Topic: Environment for Develop-ment

Date: August 25, 2009

Speaker Profile :

Mr. Mohanty is an alum-nus of OUAT and AIT, Thailand. He has been working with United Na-tions Environment Pro-gramme (UNEP) and United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) since 1993. He has wide global exposure in the field of sustainable development.

Details:

Mr. Mohanty started his talk with the basic questions about environment, Cree Prophecy stated that :

“Only after the last tree has been cut down,

Only after the last river has been poisioned

Only after the last fish has been caught

Only then you will find that money cannot be eaten.”

This holds true for all of us since the resource depletion is occurring faster than resource regeneration. He emphasized on understanding the potential value of natural capital, the concept of sustainable development. He explained about how environment got slowly into the development process and it became part of it, why we are struggling to solve the existing environmental problem, how the new issues that are emerging are compounding the existing one. Therefore, what are the selective environment and development strategies/initiatives that should be taken further, because although initiatives are being taken but it is not enough to hold the nature in one place? There has to be more things to be done in order to reverse what we have caused.