UNCED to Seek Programmes of Economic Growth

caracas, may 21 (ips) -- the u.n. conference on environment and development (unced) will seek a change in traditional programmes of economic growth, said a report which the venezuelan government will present to the summit in rio de janeiro on june 3-14.

in the document, entitled 'a national compromise for sustainable development', venezuela defends the need to change present models of development by adding the ecological dimension.

the report, which was prepared by a consultative commission headed by venezuelan deputy arnoldo cesar, presents the country's main ecological problems and commits the state to follow a development scheme with the rational use of natural resources.

it also states venezuela's stand in the different conventions and declarations to be signed by the world's heads of state in the summit. it says venezuela sees unced as a ''great opportunity to redefine the schemes of world cooperation''.

it is important for the world leaders to realise that the ''basic problems of sustainable development require big investments which developing countries are not at present capable of giving even partially,'' the report said.

the theory of sustainable development, introduced in the environmental debate by the brundtland commission in the report 'our common future', pertains to economic growth which satisfies the needs of the present without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their needs.

industrialised countries could finance sustainable development by changing protectionist trade policies and taking into account the responsibility which foreign debt imposes on the south, the report said.

but it stressed the need for new and innovative mechanisms of financing which should be managed in a transparent and democratic way.

for venezuela, the ninth country in the world with the biggest concentration of flora and fauna, reaching an agreement on biodiversity ''would be one of the most important achievements''.

the document expresses the venezuela's decision to ''maintain the sovereign right to make sustainable use of its biological resources according to national environmental policies and laws''.

it also mentions the need to compromise and establish strategies to conserve biological diversity which are compatible with development, stressing that third parties can have access to national genetic material only through bilateral agreements.

(story received incomplete)

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