Popolazione Sviluppo e Migrazione | 2013-2014

UN Millennium Development Goal 7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Ariana Alva Ferrari and Jose Carlos Navarro Solis

UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA

Facoltà di Scienze Politiche

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………1

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..2

OVERVIEW…………………………………………………………………….4

MDG 7: ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

TARGET 7A- Integrate the principles of sustainable

development into country policies and programs

and reverse the loss of environmental resources. ………………………6

TARGET 7B- Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving,

by 2010, a significant reduction rate loss. ………………………………14

TAGET 7C- Halve by 2015, the proportion

of the population without sustainable access

to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. ………………………………20

TARGET 7D- By 2020, to have achieved a

significant improvement in the lives of at

least 100 million slum dwellers…………………………………………………..24

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………..26

WORKS

CITED……………………………………………………………………………………..27

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the progress of the Millennium Development Goal 7 of

Ensuring Environmental Sustainability since its initiation in 2000 up to this point in time. It is

important to note that environmental sustainability has many dimensions, and developed and

developing countries alike face distinct environmental challenges at every level of income to

ensure it. For this reason, we aim to expose five countries with contrasting demographic and

social indicators such as population, health, education and income. Those countries are Brazil,

China, Nigeria, Sweden and the United States of America.

1

INTRODUCTION

This report presents an overview of the 8 Millennium

Development Goals and emphasizes on the 7th

Goal of

Ensuring Environmental Sustainability and its progress

since it was introduced until now, how close it is if rom

achieving its total target and why the integration of this goal

into country policies and programs differ vastly among

particular nations.

On September 8th

of 2000 the heads of State and

Government adopted the United Nations Millennium

Declaration signed by 189 countries, including 147 heads of

State and Government. The gathering took place at the

United Nations Headquarters in New York to create a set of

time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015 for

“Addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions such as income poverty, hunger, disease,

lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion while promoting gender equality, education, and

environmental sustainability (United Nations Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon)” Thus

reinforcing that globalization should become a positive force not only for all people but for the

planet as well.

UN MDG to be reached in 2015

Source: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

2

In 2002, the Millennium Project was commissioned by the United Nations Secretary General to

provide a concrete action plan to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals worldwide.

The Task Forces comprised around 250 international experts including researchers, scientists,

policymakers, and representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations, many United Nations

agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the private sector. According to

the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Task Force on Environment assembled by the

United Nations Millennium Project specifically emphasized that environmental sustainability is

key to achieving not only the Millennium Development Goal 7, but achieving all the Millennium

Development Goals. The internationally agreed framework and concrete action plan for the

world to reach Environmental Sustainability is the following:

Millennium Development Goal #7 7.A Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and

reverse the loss of environmental resources.

1. Proportion of land covered by forest

2. CO2 emissions, total, per capita

3. Consumption of ozone depleting substances

4. Proportion of total water resources used

7.B Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction rate loss.

5. Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected

6. Proportion of species threatened with extinction

7. Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits

7.C Halve by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking

water and basic sanitation.

8. Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source

9. Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility

7.D By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million

slum dwellers.

10. Proportion of urban population living in slums

3

OVERVIEW

Developing countries and countries with economies in transition face special difficulties

in responding to central environmental and socioeconomic challenges such as respect for

biodiversity and conservation of natural resources. By focusing on countries like Sweden, China,

Nigeria, Brazil and the United States of America, this report attempts to contrast the diverse

results obtained to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 7.

Brazil as the largest country in South America and the sixth most populated in the world,

rich in natural resources, faces many challenges to protect its diverse environment.

For centuries, China stood as a leading civilization in the arts and sciences, as the world’s

fourth largest country it faces an environmental crisis as it has become the world's largest single

emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels from the country’s rapid

industrialization. Recent market-oriented China has become the country with most internet users.

Poverty-stricken Nigeria faces serious damage from oil spills and soil degradation.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and is marked by significant political instability, civil

unrest and irregularities.

As the world’s most powerful nation state, the United States of America, is still a large

emitter (second in the world after China) of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, it

also has water pollution from runoff of pesticides and fertilizers. It is the third most populated

country in the world and the third largest country in the world. .

Sweden is also a selected country, chosen as a contrasting example to follow for the

world. Sweden is the country with the biggest investment of GDP in the environmental sector.

