Taking Taiwan's experiences to the UN summit

Taipei Times: What is the significance of Taiwan's participation in the UN's World Summit on Sustain-able Development?

Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮): Historically speaking, the first time Taiwan learned concepts of sustainable development was in 1992, when a group composed of [people from] the government, NGOs and academic circles participated in the Earth Summit in Rio. At that time, Taiwan had been a stranger to international affairs since 1971, when it was excluded from the UN.

Since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, international conventions, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), have been taken seriously in Taiwan in the wake of the exposure of local controversial events pertaining to wildlife preservation.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese participants to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio began to promote global ideas of sustainable development locally.

The Cabinet's committee for promoting sustainable development, established in 1987, has been transformed into a task force [in 1993] focusing on participating and enforcing international environmental conventions.

I would say that since 1992, Taiwan has no longer confined itself to its own world. Facing the rising globalization wave, Taiwan has done its best to link itself to the world, for example, fighting for WTO admission.

TT: How can Taiwan benefit from participating in the world summit?

Yeh: Even though Taiwan has not had UN membership for a long time, participating in international activities like the World Summit on Sustainable Development is both essential and meaningful because it can [help Taiwan] further discover, shape and promote itself.

The UN has dominated diverse global issues, especially in the sectors of sustainable development and environmental protection since 1972, when the UN Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden.

Even though Taiwan is outside the UN, I think that, from participating in the summit, we at least get a chance to review what Taiwan has done over the past 10 years to pursue its goals that fit with the spirit of sustainable development.

Although Taiwan is not in a position to negotiate with other UN members on global issues pertaining to sustainable development at the summit, Taiwan will make an effort to strengthen its ties with overseas NGOs by participating in activities held by the Civil Society Global Forum, one of the summit's parallel events.

TT: In addition to the group composed of Taiwanese officials, representatives of a dozen NGOs are also going to participate in the summit. How do you view their participation?

Yeh: I look forward to seeing collaboration between the NGOs and the government when pursuing goals of promoting Taiwan's sustainable development. Because Taiwan is absent from international negotiations on environmental policies, we should at least make sure we are informed [on the issues].

The relationship between environmental groups and the government is now quite different from that in the late 1980s, when Taiwan was just freed from the control of martial law. At that time, the environmental movement was one of the diverse ways adopted by dissidents to force the government to make reforms.

At present, however, the two sides' ideas on promoting sustainable development are more similar. And the DPP government aims to build a nuclear-free country.