A highlight for me this week was emerging from my sick-bed to attend an event at the Zoological Society of London. The RSPB had joined forces with ZSL, WWF, Christian Aid and CAFOD to profile and discuss how we can integrate human development and environment ambitions.
It was inspirational to hear examples of how partnerships with business, local communities and governments were transforming lives and landscapes in some of the poorest regions of the world.
We heard from Serah Munguti (who works for our BirdLife International partner Nature Kenya) about innovative (and award winning) approaches to land use planning in the Tana River Delta of Kenya (pictured) that was seeking to reconcile competing needs of local people, agriculture and wildlife. The Delta is not only one of the poorest areas in Kenya, but also host to extraordinary natural resources, including birds only found in Kenya. This has been a long saga, but Serah's optimistic presentation suggested that we may have found a durable way forward.
We also heard about how a partnership between ZSL and a carpet company called Interface was recycling discarded fishing nets to use in carpet tiles to reduce marine pollution and create income for local people.
And we heard about how Better Cotton Initiative was setting new standards for a commodity that we all use to make it better for the people that produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the long term future of the sector.
These case studies were a stimulus for a debate about how we can live up to the ambitions of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Brought into effect in January this year, the SDGs are designed to end global poverty and safeguard the future of our planet.
The ambition is massive, but serious questions remains as to how these goals will be realised - how we can balance human development with environmental sustainability.
In his eloquent opening, Achim Steiner – former Executive Secretary of the UN Environment Programme, and now at the Oxford Martin School – stressed the importance of working together to ensure that we don’t find ourselves having the same conversations in 2020 and 2030.
It was encouraging to note from the case studies that integrated sustainable development can and does happen. But it isn’t yet operating at the scale required to make a significant impact. In truth, the environment is seen by some as a barrier to development and vice versa. Our panel tackled these issues head on. How can we reframe that understanding and speak in a language that connects to others’ concerns? How can we set, develop and deliver a shared vision for sustainable development?
But things have moved on. Looking back to the Millennium Development Goals, it is striking how separate each of their eight goals were. They failed to address the fundamental links between, for example, access to resources like clean water or healthy food and gender equality. The SDGs, by contrast, are a universal and indivisible set and already represent a huge step change in the international approach to sustainable development. But they now have to become a reality.
One clear message from our event was that no single organisation, nor a single sector, nor even perhaps a single government can achieve the SDGs on their own. Governments need to set the ambition, provide governance and legal framework to make it easier for people to do good and cause no harm. Businesses can provide investment and help create sustainable livelihoods. Civil society can encourage people to act on good evidence, inspire others with practical examples and collaborate with others to influence change.
It is only by forging the strong partnerships between government, business and civil society that we will be able to tackle the enormous problems facing our planet. Evidence shared at this event showed that this is happening - we are committed to working together to address the world's problems with the seriousness they demand.
And that's why, to me, this week's event was good news for all of us.