Russian Federation and recipients of Certificates of Merit 2002, United Nations Volunteers (UNV), Guatemala; Cruz Vermelha de Timor-Leste (CVTL), and Lt. Colonel Abbu Darwish, Jordan, Director of the Disasters Department of the Jordan Civil Defence. ADPC has had the honor of working with Mr Muhammad Saidur Rahman, who is an ADPC Alumni and Faculty to several training course. We highly commend his contribution to disaster reduction in and look forward to our continued collaboration with him. The 2002 United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development had a special section on disaster reduction. The adopted texts in both the Political Declaration and Plan of Implementation will be helpful to pursue increased commitment to disaster risk reduction, and in particular, to link the subject to sustainable development, especially for sound environmental management and to combat the adverse impact of climate change. The Political Declaration was presented by President Mbeki of South Africa and adopted in Johannesburg on 4 September 2002. The full text of the Political Declaration (version 2 with corrigendum), along with the Plan of Implementation, is available at www.johannesburgsummit.org Presented here are excerpts prepared by the ISDR Secretariat, from the sections in the Political Declaration related to “natural disasters”: In the section “The Challenges We Face” 13. The global environment continues to suffer. Loss of biodiversity continues, fish stocks continue to be depleted, desertification claims more and more fertile land, the adverse effects of climate change are already evident, natural disasters are more frequent and more devastating and developing countries are more vulnerable, and air, water and marine pollution continue to rob millions of a decent life. In the section “Our Commitment to Sustainable Development” 17. We reaffirm our pledge to place particular focus on, and give priority attention to, the fight against the worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to sustainable development of our people. Among these conditions are: chronic hunger; malnutrition; foreign occupation; armed conflicts; illicit drug problems; organized crime; corruption; natural disasters; illicit arms trafficking; trafficking in persons; terrorism; intolerance and incitement to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and chronic diseases; in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. (This paragraph was amended after the adjournment.) CHPB Launches an On-line Database on Hilly Areas of Sri Lanka The Centre for Housing Planning and Building (CHPB) has developed an On-line Database of information related to hill country areas of Sri Lanka. It was established with funding from the Asia Pacific Mountain Network, with an objective to increase capacity for dissemination of information related to natural disasters, and aimed at sustainable development in Sri Lanka. The database contains literature on subjects related to landslides and slope movements, mountain slope erosion, watershed management, hill country construction and sloping agricultural methods, among others. It is hoped that this database will benefit disaster management professionals, researchers, property developers, and research and development institutions. It also includes List Serves and a Members Database, with a provision for on-line visitors to subscribe as members. The database can be accessed from the CHPB website at www.chpb.gov.lk/index_info.html |
