Wednesday, June 28 2006 11:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: Poverty-stricken Africa can make rapid strides if the region's wealth of natural resources are effectively and sustainably harnessed, a United Nations report says.

"The report challenges the myth that Africa is poor," UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said of the study, 'The Africa Environment Outlook'.

"Indeed, it points out that its vast natural wealth can, if sensitively, sustainably and creatively managed, be the basis for an African renaissance a renaissance that meets and goes beyond the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," he said.

"But if policies remain unchanged, political will found wanting and sufficient funding proves to be elusive, then Africa may take a far more unsustainable track that will see an erosion of its nature-based wealth and a slide into ever deeper poverty," he stressed.

Beyond home-grown issues like deforestation and water wastage, the report lays emphasis on dealing with imported challenges' ranging from genetically modified organisms and the costs of alien invasive species to a switch of chemical manufacturing from the developed to the developing world.

But on the positive side, it cites a wide range of international environment treaties to which many African countries are now parties as well as new cooperative agreements covering shared river and ecosystems like the Limpopo and the Congo basin's globally important forests.

Initiatives like the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) also promise to propel the region onto a more prosperous path that balances economic, social and environmental concerns.