People before animals

[Guest guest]

People before animals, UK's Short tells meeting

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UK: March 5, 2003

 

 

LONDON - Environment experts must not focus on animals at the expense of

people, Britain's outspoken International Development Secretary Clare Short

said.

 

 

 

Short was speaking to developed and developing world environmentalists

meeting in London to discuss how promoting biodiversity fits in with the

U.N.'s " Millennium Development Goals " , for relieving world poverty.

 

" People who care for nature and biodiversity have to care for humanity...and

focusing on the animals without the people is morally disgusting, " Short

said.

 

" The bushmeat campaign, forgive me if I offend anyone, is a bit like that.

The human beings don't figure. It's just not good enough, " Short added.

 

A coalition of British animal charities is campaigning against the growing

consumption of and trade in monkey meat and other jungle wildlife, warning

that some species risk extinction if nothing is done.

 

Short, who is in charge of Britain's aid budget, supported the

environmentalists' aim to show practical ways of how protecting rare species

and habitats helps the world's poorest people.

 

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the U.N.'s Environment Programme, said

that being based in Nairobi hammered this home.

 

" In Nairobi, you cannot come to the idea that the environment is an end in

itself, " he said. " The protection of coral reefs is a good thing in itself

for many people, but it is also a necessity for poor people. "

 

Short added that the conference, jointly hosted by the British government,

the U.N. and environmental groups, would only be significant if it produced

concrete results.

 

" What is this conference going to mean in the real world? What is the point

of bothering with all these conferences if we are not going to start

implementing things in the real world? " she asked.

 

" Development is full of conferences and meetings. On any day of any week of

any year, most African ministers are not in Africa. They are at a conference

in the northern hemisphere talking about what to do about development, " she

added.

 

 

 

Story by David Milliken

 

 

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE