Dear Friend,
Over the past quarter of a century, our planet has lost some 30 per cent of its natural wealth. Forest, freshwater and marine ecosystems have been degraded by human activities such as logging, agriculture and fishing, and pollution has increased to the point where it threatens the stability of our global climate.

During the same period, world trade has grown exponentially. Indeed, its volume today is 14 times greater than it was in 1950. International trade is growing at twice the pace of other economic activities, and is thus having an ever greater influence on human welfare and the environment.

In short, governments have done a much better job creating a global marketplace than protecting the global environment. It is also becoming apparent that in some instances trade liberalisation has widened the gap between rich and poor. Cases are also multiplying where the livelihoods of indigenous people are being undermined by resource exploitation associated with liberalised international trade.

Towards the end of 1999, ministers from the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) 135 member governments are to meet in Seattle to decide on a new round of negotiations aimed at further liberalising world trade. If we are to protect nature, our common welfare and the future of our children, it is vital we ensure that environmental protection and sustainable development feature at the centre of this new round of trade negotiations.

This WWF Information Pack is designed to explain the link between trade, the environment and the need to build a sustainable world economy. Should you wish to play a part in reshaping international trade to protect the future of us all, it also offers some ideas for action.

Unless we achieve reform of the WTO, the international trading system will continue to undermine rather than support sustainable development. Please help us to turn the current conflict between trade, environment and development policies into a fruitful partnership.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Claude Martin
Director General, WWF International

Download Sustainable Trade for a Living Planet: Reforming the World Trade Organisation

PDF format, 672KB, 19Pages. Published by WWF International.

WWF (www.panda.org) aim to conserve nature and ecological processes by:

• preserving genetic, species and ecosystem diversity
• ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable both now and in the longer term, for the benefit of all life on Earth
• promoting actions to reduce to a minium pollution and the wasteful exploitation and consumption of resources and energy.

WWF’s ultimate goal is to stop, and eventually reverse, the accelerating degradation of our planet’s natural environment, and to help build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

Further reading:

1 Building Sustainable Trade for People and the Environment, Experts Panel on Trade and Sustainable Development (EPTSD) Report, WWF International, March 1999 (download from www.panda.org)

2 Initiating an Environmental Assessment of Trade Liberalisation in the WTO, Discussion Paper, WWF International, March 1999 (download from www.panda.org)

3 From Liberalisation to Sustainable Development; A Critique of the OECD Paper “Open Markets Matter: The Benefits of Trade and Investment Liberalisation”, WWF International, revised January 1999 (download from www.panda.org)

4 Dispute Settlement in the WTO: a crisis for sustainable development, Discussion Paper, WWF International, CIEL, CNI & OXFAM, May 1998 (download from www.panda.org)

5 Gender Focus on the WTO, International Coalition for Development Action (ICDA), June 1999 (order from www.icda.be)

6 WTO and Food Security: Opportunities for Action, ActionAid (UK), January 1999 (order from www.actionaid.org)

7 Focus-on-Trade, a regular electronic bulletin providing updates and interdisciplinary analysis on regional and global trade and finance. It covers economic, ecological, political, gender and social issues related to world trade. Managed by Focus on the Global South, Bangkok, Thailand. Subscribe at www.focusweb.org

8 The Environmental Effects of Trade, OECD, Paris, 1994. (download from www.oecd.org; select Free Documents
and then Trade)

9 The World Trade Organisation and Sustainable Development: An independent Assessment, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Winnipeg, 1996. (download from www.iisd.ca/trade)

10 International Trade and the Environment, Patrick Low,World Bank Discussion Paper 159, World Bank, Washington DC, 1992. (order from www.worldbank.org)

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