According to the official site of Sweden, 100 million dollars have been invested and allocated

each year from 2011 to 2014 in Sweden’s environmental sector

(http://sweden.se/nature/sustainable-living/).

Each one of this five selected countries has different natural resources, economies,

traditions, and many other factors that contribute to the success of meeting the United Nation’s

Millennium Development Goal Target 7: Ensuring Environmental Sustainability.

4

Table 1: Selected macroeconomic indicators of each of the five countries:

Indicators Brazil United States

of America

Nigeria China Sweden

Income Level Upper middle

income

High income:

OECD*

Lower middle

income

Upper middle

income

High income:

OECD*

GDP (current

US$)

$2.253 trillion 2012 $15.68 trillion 2012 $262.6 billion 2012 $8.358 trillion 2012

$525.7 billion

2012

Population

(Total)

198.7 million 2012 313.9 million 2012 168.8 million 2012 1.351 billion 2012 9.517 million 2012

GNI per capita $11,630 2012 $50,120 2012 $1,430 2012 $5,680 2012 $56,210 2012

Life expectancy

at birth, total

(years)

73 years 2011 79 years 2011 52 years 2011 75 years 2011 82 years 2011

School

enrollment,

primary (%

gross)

137% 2005 102% 2010 83% 2010 113% 2011 100% 2011

Literacy rates

age 15 and over

can read and

write, both

sexes (%)

90.4% 2010 99% 2003 61.3% 2010 95.1% 2010 99% 2003

Source: World Development Indicators & https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-

*OECD: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

5

With the realization that ecological wealth can translate into economic health,

policymakers and business leaders worldwide have begun to understand the value of protecting

ecosystems and biodiversity. The CBD reports that 45 percent of business leaders in Africa, 53

percent in Latin America, 34 percent in Asia-Pacific, and 18 percent in Western Europe consider

biodiversity loss to be a threat to economic growth. The same report estimates that the cost of

inaction on biodiversity will amount to US$2.0 to US$4.5 trillion per year over the next 50 years.

These numbers are significant, and leaders are more frequently taking ecosystem services into

account when calculating their nations’ assets.

Indicator 7.1- Proportion of Land Covered by Forest

Forests are the largest and most important terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, and they

provide fundamental goods and services on which the welfare of human society depends on.

The UN has identified

several principal areas of concern

to measure forest sustainability,

but because only a few countries

have forest monitoring systems

sophisticated enough to produce

meaningful reports on these

criteria, there is a lack of

uniformity in reporting on the

global scale. For example, some

countries count land as “forest

land” based on land use

categories regardless of whether

or not the land has any tree cover.

About a third of the world’s forests have been lost due to human activities. Large areas of

forests are cut for timber or fuel wood every year. In addition, due to the rapid growth of human

population, large areas of forests are either converted to cropland for food production or to

developed area.

Deforestation is most pronounced in tropical countries. As an example, Brazil has

reduced deforestation in the Amazon enough over the past five years to lower heat-trapping

emissions more than any other country on Earth. This success demonstrates the enormous

potential of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation as well as conserving

and re-growing tropical forests. This international effort is also known as REDD+(UCSUSA).

TARGET 7.A

Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and

reverse the loss of environmental resources

6

However, Brazil’s Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira

argued that “the rate of deforestation in the Amazon

increased by 28% between mid-year 2012 and mid-year

2013. The 28% rise interrupts a period of declining

deforestation which began in 2009.”

Similarly, Nigeria has one of the highest rates of

deforestation in the world, having lost around 410,100

hectares per year over the period 2005 to 2010. In response

to forest loss Nigeria’s government established protected

forest reserves in 2008, and declared a moratorium on

timber in its most forested state, the Cross River state.

Despite this effort Nigeria continues to lose its forest cover

at an annual rate of 3.5 percent (UNREDD).

Figure 1 shows the increase and decrease of forest land in each of our chosen countries.

China is adopting a series of measures to regain its lost forests such as “The Law of

Environmental Protection,” “The Forests Law,” “Regulations for Nature Reserves,” and

“Regulations for the Protection of Wild Plants.” In addition, China’s 2010 MDG report shows

that China’s total artificial forest area takes up about one third of the world total; its average

annual growth in area is 53.2 percent of the global total, the fastest growth of forest resources in

the world. We hope for China to eventually regain at least 50 percent of its lands covered with

forests since it would be crucial for the rehabilitation of its polluted air and decaying species.

