A
breakthrough program to restore biodiversity
and fight global warming
Changwon, Republic of
Korea, October 29, 2008 – During the 10th
meeting of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands'
Conference of Contracting Parties, presently
under way in the Republic of Korea, an original
and ambitious partnership agreement aimed
at fighting global warming has been entered
into by the Ramsar Convention, the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
and the Danone Group.
Fighting global warming
through wetlands protection and restoration
The purpose of this innovative
program is to capitalize on the essential
role played by wetlands ecosystems, especially
mangrove swamps, in carbon capture.Representing
6% of land area, wetlands fix 20% of the
earth's carbon and produce 25% of the world's
foods (fisheries, agriculture and hunting).
These areas, vital to biodiversity and the
survival of many populations also enable
the natural purification of freshwater and
groundwater's recharge, and serve as effective
barriers against coastal storms. Nearly
half of these areas, however, have been
destroyed over the past century.
The agreement signed
today is in many ways a concrete response
to the call that went out last July to the
international community from 700 scientists
of the International Association for Ecology
(INTECOL), emphasizing the global importance
of wetlands conservation.
After a ten years partnership with Ramsar,
a new stage in Danone's commitment to environmental
responsibility
For Danone, the first
steps taken under this program will be led
by Evian. As the world's leading brand of
mineral water, Evian has a long experience
in protecting water resources, particularly
through the protection of the catchment
zone that feeds its own spring. In addition,
the brand has worked for many years to reduce
its environmental impact in the areas of
energy consumption, packaging and transportation.
As a result, between 2000 and 2011 Evian
will have shrunk its carbon footprint by
half.
As no human activity
can claim in itself environmental neutrality,
Evian simultaneously intends to develop
voluntary initiatives making it possible
to absorb the remainder of its carbon footprint.
From 2009, as part of the partnership announced
today, Evian will support specific programs
to store carbon, by restoring wetlands with
Ramsar and the IUCN.
This twin effort-to
reduce emissions on its own and to restore
areas that will fix large quantities of
CO2-will enable Evian to become carbon neutral,
from 2011 onward.
An agreement leading
to the creation of a Danone Fund for Nature
In concrete terms, Danone's
commitment will take the form of a fund.
The mission of the Danone Fund for Nature
is to support projects that combine water
resources management, the conservation of
biodiversity, quality improvements in food
resources emanating from wetlands and the
strengthening of their natural capacity
for storing large quantities of CO2.
Administered by the
three partners, this Fund will rely scientifically
and technically on Ramsar and the IUCN.
The first pilot project
will be implemented in 2009, followed by
a larger scale roll-out, and tracked by
reliable and recognized measurement methods.
"The Danone Group
and Evian have been working with us for
ten years," said Anada Tiega, Secretary
General of the Ramsar Convention. "What
makes our partnership work is that we share
the same goal of protecting water resources.
We are delighted to reach a new level with
Danone and Evian alongside IUCN with even
more ambitious goals."
"This project fits
perfectly into the IUCN's mission of promoting
biodiversity as a fundamental pre-requisite
for ecosystems to be able to support the
fight against climate change and poverty,"
observed Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN
Director General. IUCN will leverage its
network and expertise in providing the program's
technical and operational co-ordination."
"We're glad we've
been able to answer the appeal made by the
Ramsar Convention and IUCN, and to do so
through an original and promising partnership,"added
Franck Riboud, Chairman and CEO of Danone,
What this means is putting in place the
financial, technical and human resources
required for rehabilitating ecosystems where
we can fix a portion of our carbon footprint.
The wetlands restoration program, with the
fixation potential that it represents and
its fit with Evian's vocation and long-term
commitment, is a natural complement to our
ongoing efforts to reduce our corporate
environmental impact."
About the Ramsar Convention
The international Wetlands
Convention signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971
under the sponsorship of UNESCO is an intergovernmental
treaty that provides a framework for actions
by nations and for international cooperation
to conserve and make considered use of wetlands
and their resources. The Convention presently
has 158 signatories, who have placed 1,820
wetland areas totalling 168 million hectares
on the List of internationally significant
wetlands.
For more information visit: www.ramsar.org
About IUCN
The International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is
the oldest and largest international network
in the environmental movement. It includes
over a thousand members (countries, governmental
and non-governmental organizations and nearly
11,000 volunteer experts from 160 countries.
The IUCN's work is carried
out by a staff of over 1,000 professionals
working in 62 national and regional offices.
IUCN headquarters are located near Geneva,
Switzerland.
For more information visit: www.iucn.org
About Danone and Evian
The mission of the Danone
Group is to provide health through healthful
eating to the most people it can. With 150
manufacturing sites and about 76,000 employees,
Danone is a health foods leader. The Danone
Group is included in the main social responsibility
indexes-the Stoxx and the World Dow Jones
Sustainability Indexes, the Eurozone ASPI
and the Ethibel Sustainability Index.
For more information visit: www.danone.com
The Evian brand can
be found on five continents and in over
120 countries. Its balanced mineral composition
results from being filtered for over 15
years in the heart of the French Alps. At
the end of this journey, Evian natural mineral
water emerges in the Cachat Spring in the
French town of Evian-les-Bains on the shore
of Lake Geneva. Evian has a long-standing
commitment to lowering its environmental
impact. It has reduced the weight of its
bottles by 20% over the past ten years,
makes its bottles from 25% recycled PET
and in Europe takes two-thirds of its production
to market by train.
For more information visit: www.evian.com
