Beginning with a foreword by Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and an introduction by GEF Chairman and CEO, Mohamed T. El-Ashry, Valuing the Global Environment features thirty-three guest essayists from more than twenty nations (partial list below) and all sectors of society: local and national governments, the religious, scientific, and business communities, non-governmental organizations, and international institutions.
The GEF's four focal areas, biodiversity loss, climate change, international waters, and depletion of the ozone layer, are all global issues that require global solutions. Drawing on a number of innovative and effective programs, Part I highlights with practical examples the principles that can solve these challenges. While no single approach will work everywhere, the benefits of trying a new approach far outweigh the costs of maintaining "business as usual." Part II provides a comprehensive frame of reference for considering all of these problems and their solutions: current scientific evidence, the power of grassroots action, the evolving policy response, a balance sheet of costs and benefits of action and inaction, and a short guide to the most promising new collaborative solutions on the horizon.
Guest contributors to Valuing the Global Environment include biologist E.O. Wilson; Queen Noor of Jordan; Pope Bartholomew of the Eastern Orthodox Church; Tachi Kiuchi, CEO of Mitsubishi Electric USA; Nobel Prize winners Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen; President Gayoom of the Maldives; India's M.S. Swaminathan; Ritt Bjerregaard, EU Commissioner of the Environment; and Gertrude Mongella of Tanzania, among others.
