About 100 world leaders will attend the Johannesburg gathering,formally known as the World Summit on Sustainable Development, andare expected to adopt a plan for accelerating economic development while preserving the environment.

As preparations for the Johannesburg summit, Latin American governments and environment experts organized several regional conferences on environment in 2001. Afterwards, three special meetings on environment have also been held in Rio de Janeiro, SaoPaulo and Bavaro, the Dominican Republic.

At the special meetings, environment ministers and experts prepared a proposal on sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is to be presented at the Johannesburg summit by Mexican President Vicente Fox.

After the Rio Summit, Latin American countries have paid great attention to environmental protection and made important progress in promoting awareness of environmental protection, preventing pollution and enacting and improving laws on environment.

Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, has adopted favorable measures to promote education in protecting the environment. The government has launched an environmental protection campaign using school education and the media.

After the 1990s, Latin American countries developed ecotourism programs one after another so as to make the tourists understand the importance of a healthy environment. Costa Rica has become a leader in ecotourism.

In recent years, air pollution has been alleviated in most parts of Latin America. Owing to air pollution controlling measures adopted by the Mexican government, Mexico City, which used to be one of the worst polluted cities in the world, now havefairly clean air.

In order to avoid further environmental decay, Latin American countries have strengthened legislation, improved environmental protection regimes and begun to pay more attention to environment monitoring.

In 2001, 15 Latin American states approved the "Kyoto Protocol," promising to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. In April this year, Mexico formed a committee to enhance sustainable development in rural areas. Brazil also launched a 1.4-billion-US dollar satellite monitoring system to promote the protection of the Amazon tropic rain forests.

However, in a report released last October, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said that despite what Latin American states had done, the environmental situation in Latin America and the Caribbean was worsening with shrinking forest areas, serious desertification, faster loss of freshwater resources and rising threats to biodiversity.

UNEP statistics show that between 1990 and 1995, Latin America lost 29 million hectares of forests, the worst forest destruction in the world.

In the proposal on sustainable development, Latin American governments made a pressing urge to stop optional destruction of forests, ensure the sustainable use of regional forest resources and enlarge forest areas by all means, and proposed setting up more nature reserves.

The document called for strengthening the management of water resources and reducing pollution outlets as three quarters of urban people in the water-rich region have no access to clean drinking water.

Latin American governments stressed industrialized countries' responsibility for preserving global environment and sustainable development, demanding they implement the "Kyoto Protocol" as soonas possible.

The Environment Committee of the Latin American Parliament pointed out that developed countries discharge 70 percent of all greenhouse gases in the world and the US alone 25 percent. Developing countries have become victims of global climate change caused by the excessive discharge of greenhouse gases.

Latin American governments urged the second Earth Summit to find solutions to global environment problems and called on developed countries and international organizations to take responsibility and to actively cooperate on issues of sustainable development.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2002)