United Nations, New York, 3 June 2011 -- Potentially irreversible environmental changes threaten the progress that has brought hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, stressing the need for policy-makers to do more to preserve and strengthen the planet's natural resources, particularly its forests.

In a message marking World Environment Day, which falls on 5 June each year, the Secretary-General noted that in the past two decades "hundreds of millions of people in Asia, Latin America -- and, increasingly, in Africa -- have risen from poverty. Yet, evidence is also accumulating of profound and potentially irreversible changes in the ability of the planet to sustain our progress."