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Hugo
Chavez Frias, President of VENEZUELA, expressed concern at
the current military response to the terrorist attacks in the
US, and said lasting peace will only be achieved by addressing
poverty, inequality and injustice, which he said were the
causes of violence. Emphasizing the links between poverty and
desertification, he called for global cooperation and new
ideas in tackling environmental degradation, and stressed that
current neo-liberal models are not the answer. He further
proposed cutting global military spending by 50% and using the
funds to address poverty and environmental issues. Although
desertification does not seriously affect Venezuela, he
underscored his country's commitment to addressing this
"international problem" by announcing support for
South-South cooperation on desertification-related projects.
He also urged industrialized countries to demonstrate an
increased commitment to CCD implementation
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President
Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires, Cape Verde, said the success of the CCD
depends on political will and a predictable financial mechanism such
as the GEF. He stressed the importance of including the
participation of all actors and underlined the need for the CCD COP
to: establish a follow-up committee to review CCD implementation (CRIC);
fund regional coordination units (RCUs); and consider ways to
contribute to the WSSD
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Pascoal
Manuel Mocumbi, Prime Minister of Mozambique, highlighted the
linkages between climate change and desertification, noting that
massive flooding in Mozambique had caused soil degradation,
destruction of infrastructure and loss of economic growth. Asserting
that "combating desertification is combating poverty," he outlined
Mozambique's Poverty Action Plan for 2001-5, and called on the COP
to implement a decision to regularly review CCD implementation at the
national level. He urged the GEF to add land degradation and
desertification as a focal area, and said it should be designated a
CCD financial mechanism
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Hama
Amadou, Prime Minister of Niger, highlighted his country's
difficulties in addressing desertification, and called for urgent CCD
implementation, particularly stressing the role of the international
community in providing technological and financial assistance to
Africa. He also expressed support for a CCD subsidiary body to
evaluate implementation, an increase in the Secretariat's budget,
and South-South cooperation
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Dah
Ould Abdeljelil, Minister Rural Development and Environment, Mauritania,
highlighted national initiatives to combat desertification and said
the CCD can be revitalized by, inter alia, providing new and
additional resources to the Global Mechanism (GM) and giving support
to, and engaging in dialogue with, NGOs
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Prime
Minister Bruno Amousou, Benin, highlighted the causes, effects and
seven-year plan to address desertification in his country, welcomed
the GEF gesture to support the CCD, and thanked Venezuela for support,
noting that Benin and Venezuela were due to sign a cooperation
agreement
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Sirgun
Mogedal, State Secretary, Norway, said poverty is the single
greatest threat to
sustainable development and emphasized that CCD's financing was its
most critical challenge and the need for strong commitment from the
international community to match that shown by developing countries
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Speaking
on behalf of the EU, J.M
Noirfal, Belgium,
highlighted the need for funding requests to
reflect NAPs, the responsibility of developed countries to promote
bilateral partnerships, support for a new GEF funding window
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Herbert
Acquay, speaking for the GEF, highlighted its exploration of designating
land degradation as a focal area for funding and accompanying proposal
for US$500 million for land degradation activities during the next
replenishment period. He highlighted interlinkages with climate change
and collaboration with IFAD and other organizations, and encouraged
Parties to continue to seek funding from multiple sources
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The
UNFCCC highlighted the political, ecological, economic, and
sociological linkages between the CCD and FCC Conventions, as well as
the development of a trilateral arrangement with the CBD
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Uwe
Werblow, European
Commission, indicated the EC's intention to strengthen its participation in
various CCD forums and endeavors and drew attention to: required
policy action at the national level in affected countries; poverty as
a central EC development objective; and EC efforts to address problems
causing desertification associated with global trade, aid and
investment
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Maria
Minna, Canada, highlighted the role of poverty reduction to combat
desertification, the importance of partnerships and the need to
promote synergies between environmental agreements, and supported
using the momentum of the WSSD to build public and political support
for sustainable development
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Michel
Jarraud, WMO, noted its continued actions to, inter
alia: advocate for enhanced observation systems, step up
agricultural programs for adaptation to climate change, and further
enhance climate prediction capabilities. He highlighted the use of
science and technology, especially in the development of early warning
systems, the importance of sound scientific knowledge, and
coordination between conventions
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Yucai
Li, China,
noted that desertification affects 27 percent of its total land area
and 400 million people. He reported on recent legislation on sand
prevention and control that marks "a milestone" in the country's
efforts, and stressed financial assistance and technology transfer as
critical to the effective implementation of the CCD
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Bozo
Kovacevic, Croatia,
outlined national challenges in addressing land degradation, including
the existence of more than one million anti-personnel mines
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Uschi
Eid, Germany,
emphasized: participatory approaches in CCD implementation; welcomed
progress to open a GEF window for the CCD; and expressed hope the CCD
would contribute to bridging the global inequalities
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Ali
Mojtahed Shabestari,
Iran, for the G-77/CHINA, expressed satisfaction with the emerging
consensus on the establishment of the CRIC. He also called for: the
provision of sufficient funding in the CCD's core budget to cover
the functioning of the Regional Coordinating Facilities; action by the
GEF to designate land degradation as a focal area; and a decision by
this COP inviting the GEF to become the CCD's financial mechanism
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Mukti
Shrestha, Nepal, outlined the country's national poverty reduction and
land degradation initiatives and called for special preferences to the
least developed countries in CCD implementation
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Francis
Nhema, Zimbabwe, highlighted its actions to develop a NAP with
wide stakeholder participation and the lack of sufficient funds to
successfully realize it, and called on participants to take
advantage of COP-5 to share ideas on NAP implementation
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Francis
Nhema
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Participants
in the Plenary
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