REPORT ON ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD SUMMIT, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

This report details the activities of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) during the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August and September 2002. It examines the official Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, various unofficial scientific and NGO forums, and the perceived failures of the decade following the Rio Earth Summit.

• The decade between the Rio and Johannesburg summits is characterized as a "lost decade" where governments, particularly developed ones, prioritized market-driven interests and transnational corporations over human-centered development, leading to unsustainable living conditions for the impoverished.
• Environmental conditions deteriorated over the ten years preceding the summit, marked by an increase in catastrophic events, rising global warming, and unpredictable meteorological patterns, which negatively impacted food production and hunger, especially in Africa.
• The official Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development contains 37 articles, with three specifically linked to IAI activities: Article 13 on global climatic changes and biodiversity loss, Article 16 on the use of biodiversity for sustainable development, and Article 18 on access to basic requirements including clean water, food security, and biodiversity protection.
• The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) forum, held on August 26, 2002, emphasized human dependence on ecosystems for food, energy, and unpolluted water. The MEA aims to produce models comparing ecosystem states across various spatial scales, from forests to global analysis, though case studies from Norway, South Africa, India, and China focused on methodologies rather than specific data.
• In Africa, approximately 180 million people lack sufficient food, increasing vulnerability to diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV-AIDS. To combat this, the International Center for Research in Agriculture and Forestry developed a soil recovery program using quick-growing legumes to improve fertility and remove carbon from the atmosphere.
• The Global People¡s Forum highlighted a global water crisis where one billion people lack access to pure water and half the world's population lives in inadequate sanitary conditions. The report asserts that this crisis is primarily a problem of socio-political governability rather than a physical shortage of water.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2002). REPORT ON ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD SUMMIT, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA. https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/6_Johannesburg.pdf

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. REPORT ON ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD SUMMIT, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA. 2002. https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/6_Johannesburg.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=REPORT ON ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD SUMMIT, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA |date=November 2002 |url=https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/6_Johannesburg.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2002report, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{REPORT ON ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD SUMMIT, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2002}, month = nov, url = {https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/6_Johannesburg.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }