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The Sixth World Congress on Environmental Management with the theme "Catalysing Public and Private Partnership for Social and Environmental Change" was organised by the World Environmental Foundation at Palampur during June 11-13, 2004. Over 300 policy makers, industrialists, business persons, service providers, entrepreneurs, representative of NGOs and environmentalists from India and aboard attended the conference. Representatives from International agencies like USAID also attended.

The congress received special messages from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the President of India, Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the Vice -President of India, Mr Shivraj V Patil, The Home Minister of India and Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh.

The President extended his warm greetings and felicitation to the organisers and participants and wished the congress all success. The Vice-President in his message stated that "Environment Management plays a critical role in addressing our key environmental concerns such as global warming, depletion as well as contamination of natural resource etc. through induction of environmental friendly policies and technologies in our development framework. Public -Private partnership would go a long way in generating awareness among people to promote sustainable development''. The Vice president further stated that the seminar offered an excellent opportunity to the participants to share their experience and knowledge, which would help in cleaning and protecting the environment. While sending his best wishes for the success of the seminar, Shri Shivraj V Patil, the Home Minister in his message stated that ''the role of business and industry as the prime mover of development has brought to the fore the need for synergising the trade policies with the concept of sustainable development. He stressed that the ''focus has to be on promoting sustainable development through appropriate trade policies and linkages. The environmental concerns have to be incorporated in the policy structure regarding trade as both are mutually complimentary. Good environmental policies can help secure gains from trade, just as trade policy that directs the appropriate use of natural resources can bring about environmental protection''. This he said was the basis of the recommendations of Agenda 21 that trade and environment, policies should be mutually supportive. Mr Patil expressed his confidence that the congress would enable the environmentalists, representatives of business and industry, the national and international bodies to deliberate upon the need to incorporate adoption of environmental friendly management systems by the industry and would pave the way for environmentally sustainable trade & development in the globalised economy.

Mr Virbhadra Singh, The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh while sending his good wishes for the success of the world congress in his message stated that ''Environmental safety has emerged as a top challenge before all Governments while moving ahead in covering any developmental activity. He informed that '' Himachal Pradesh has been blessed by the nature with bountiful of natural beauty which the State Government is committed to preserve. We are ensuring ecological balance while progressing ahead on the path of industrialization and encouraging setting up of eco-friendly industries in the State. Besides, the State would welcome vocational education institutions as par excellence and utilize the natural wealth for the promotion of tourism to the optimum with environmental security''. Mr Virbhadra Singh, expressed his confidence that the world fame environmentalists would also deliberate on possibilities of exploitation of natural wealth for gainful purposes without causing any environmental hazards.

Himachal Pradesh's Revenue Minister Mr. B.B.L. Butail while inaugurating the congress called upon policy planners to strike a balance between sustained development and ecological conservation. Stating that Himachal Pradesh had witnessed tremendous development during last three decades at the cost of ecological degradation, the Minister opined that restricting human dominance has to be the foremost feature of environmental management and development. Reiterating the state government's resolve to remove disparities between plains and hills as well as between different hill regions, Mr. Butail emphasized the need to overcome backlogs of negative environmental impacts of development works while planning for the future. He assured that the state government was keen for expeditious development of hydropower sector by encouraging private participants as it had signed 222 MoU's for projects up to 5MW with private investors.

Mr. Butail further informed that the Himachal Government had since banned the use of plastic bags in the state. It was the first major step by his government towards environmental protection. Besides this, he said that his government was also taking steps such as curbing the menace created by monkeys in the State, stopping illegal mining operations, stopping wondering of unclaimed cows etc. He caustioned that it was not only the efforts of the govt. alone to save the environment, in fact all citizens have to be made aware of their responsibilities to protect environment. Only with the joint efforts of people and the govt, the environmental balance can be maintained. Mr. Butail had to inaugurate the congress in place of Mr. Virbhadra Singh the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh who could not come due to something urgent cropping up at the last moment. Mr. Butail was greeted by Dr. Madhav Mehra, President WEF, UK and the President, World Council for Corporate Governance, UK, as well as others. Besides Mr. Butail & Dr. Mehra, the other distinguished persons on the dais were Lt. Gen J.S. Ahluwalia, PVSM (Retd.) & Director General WEF, General V.N. Sharma AVSM & Chief of Army Staff (Retd.), Dr. Tej Pratap, Vice-Chancellor, Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Mr. K.B. Ralhan, President of Palampur Environment Foundation & Mr. Harjit Singh, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Environment & Forests (Retd.) & Presently Hony. CEO of WEF.

Earlier, while welcoming the chief guest Mr. B.B.L. Butail, Revenue Minister Govt. of Himachal Pradesh & other distinguished guests & participants, Lt. Gen J.S. Ahluwalia informed that Palampur forms a part of the state that embodies what is best in environment, has abundant supply of natural resources, snow-clad mountains, thick forest green valleys and mountain fresh perennial rivers, thereby posing a challenge for their conservation, Mr. Ahluwalia minced no words in pointing out that the purpose of repeatedly holding the congress at Palampur was to probe the dilemma that why a state so full of natural resources happens to be one of India's poorest.

''The objective of selecting Palampur as the venue for the conference for the fourth time is to focus the world's attention on the need for development in Himachal Pradesh, to find a solution for the progressive deterioration of a local mountain environment and to provide networking platforms for partnership between government, public and private organizations to bring about the social and environmental changes," he said.

Dr. Madhav Mehra, President, World Environment Foundation, in his keynote address while focusing on the need for Total Eco-Effective Management (TEEM) to upgrade the environment, said: ''We all need to change our lifestyle to ensure buying or using products and service which use less material, consume less energy and have no toxicity". He further stated that the indiscriminate human activity has taken us to the edge of environmental chaos. "Business might have resulted in degradation, but it's business itself which can bring about improvement", he said. Dr. Mehra in his address also stressed the need for transparency in all actions and also urgency for all of us to be innovative in our approach.

Dr. Madhav Mehra, said that most environment related problems were manmade. The two major reasons for its degradation were misgovernance, subsidy to industries causing environmental degradation, no penalty on pollution and no incentive for services and business that save environment. Dr. Mehra added that "we have brought international people to this part of HP by holding successive World Environment Congress meets, but no investment has been made effective reportedly due to the indifferent attitude of the various governments which, till now, have failed to take any initiative in providing infrastructural facilities." He regretted that there was no airport nearby with regular flights. Bus journeys were too tedious. He regretted that only because of the lack of infrastructural facilities, several important dignitaries could not arrive due to last minute cancellation of flight to the nearest airport.

Having full knowledge of these constraints, Dr. Mehra explained as to why still Palampur was chosen as the venue for the World Congress , Dr. Mehra said, "It is the microcosm of the degradation of the environment. The objective was three -fold: to focus attention on the developmental needs of imachal, find solutions to the deterioration and to provide networking platforms for partnership between government, public and private organizations for environmental changes.

After keynote address of Dr. Mehra, Gen V.N. Sharma, Chief of Army Staff (Retd.) called upon all concerned to take steps to solve water scarcity and sanitation problems of the hilly areas in Palampur. He stressed the need to bring in the Army discipline in all the stake holders to take appropriate actions.

Later, Mr. K.B. Ralhan, President Palampur Welfare and Environment Protection Forum informed that the Forum was aiming to convert municipal organic waste of the town into organic manure in an effort to keep pollution levels down. According to Mr. K.B. Ralhan, major issue before Palampur and its surrounding area was the pollution of municipal organic waste, for which there was no clear -cut collection and disposal mechanism. This in turn was responsible for unhygienic surroundings in an otherwise beautiful town. The present population of 35,000 would touch a figure of 50,000 in a decade, and the quantity of waste generated would be 20 tonnes per day. Claiming that the forum has a large pool of gifted professionals, Mr. Ralhan called upon private partners and investors to join hands in a bid to conserve environment of the area.

Emphasising that municipal organic waste could be turned into organic manure with available technologies, thereby generating a source of essential nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, in addition to micronutrients as Zinc, copper, manganese and boron. The organic manure thus produced would improve the productivity of all kinds of crops being grown currently by farmers of the area. On one hand productivity would enhance while quality of life of the community would also improve claimed Mr. Ralhan.After all the distinguished guests on the dias had spoken, Mr. Harjit Singh proposed a vote of thanks. The inaugural session also included distribution of Golden Peacock Environment Management and Golden Peacock Eco- Innovation awards to various industries & distinguished persons. After the inaugural session, the technical sessions on various themes were taken up. Thirty two technical papers were presented in the congress.

After all the distinguished guests on the dias had spoken, Mr. Harjit Singh proposed a vote of thanks. The inaugural session also included distribution of Golden Peacock Environment Management and Golden Peacock Eco- Innovation awards to various industries & distinguished persons. After the inaugural session, the technical sessions on various themes were taken up. Thirty two technical papers were presented in the congress.

On the last day of the conference, in his concluding remarks, Dr. Madhav Mehra who presided over the valedictory function, stated that the issue was not environment or development. Our generation has a great challenge. While we owe it to our children to hand them back the earth as we inherited it, we also have a duty to feed the underfed, clothe the under-clad, look after their health, education and well –being, for which development of infrastructure is essential”, he added.

The conference felt that environment improvement needed a comprehensive, cohesive and transformational approach involving all stakeholders, government and business sector. It was recommended that WEF would establish local flora on the model of the Palampur Environment Forum in each district as part of the Partnership in Action for Sustainability (PIAS), which will coordinate with local businesses, government agencies and NGOs for environmental action. The congress was particularly concerned about the environment degradation and loss of biodiversity in the Dhauladhar range of Himachal Pradesh. The WEF will endeavor to scout for funding for environment protection and development of eco-tourism in Himachal Pradesh.

The Congress felt that an overriding reason why sustainable development has not captured the imagination of people and business is that there is little action on pricing the natural capital. Claims of saving environment sound hollow, if no economy value is accorded to natural capital.

The delegates also expressed concern over global issues like climate change, sustainable development, corporate governance and their significance to environment management in India including Himachal Pradesh, which according to the participants remains a classic case of poverty despite having biodiverse resources. It was also noted that sustainable development cannot take place without the proactive involvement of the masses and the creation of a buying for all stakeholders viz govt, business and society. Though the government has taken steps towards development, It was felt that these activities had a detrimental impact on the environment. The experts stressed the need to find appropriate solutions to environmental upgradation. The conference lauded the efforts of the Himachal government in taking steps to ban plastic, which has had varied degree of environment impact due to its non-biodegradable nature.

It also emphasized that development and environment should be complimentary rather than competitive. The need to evolve a strategy under which polluters are made to pay up was strongly felt. Pointing that poverty and population explosion were the root cause of environmental degradation. The congress opined that environmental strategies and planning should be done while keeping these factors in mind.

The participants called for following 18 pronged attempt to achieve the mission and made Palampur Blue print for action called Palampur Declaration –2004:-