asked in 2005

1. You are an internationally experienced negotiator. What advice can you give on the art of negotiating in international environmental policy?

First, know your facts. Second, analyse and express them clearly and simply so that the non-specialist can understand you fully. Express your ideas in writing to your regional group well ahead of negotiations. Refuse to be baited into belligerence both within your regional group and with opposing groups; but always be clear and unwavering in expressing yourself; clarity can go with humility. Your regional group will give you more work, do it. Never fail to fulfil your commitment, and your group will win.


2. If you had one choice: What new binding international agreement would you like to introduce?

A globally binding liability and redress regime for preventing environmental and human harm; a regime which cannot be escaped by changes in the identity of any culprit company or other agent through take-over, sale, bankruptcy or death; a regime which holds the state of the country of the culprit agent responsible when the culprit agent is unavailable.


3. What does biodiversity have to do with community rights?

A local community lives in an ecosystem interacting with, making use of, and caring for the living and non-living components. Because the living components are both the more complex and the more essential for human life, the major components of knowledge and technologies relate to biodiversity. But existing intellectual property rights regimes attribute it all to the individual. Community right therefore, tries to correct this error and recognizes the local community as the creator of the knowledge and technologies on biodiversity.


4. Unilateral action by the most powerful has killed multilateralism. Why do you waste your time in negotiations?

The unilateral acts of the last decade may have made it seem that multilateralism is dead. It is not. However, it is changing shape. The very globalization that has made unilateral acts so invasive, underlines the need for multilateralism, and the ease with which it can be achieved. Unilateralism is a passing phase championed by the greedy. In this interconnected Earth, the universalisation of the respect for human rights and learning to live within what the biosphere can allow are steadily taking over. The need for survival will force humanity to heed them more and thus value multilateralism more.


5. You are from a poor country. Why do you not leave the rich, who can afford it, to worry about the environment?

In a deteriorating environment, it is the poor like my people that suffer the most. This is because the poor are the more intimately related with the environment, in fulfilling their needs from their immediate environment, in being vulnerable to any deterioration as they have very little to cushion them.


6. What effect has the RLA had on your work?

The RLA has given the issues I have been fighting for a greater visibility. It has, therefore, increased global awareness on these issues and made it easier for me to be heard. On the other hand, putting me and my ideas in the limelight has meant greater stress for me. Fortunately for me, my wife and children are very supportive, and this helps me bear it.