Global Compact International Yearbook Ausgabe 2010

Agenda
News Around The World
country’s nature and biodiversity, the center is focused on
the relationship between conservation and commerce. One
example for this is the Kiwi Encounter in Rotorua: The kiwi
is a bird native to New Zealand and a national symbol. The
Kiwi Encounter started as a conservation program for hatching
kiwi eggs and raising the birds to release them back into
nature when they became strong enough. In the meantime,
the Kiwi Encounter has become a tourism attraction: It is
completely based on kiwi conservation land so that visitors
get an impression of the efforts to stop the extinction of the
bird. All proceeds are used to continue this conservation work.
In New Zealand the DoC is responsible for considering and
granting permissions for those types of activities. Another
example is the decision of the DoC to allow a refreshments
stall at Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel. The operator of
this stall has a short-term permit to offer sandwiches and cold
drinks. The condition is that he has to clean up the rubbish
on the beach each day. Morrison is certain about the positive
effects of such measures: “Such commercial activity on public
conservation land strengthens the protection of conservation
values in practical ways.”
Malaysian companies rely increasingly on CSR in their
management.
Award. Companies and individuals receive this recognition for
special CSR contributions in the fields of environment, education,
community involvement, culture or working conditions.
Then there is the StarBiz-ICR Malaysia Corporate Responsibility
Award, which aims to encourage conscious business methods
and CSR activities. Bursa Malaysia is currently planning to
introduce an Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Index
that would list and rate companies according to their CSR
activities. This way the ESG Index could serve as an indicator
for new investors, among other things.
CSR-Management
New Zealand Links Conservation and Commerce
“Without commercial activities, nobody would get the chance to
enjoy our unique outdoor spaces,” says Al Morrison, directorgeneral
of the Department of Conservation (DoC). The DoC is
a state sector organization that deals with the conservation
of New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage. To cover the
Human Rights
Google vs. China
China has long been known for its strict Internet censorship:
social networks such as Facebook have been blocked in order
to prevent the swift spread of information. Various pages
critical of China are also inaccessible, and searches for certain
key words will render a connection useless. Even so, Internet
users in China can read the New York Times, visit games and
entertainment web sites, and download illegal software. On
the one hand, China aims to limit freedom of expression; on
the other, it wants to provide sufficient space for economic
development. Google would not submit to such an approach:
the Internet company decided to re-route all web queries from
China to an uncensored search engine in Hong Kong and
cited earlier hacker attacks on Google’s mail server as an additional
reason for doing so; the firm intimated that there was
a Chinese government connection. China denied involvement,
but Google’s Hong Kong workaround is no longer preventing
Chinese censorship: firewalls in the country now prevent
the retrieval of undesired information from outside China.
Yet Dirk Pleiter, a China expert with Amnesty International,
says that Google did the right thing: “Action by a company
as economically significant as Google puts pressure on the
Chinese government to allow more freedom.” According to
Pleiter, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are also
of central importance in protecting other human rights, since
it is because of these freedoms that human rights violations
and other abuses can be made public.
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