0 20 40 60 80

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

USA

Figure 1- Proportion of land

covered by forest (%)

2010

2000

1990

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators

Deforestation in Mato Grasso, Brazil. Image

credit: Jeff Schamltz/NASA

7

With its forestry model1, Sweden has gone from being a country under deforestation to be

the most densely forested country within the European Union. Its efforts for forest management

started in 1923; since then the Swedish Forest Agency2 has been active. Half of all Swedish

forest land is privately owned and all forestry laws are applied to them.

The United States faced a major boom in cutting trees for lumber during the 1850s and

used a lot of wood also for energy and fences. That depletion of forests continued until 1900 at

which time the United States had fewer forests than ever. As Figure 1 shows, U.S. reforestation

efforts have been slow. The total forestland acreage has remained stable since 1900.

1 The Swedish forestry model is built on regenerating forests, so when the old forest is taken away

a new forest is established. 2 Gov. org. with the task of ensuring that the Swedish forests are managed in a way that goals for

the forest policy decided upon the parliament and the gov. can be achieved.

8

0

5

10

15

20

25

Figure 2- Metric Tons of CO2

Emmisions per capita

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

USA

Indicator 7.2- CO2 Emissions, Total and Per Capita

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

USA

0 2000000 4000000 6000000 8000000 10000000

Figure 3- Total CO2 Emissions

(Thousand Metric Tons)

2010

2000

1990

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators

9

China's environmental crisis is one of the most pressing challenges to emerge from the country's

rapid industrialization. As the world's largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, China is responsible for

a third of the planet's greenhouse gas output and has sixteen of the world's twenty most polluted cities.

How bad is it? China's energy

consumption has expanded, spiking 130

percent from 2000 to 2010. In January

2013, Beijing experienced an extended

period of time of smog; the concentration of

hazardous particles was forty times the level

considered safe by the World Health

Organization. Later that year, pollution in

the northern city of Harbin shrank visibility

to less than 50 meters. Based on a 2012

Asian Development Bank report, less than 1 percent of China's 500 largest cities meet the WHO's air

quality standards.

By the same token, the United States of America is the second biggest producer of

electricity in the world (after China). Carbon dioxide emissions are mainly produced for energy

and transportation, largely due to an increase in km traveled by motor vehicles. Currently, the

U.S. has the longest road network: 6,586,610km. Population growth, economic growth, new

technologies, seasonal temperatures and Consumerism are also influential factors for the

production of CO2 in the U.S.

10

0 50000 100000 150000 200000

Brazil

China

Nigeria

European Community

USA

Figure 4- Consumption of all ozone depleting

substances (in thousand metric tons)

2011

2000

1990

Indicator 7.3- Consumption of Ozone Depleting Substances

In the 1980s scientists observed that the ozone layer was thinning over Antarctica. In

response leaders from many countries came together in 1987 to sign the Montreal Protocol on

substances that deplete the ozone layer.

As shown in Figure 4, the United States is the country that made the most progress in

reducing the consumption of ozone depleting substances (ODS). In the United States, ozone-

depleting substances are regulated as Class I or Class II controlled substances. Class I substances

have a higher ozone-depleting potential and have been completely phased out in the U.S. as

shown in the table below. Class II substances are hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which

are transitional substitutes for many Class I substances and are being phased out now.

Section 604 of the Clean Air Act sets the phaseout targets for Class I substances. The ban

on production and import of halons took effect on January 1, 1994. The ban on production and

import of other ODS – excluding methyl bromide – took effect on January 1, 1996 as seen in

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators

11

Table 2. As a result, the United States has an impressive decrease of consumption of ODS from

1990 to 2000 as shown in figure 3.

Table 2: Elimination of Ozone Depleting Substances in the

USA (in percent reduction from baseline)

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency www.epa.gov

12

Indicator 7.4- Proportion of Total Water Resources Used

What it measures: Proportion of total renewable water resources withdrawn is the total volume

of groundwater and surface water withdrawn from their sources for human use (in the

agricultural, municipal and industrial sectors), expressed as a percentage of the total actual

renewable water resources. The terms water resources and water withdrawal are understood as

freshwater resources and freshwater withdrawal.

