Dr. Noel Brown

Over the past two decades, Dr. Brown represented the United Nations Environment Program at a number of the major international conferences and negotiations on environment and development issues and on international law, including the historic Earth Summit in Rio, 1992. He has initiated numerous innovations in the service of the earth's environmental protection and sustainable development. He is a founding member of the Aspen Global Change Institute, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, and Indigenous Development International.

Dr .Brown currently serves as President of the Friends of the United Nations, a non governmental organization dedicated to advancing the cause of the United Nations by mobilizing public support on its behalf and directing public attention to its major programmes and achievements. He is also Director General of the Inernational Ocean Institute Waves of Change campaign, and a fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, Chairman of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism, and Chairman of the Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments.

Dr. Brown has been a Visiting Professor at both U.S. and foreign universities, teaching on the subject of International Law and Organization, Government and Politics, and Environmental Management. He was a distinguished lecturer at the University of Victoria, British Columbia and an associate of the Queen Elizabeth Trust for Young Australians. Dr .Brown was the 1996 Leo Bloc Professor at the University of Denver and is currently the Director of training at the International Oceans Institute, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Dr. Brown serves on the Board of Directors of the Climate Institute, the Earth Communications Office, the Rainforest Alliance, MUSE, Film & Television, the Center for Resource Management, Global Education Associates, Trust for the Americas, the International Leadership -Bevelopment Institute, Roots for Peace, International Sea-keepers Society , the Timbuktu Heritage Institute and Jamaica National Parks Trust Fund. Dr .Brown has consulted and lectured extensively around the world and has produced a number of publications. Through his work with the Peace Child International, he sponsored and encouraged a group of young people to rewrite Agenda 21 (the Earth Summit's Blueprint for Sustainable Development) in a style and language that would be meaningful to their generation and which resulted in Rescue Mission, now an international best- seller within the environmental youth community .In keeping with efforts to address the moral dimension of the environmental crisis, Dr .Brown introduced the Environmental Sabbath Programme to the United Nations, now celebrated worldwide by thousands of congregations in connection with World Environment Day, and he has recently edited a volume entitled Ethics and Agenda 21: Moral Implications of a Global Consensus.

Dr .Brown has numerous awards acknowledging his service to the environment, including: the Lions Club Award, the Friends of the United Nations A ward, the Gaia Award, and the Global Education Associates A ward for Distinguished Service in Care of the Earth. Dr .Brown is a recipient of the 1998 World Academy of Arts and Science Award for Distinguished Public Service. One of the most dedicated and ardent champions of the environmental sustainability and planetary viability. For the past 30 years, he has initiated a number of activities that have significantly advanced the cause of the environment in many areas of human endeavor.

Business and Environment.

Among the fIrst to recognize the importance of the corporate community in the solution of environmental problem. To this end he initiated consultations with a number of business leaders which resulted in the first global conference on industry and environmental management in Versailles France.

This in turn served to strengthen the relationship between UNEP and the private sector and significantly enhanced the stature of its Industry and Environment office in Paris.

In keeping with his commitment to youth, he was instrumental in co founding the International Institute for Leadership Development headquarters at York University in Canada, which has become an effective resource center for UN internships and many of the participants in these programs have been placed in a number ofUN offices throughout the world.

Under the auspices of the leadership program he was active in the development of the Young Entrepreneurs Summits, which provided a framework for young business leaders throughout the world, ages 13 to 42 to meet and exchange views on problems and challenges and ways in which they might fmd solutions through cooperative action.

The Summits have also resulted in a number of joint ventures many of which have proved to be successful. A constant theme throughout these various initiatives has been the issue of environmental sustainability and the way in which such mechanisms might serve to build strong, environmental values among the next generation of leaders.

World Trade University.

This mechanism committed to effective oceans governance is designed to support the Law of the Sea Convention and its various instruments as well as various provisions of Agenda 21 with particular reference to chapter 17.

He has been associated with the Institute since its founding more than 20 years ago and for the last four years has served as its director of training.

This latter program is designed to strengthen the skills and enhance the capacity of the ocean professionals especially from the developing countries. It has been an immensely successful programs with a strong alumnae base and is currently experimenting will innovative ways to get local populations more heavily involved in the governance challenge particularly those who live in coastal villages and are likely to be most directly affected by ocean degradation and the non sustainable use of its resources.

The International Oceans Institute with its commitment to strengthening the mechanisms for the implementation of the Law of the Sea Convention has been perhaps the most effective support system of the United Nations in the field. At a time when there is likely to be increasing pressure on the oceans and its resources the importance of the Convention could hardly be exaggerate and the work of the Institute would seem more critical than ever.

State of the Earth Reports from Space.

In this age of image and advancing technologies of visual immediacy and connectedness, he maintains that space technology should be more effectively deployed in providing humanity with more defInitive readings of the earth's vital signs.

To this end, he is pioneering an effort to produce the fIrst broadcast of the state of the earth from space. Through such an initiative world leaders would be able to see more clearly significant changes in the environment in the decade since the Earth Summit held at Rio in 1992 and thereby develop a better since of urgency in the areas in which the priority action is called for.