July 2012: The July/August edition of UN Special features an interview with Brice Lalonde, Executive Coordinator, UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), and an article by John Scanlon, Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in which the officials reflect on the outcomes of the UNCSD.

UN Special is the internal magazine of international civil servants of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the interview, Lalonde argues that human and natural capital are more important that financial capital. A related article on the green economy says the great challenge is to reconcile parallel ambitions of economic development in rich and poor countries, in a world economy that faces growing changes to the climate system, energy insecurity and ecosystem degradation.

In his article, Scanlon underscores that legal international trade in wild species has contributed, through improved wildlife management, to the decrease of poverty in rural areas that are heavily dependent on wildlife, thereby contributing to sustainable development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In another interview, “Memories of Rio Minus 20,” Andrey Vasilyev, Deputy Executive Secretary for the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), reflects on the origins and spirit of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or Rio Earth Summit) and the differences between the world in 1992 and today. [Publication: UN Special, No. 719]