0 5 10 15 20 25

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

USA

Figure 4- Proportion of total water

resources used (%)

2005

2000

1995

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators *Data for Nigeria in 1995 not available

13

According to the United Nations MDG Report 2013, there has being significant progress

since 1990 in reducing biodiversity loss and increasing the coverage of protected areas. These

are areas dedicated to safeguarding and maintaining biological diversity and natural resources,

with their associated cultural value. The importance of this target lies in the fact that these areas

produce important ecosystem goods and services that benefit local, national and global

economies.

Indicator 7.5- Proportion of Terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas

Brazil, China, Nigeria, Sweden, and the United States are all doing a great job

implementing official protection to key natural areas of their national territory, as shown in

figure 5. One of the ways in which countries can protect their lands is by declaring them national

Sweden, for example, has 29 national parks. patrimony and turn them into national parks.

Similarly, the United States has 59, Nigeria has only 8 and China has 255; and Brazil which,

with 67 national parks that constitute 12 million hectares, is the country that has declared more

land space as protected area. This was implemented by the Amazon Regional Protected Area.

Target 7.B

Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

USA

Figure 5- Terrestrial protected

areas (% of total land area)

2012

2000

1990

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators

14

While understanding biome

protection at a national scale is useful,

it is also helpful to know the global

context of these protection efforts.

That is why the Terrestrial Protected

Areas are broken into two indicators

that weight the percentage of biomes

under protected status: The Terrestrial

Protected Areas (National Biome

Weight) indicator which assesses the

protection of biomes weighted by the

proportion of a country’s territory the

biome occupies, and The Terrestrial Protected Areas (Global Biome Weight) which reflects the

protection of biomes weighted by their globally proportional abundance.

The measurement of Marine Protected Areas includes areas that lie within territorial waters (0

to12 nautical miles from land) and the percentage of country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ)

(12 to 200 nautical miles) because several types of valuable marine habitats exist only in EEZs,

including deep-sea trenches, submarine canyons and seamounts.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

USA

Figure 6- Proportion of marine areas

protected to territorial waters (%)

2012

2000

1990

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators

15

Indicator 7.6- Proportion of Species Threatened by Extinction

Despite these signs of progress, much remains to be done to reduce global rates of

biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. The MDGs 2012 Report shows that even with

increased protected areas, biodiversity is still being lost and key sites remain

unprotected. UNEP-WCMC’s Protected Planet 2012 Report reveals that only 33 percent of

terrestrial ecoregions, 13 percent of marine ecoregions, and 22 percent of AZE sites reach target

levels of protection.

IUCN Red List. Last Updated: 21 November 2013

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

USA

Figure 7- Threatened species in each

country (totals by taxonomic group)

16

Importantly, these targets only measure the area under legal protection, but this does not

necessarily translate into effective conservation of biodiversity or prevention of species loss.

Critical Habitat Protection measures the percentage of the key

sites recognized by the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) that

are located in protected areas.

Environmental Performance Index (epi.yale.edu)

17

Indicator 7.7- Proportion of Fish Stocks within Safe Biological Limits

What it Measures: The proportion of fish stocks or species that are exploited within the level of

maximum sustainable biological productivity.

This indicator is measured not by country but by statistical areas. The Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has divided the world oceans into 21

statistical areas, and stock assessment is carried out based on these statistical areas. The stock

assessment classifies fish stocks into 3 categories: non-fully exploited, fully exploited, and

overexploited. The stocks within safe biological limits are those classified as non-fully exploited

and fully exploited.

Method of computation:

This indicator is calculated as the number of fish species with a stock assessment of non-fully

exploited or fully exploited divided by the total number of fish species with a stock assessment

and multiplied by 100. This indicator is expressed as a percentage.

The maximum sustainable biological productivity is the largest yield (or catch) that can

be taken from a fish stock over an indefinite period, commonly called the Maximum Sustainable

Yield (MSY). The aim of this threshold yield is to achieve the maximum productivity of fish

resources while maintaining biodiversity and proper functioning of the relevant ecosystems for

present and future generations.

Anchovy, the most fished fish.

