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Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. More than 500 hundred representatives of business, government, civil society and multilateral development organizations gathered in Kota Kinabalu, Nov 15-16, for one of the largest conferences on the Green Economy ever held in the Asian region.
Entitled, “Sabah Heart of Borneo (HoB) Green Economic Development - Engaging Business for Environment”, the opening session highlighted the strong Malaysian government and institutional support for green economic development in the HoB.
The conference was opened by the Right Honourable Chief Minister of Sabah, Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Hj. Aman, who emphasized the importance of the green economic approach for meeting both development needs, as well as protecting bio-diversity and achieving sustainable use of Sabah’s forest reserves.
“This year we celebrate the international year of the forest with a focus on sustainable forest management under the impetus of a green economic approach,” he said.
“For Sabah this is not just talk we have many success stories of forests that are certified and have allowed us to continue to create jobs. Sabah is also involved in the Malua Biobank, a public/private partnership which shows some of the benefits that a green economic approach can provide in the Heart of Borneo,” he said.
Datuk Sam Mannan, Director of Sabah Forestry Department (SFD), underscored the State government’s support for the development of green economic thinking in Sabah, as well as the role of WWF and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in stimulating the debate around green economy issue.
“The green economy is all about development with social and economic links – for people, planet and profits,” he said. But green economy ideas must be economically feasible and bring returns above Business as Usual. “What is the use of having ideas if you do not have the money to carry those ideas out?” He asked the audience.
A direct response to this challenge was met with the announcement at the conference of two new initiatives to support Sabah’s development of a green economy. A new cooperation agreement signed with the Agency for Remote Sensing Malaysia, to support Sabah’s REDD+ program and a cheque from Cymao Plywood SDN BHD for RM200,000 to SFD for its Forest Conservation Fund.
Datuk Sam Mannan ended his address with a note to the future, highlighting the work of WWF and its plans to showcase the development of a Green Economy in the Heart of Borneo, at the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil next year.
Source: http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/indonesia/news/?uNewsID=202378
5 comments:
Linking development and economy with environment will bring a win-wins situation for all.
Making profits while protecting nature, it's the way to go.
It is a positive sign when the govt also support and emphasize for green economy.
The green economy is one that results in improved human well being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.
"Green economics" is loosely defined as any theory of economics by which an economy is considered to be component of the ecosystem in which it resides
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