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Recommendations
Second
International Conference on
Plants & Environmental
Pollution
held at the National Botanical
Research Institute, Lucknow, India
4-9 February 2002
Introduction
As human
populations, urban metro-plexes and land use changes continue to grow,
increasing man-made pollution and degradation of air, soil and water quality
have become a critical global issue. Environmental pollution is no longer the
domain of the developed nations, but is an increasing problem across the world,
particularly in developing countries. Dispersion and transport of air
pollutants has no national boundaries and is a regional and continental scale
problem. Similarly contamination of soils and non-point source pollutant run
off into lakes, rivers and oceans impacting as appropriate, quality of the
drinking water and aquatic life are of great concern. Issues such as the
occurrence of acidic rain (e.g., deposition of nitrogen species), smog (e.g.,
ground level ozone and particulate matter), persistent organic carcinogens
(e.g., benzo pyrenes) and toxic inorganic chemicals (e.g., metal and
metalloids, nitrate) and global climate change (e.g., increases in radiative
trace gases) are all in the forefront. In as much as some of these phenomena
have direct adverse effects on crops, forests and surface waters, many are also
known to alter food quality and ecosystem integrity and biological diversity.
As global
population growth continues, preserving the quality of our environment and
sustaining our food security would require better-integrated and concerted
understanding of the many of the current and emerging problems. Such efforts
based on sound scientific principles should provide the basis for developing
and implementing relevant mitigation policies to meet the human needs.
Second
International Conference on Plants & Environmental Pollution (ICPEP-2) was
organized to provide an international forum for discussions and deliberations
among scientists, researchers and NGO's, interested in promoting and conducting
research, education and mass awareness on environment, highlighting the role of
plants in environmental protection, pollution indication, bioremediation,
biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. After a lengthy
deliberation, the participants of ICPEP-2 developed a series of recommendations
as follows
Conference
Recommendations
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Initiate
ways at the outset, to develop strong international research collaboration
and information exchange among scientists to address common environmental
issues. A relevant, exemplary operative model for addressing such common
environmental issues between several different countries already exists
within the United Nations Commission of the European Communities (UN-CEC).
-
Develop a
strong mechanism to promote environmental education among young people (for
example, schools) and environmental literacy among the public, particularly
in the user sector, through outreach. India can give a lead for example, in
developing geographic institutional networks for disseminating the needed
information, initiating local science fairs for young people (schools),
organizing regional workshops focused on specific environmental issues and
collaborating with the media sector to attract attention of the public and
the policy makers. Outreach program initiated by Eco-education division of
NBRI at Lucknow, India may serve as a model.
-
Map in a
systematic fashion the specific types (for example, occurrence of critical
levels of ground level ozone) and geographic magnitude of various
environmental problems using simple, but elegant proven methods (for example
use of passive samplers for assessing the level of air pollution and use of
indicator plants for monitoring visible adverse effects). Such an effort is a
prerequisite first step in risk analysis and assessment, cost-benefit
analysis and the development of mitigation policies.
-
Develop
collaborative research efforts, both globally and regionally, to define the
adverse effects of pollution on food and crop productivity and quality. Such
activities, in addition to the specific local questions, must be holistic and
integrative within the context of multiple stress factors (both
non-biological and biological) identified within the framework of local and
global climate change.
-
Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POP) is a major environmental problem, both in developing
and developed countries. Production and application of pesticides and
presence of pesticides residue in crops as well as in the atmosphere is a
grave health hazard. Organic cultivation is the only viable and lasting
solution to this problem and it should be encouraged and promoted at all
levels. The special session on Neem organized during ICPEP-2 addressed this
problem in great detail. Experts present at this session highlighted the
significance of organic cultivation and use of bio-pesticides,
bio-fertilizers etc. It is recommended that R&D efforts in the area should be
strengthened and India should provide a lead in this direction. ISEB should
also actively participate in this program.
-
Develop
ways to control or prevent the presence of invasive alien species and promote
the preservation of native biological diversity. In this context, the
"Farmer's Rights" model of India can serve as an example. Of additional
consideration are the issues of "Ethno-botany" and the critical importance of
sustaining medicinal species in overall sustainable development of
ecosystems.
-
Develop
and evaluate the comparative success of various cost effective pollution
mitigation strategies appropriately suited for acceptance by the local
community. Examples include bio-remediation of salinity (responsible for
major crop losses in semi-arid and irrigated agriculture) and phyto-remediation
of soils and surface waters contaminated by industrial waste (responsible for
the transport of toxic chemicals in the food chain). Transfer successful
methods to the user community for implementation.
-
Organize
the next International Conference on "Plants and Environmental Pollution,
ICPEP-3" during 2005 to exchange information on the progress of work based on
the aforementioned recommendations. Additional emphasis of the conference
should be on invited state of the art reviews by recognized experts, focusing
on specific themes, with in-depth discussions, followed by opportunities for
young scientists to showcase their research. The overall proceedings of the
conference should be used as another mechanism to promote awareness of the
public and the policy makers.
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