18

Main Fishing Countries:

China is the top-ranking fishing country in terms of quantity followed by Peru, Indonesia, the

United States of America and India. In 2011, the total catch in the United States was its highest

for 17 years.

Main Aquaculture producers:

In 2011, the top ten producers of farmed aquatic animals were China (38.6 million tons), India

(4.6 million tons), Viet Nam (2.8 million tons), Indonesia (2.7 million tons), Bangladesh (1.5

million tons), Norway (1.1 million tons), Thailand (1.0 million tons), Egypt (986 800 tones),

Chile (954 800 tones), and Myanmar (816 800 tons).

They contributed 88 percent of world production by quantity.

Developing Countries and fish trade: The share of developing countries in total fishery exports

was about 53 percent by value and 60 percent by quantity (live weight equivalent) in 2011. The

fishery net exports of developing countries (i.e. the total value of their exports less the total value

of their imports) have shown a continuing rising trend in recent decades, growing from USD11.4

billion in 1991 to USD18.1 billion in 2001 and USD34.5 billion in 2011. These figures were

significantly higher than those for other agricultural commodities such as rice, coffee and tea.

19

Indicator 7.8- Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source

Access to safe drinking water is a critical

component to human health, socioeconomic

development, and individual wellbeing. Between

1990 and 2010, more than two billion people gained

access to improved drinking water sources. As a

result, the MDG of halving the proportion of people

without access to improved sources of water was met

in 2010—a full five years ahead of schedule.

Unfortunately there is still 11% of the world’s

population or approximately 783 million people who

do not have access to improved drinking water. While China and India have made great progress

in improving access to drinking water, only 63 percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa

has access to an improved water source. Additionally, within countries there are often stark

disparities between urban and rural communities. At the end of 2011, 83 percent of the

population without access to an improved drinking water source lived in rural areas as seen in the

below figure 8 showing regional disparities of access to water. Globally, 768 million

people continue to rely on unimproved drinking water sources. In Brazil, it is worth noting that

usually population concentration does not coincide with water concentration. As a result many

problems arise from expanding the pipe system. There is a persistent unequal distribution

between the Southern developed region that enjoys 88% of access to water and the Urban

Northern region that only enjoys 37% of access.

TARGET 7.C

Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water

and basic sanitation

Source: http://epi.yale.edu/our-methods/water-and-sanitation

Distinction between improved and unimproved water sources

20

FAST FACTS: ONE THIRD OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION HAS INTESTINAL

WARM INFECTIONS, 1800 CHILDREN UNDER FIVE DIE EACH DAY FROM

DIARRHOEAL DISEASES, CAUSED BY THE LACK OF HYGIENE, SANITATION AND

SAFE WATER.

Indicator 7.9- Proportion of population using improved sanitation facilities

Unfortunately, the UN MDG 2013 update, warns that, at the current rate of progress, the

2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of population

without sanitation will be missed by 8% – or half a billion people. While much progress has been

made to improve access to sanitation and drinking water worldwide, there are still millions of

individuals that lack these basic human rights.

Access to Sanitation measures the

percentage of a country’s population that has

access to an improved source of sanitation

and the system is considered improved if it

hygienically separates human excrement

from human contact and is not public,

meaning that it can either be private or

shared.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

United

States

Figure 8 -Improved Drinking Water Coverage

(%) 2010

Rural

Urban

Total

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators

21

Access to basic sanitation should not be a charitable need but a legal entitlement.

However in many countries such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia and more currently live

in degraded environments. As an example, water supply and sanitation in Nigeria, the largest

African country and the continent’s biggest oil exporter, is characterized by limited access

to improved sanitation as seen in figure #. According to a WHO report on 2010, there were

approximately 34 million Nigerians who still account for open defecation, the most dangerous

sanitation practice for public health as it is related to the spread of major killer diseases such as

diarrhea. This issue led to a doubling of efforts to tackle the MDG target through the UN launch

of the Sanitation Drive to 2015. Advocates for increased political focus on sanitation, better

targeting of funding, coordinated efforts based on proven successes, involvement of communities

and individuals in decision making, and efforts to ensure that all people have access to

information and services. Again, figure 9 shows a disparity between data from rural and urban

communities in the developing countries of Nigeria, China and Brazil. On the Brazilian MDGR

(2005) concluded that in Brazil, 36 million of 180 million people do not have access to sanitation

services.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Brazil

China

Nigeria

Sweden

United States

Figure 9 -Improved Sanitation Coverage

(%) 2010

Rural

Urban

Total

Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators

22

Figure 10 shows that despite the unprecedented progress achieved since 1990, the poorest

and most marginalized people in society continue to be underdeveloped in comparison to

developed countries Sweden and the United States. Above all, Nigeria is the country with the

biggest challenge as it has not improved its access to sanitation services and thus its population is

filled with health problems. According to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 2012, in order to achieve this target and

beyond, the solution is to tackle wastewater management including reduction of pollution from

household, industrial and agricultural sources.

Source:www.gapminder.org

Source: www.gapminder.org

Figure 10- Relationship between Improved Sanitation and Human Development

23

Indicator 7.10- Proportion of urban population living in slums

As discussed in class, the problem of population growth covers a variety of population

issues including, immigration, infant mortality, family planning, the education of women,

protection for safe abortions and many more that are directly relevant to most of the Millennium

Development Goals. To illustrate issues such as the One Child Policy and the Cairo Conference

of 1994 were brought up in class. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this report, the focus will be on

the impacts of population growth in the environment.

Population growth affects every target of the Millennium Development Goal 7 because it

impacts environmental sustainability and produces environmental vulnerability. A quote from

Thomas Malthus illustrates the ongoing concern of population “The power of population is

indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man." In addition,

population growth affects migration as it influences the growth of urban slums which leads us to

the link between population growth and the growth of urban slums.

In 2001, the highest

percentages of urban residents

living in slums where found in

many Latin American countries

including Brazil with a 36.6%

of the population living in slums

(UN Habitat, 2005). The slums

refer to informal settlements

without adequate housing

conditions. Due to legal

problems, governments often

cannot provide proper

infrastructure and services in

irregular settlements. In addition, poor neighborhoods, which lack the political power to affect

such decisions, are often affected by the proximity of waste-disposal facilities, polluting

industries, and other locational health hazards. In the worst situations, there is a cumulative effect

of lack of social services and infrastructure: people may live in areas that simultaneously face

environmental risk, as well as lack of proper housing, sanitation, education, and health services

(Martine, Hakkert & Guzmán, 2002).

TARGET 7.D

By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum

dwellers

Rocinha Favela in Rio de Janeiro, around 150.000 to 300.000 people live here.

24

In Brazil, the government is known for resisting rural-urban migration and urbanization.

As result, migrants are forced to occupy marginal, ecologically fragile or dangerous lands such a

river banks or steep slopes also called Favelas. These are located most often on the periphery of

large cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Often water must be ported great distances, and

rudimentary methods of waste disposal pose health hazards. As a result of the crowding,

unsanitary conditions, poor nutrition, and pollution, disease is rampant in the poorer favelas, and

infant mortality rates are high.

Approximately 17 million houses are needed in Nigeria since the slum population in

2009 was 60 percent. By 2020, 54 percent of Nigeria’s poor will be city dwellers (as defined by

income poverty). Nigeria’s corruption and lack of enforced regulations have enabled building to

go up unchecked, for example, only 30 percent of houses in the city have an approved building

plan. In Central Lagos there are growing floating slums due to rural migration.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Brazil China Nigeria Sweden USA

Slums

2000

2010

*Data not applicable for Sweden and the USA

25

CONCLUSION

MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Brazil China Nigeria Sweden USA

Target 7.A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country

policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

Target 7.B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in

the rate of loss.

Target 7.C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to

safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

Target 7.D: Achieve, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100

million slum dwellers.

We believe that by 2015 these countries will

have achieved greater success in their

development as they work towards

implementing the MDGs. However, particular attention has to be paid to balance the attention between

urban and rural areas and the competing needs of the environment, society, and economy. In addition,

international aid should be sent to the poverty-stricken regions such as in Nigeria because the growing

population faces scarcity of resources and an inefficient government that becomes an ever-growing cycle

that restrains those countries, their people, and their environment from progress. Practicing

environmental sustainable development requires a combination of wise public investment,

effective natural resource management, cleaner agricultural and industrial technologies, less

pollution, and slower population growth.

Will target be met?

Already met

Good potential

Average potential

Weak Potential

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