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PUBLICATIONS
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The
document summarizes the objectives, methodological approach, and principal
conclusions and recommendations of the binational plans, programs, and
projects being executed by the Amazonian countries with the cooperation of
the General Secretariat of the OAS. The general purpose of the border
plans and programs is to create conditions for sustainable development.
The plans also seek to explore the development potential of the border
areas in terms of population, ecosystems, and natural resources, with a
view to incorporating these areas into the countries' economies. They are
intended not only to deal with the specific problems of each border area,
but also to serve as models for extending environmentally sound
development planning to other parts of the Amazon region.
851Kb - 42 pages
In
April of 1988, the Presidents of Colombia and Peru met in the town of San
Antonio, on the Amazon River, and signed a Joint Declaration agreeing to a
Bilateral Action Plan to carry out the Plan for the Integral Development
of the Putumayo River Basin, to be executed within the framework of the
Joint Committee for the Colombian-Peruvian Amazon Cooperation Treaty.
Their ministries of foreign affairs were asked to jointly negotiate
financial support from international organizations, especially the
Organization of American States. The first meeting of the Joint Committee
took place in August 1988 in Leticia, Colombia, capital of Amazonas
Department. In this meeting, the terms of reference for the drafting of
the Plan for the Integral Development of the Putumayo River Basin (PPCP)
were approved.
563Kb - 12 pages
This book
is a next step in the ongoing characterization of sustainable development.
It is a set of conclusions drawn from case descriptions and methods that
look at the "why" and "how" of the new regional planning. Chapters 1, 2, 3
and 4 make the case for the importance of both wild and cultured
biodiversity; Chapters 5, 6 and 7 give instructions on how attention can
be given to special parts of the overall effort; Chapter 8 links the topic
to the recently ratified Convention on Biological Diversity; and
Chapters 9, 10 and 11 discuss experiences from the well-known cases of La
Amistad International Park in Costa Rica and Panama, the Greater
Yellowstone Coalition in the United States, and CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe as
they fit into the parameters of the new regional planning.
744Kb - 117 pages
After seven
years of field work it is now possible to prepare this synthesis of OAS
experience with natural hazards. The material comes with a broad set of
objectives, a reflection of the breadth of the issues involved in hazard
mitigation. At the policy level, it is hoped that national planning
ministries, development agencies, and international financing institutions
will be encouraged to systematically include analyses of natural hazards
in their economic development programs.
2,054Kb - 141 pages
In 1986,
the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras concluded a
technical cooperation agreement known as the Trifinio Plan with the
General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (GS/OAS) and
the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). The
unique characteristics of the Plan area led the authorities of the three
countries to protect part of it by establishing in 1987 the La
Fraternidad Biosphere Reserve, comprising the Montecristo cloud forest
(the Reserves' nucleus) and a surrounding buffer zone suitable primarily
for forestry. As soon as the Plan was presented, in 1988, the countries
began the dissemination and negotiation processes essential to its
implementation. Through successive documents of understanding among the
parties, the agreement has been extended to the present.
The
Trifinio Plan consisted of a socioeconomic assessment and a strategy for
regional development, based on a set of 29 trinational development
projects and numerous national projects presented at the profile level.
Among the elements shaping the strategy is the need for actions in the
energy sector. This sector is closely related to environmental
deterioration because of deforestation caused by the heavy demand for fuel
wood. It was therefore considered necessary to promote activities to
increase the energy supply through reforestation and to reduce household
energy consumption with better-designed stoves that would use less
firewood.
411Kb - 42 pages
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This
document is the result of nearly two years of work by the staff of the
Program of Regional Development, Argentine coworkers, and several
international consultants (Appendix A). Every effort has been made to
make the content and prose applicable to the needs of project directors
and field staff working in the planning of river basin development.
Consequently, scientific and specialized terminology have been kept to a
minimum and the recommendations have been made in full consideration of
the realities of developing countries. The document has been purposefully
kept short to give it the character of a guidebook rather than that of an
exhaustive treatise on the subject of environment and development.
Although
the methodology has been designed to guide the early planning stages of
river basin development in semiarid regions of the developing world, much
of it is applicable to regional and sectoral planning efforts in the more
humid regions. Similarly, it should find use as a text and reference
material in those training centers and institutions that relate to
development planning.
1,100Kb - 95 pages
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Evaluation of the Potential Industrial Environmental Impacts of the FTAA
Brazil Case Study
This assessment
focused on the industrial sector and indicated that the main environmental
changes with the possible implementation of FTAA could include water
contamination and detriment in air quality due to outdoor air pollution.
However, the assessment highlights that those industries that could affect
air quality in Brazil use environmentally friendly technologies in order
to meet sustainability and market access requirements of the export
markets. Additionally, this assessment examines the Brazilian
legal-institutional frameworks and the internalization of environmental
cost by industry, concluding that these costs do not affect
competitiveness. Finally, this assessment includes some recommendations
for regulating entities in terms of promoting efficiency and
competitiveness of the Brazilian industrial sector.
314.16KB - 49
pages
Sustainable
tourism development requires that projects be financially independent and
profitable. The profits should feed back into local economies. However, as
national governments, site and service owners, borrowers, and lenders all
recognize, there has been a lack of specific policies to guide the growth
of nature and heritage tourism-and in particular, its financing. This is
one of the areas singled out for consideration by the Caribbean
Development Bank, which is coordinating efforts to examine the issues
concerning tourism in the region in general. Since this kind of tourism
has long been of interest to the Organization of American States, for its
double potential of contributing to national economic development and to
environmental protection, the OAS was happy to respond to a request to
undertake this part of the overall study and commissioned the
Inter-American Investment Corporation to collaborate. As the
private-sector financing arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, the
IIC provided valuable input from the perspective of entrepreneurs.
269Kb - 65 pages
This
document presents information on the vulnerability of road segments on the
Pan American Highway and when available, information on its alternate or
complementary corridors in Central America. The document also contains
information about the vulnerability of each section of the Pan American
Highway, the natural hazards to which it is prone, the length of each
vulnerable road segment, the lists of vulnerability reduction measures
taken, and the history of disasters it has suffered (where information was
available).
This
information is based on Central American vulnerability profile studies
carried out by technical teams from the Central American countries and
with international coordination by the DSD. The DSD has coordinated these
efforts and has been working on the development of vulnerability studies
since March 2000.
The
matrices are available for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Panama. In order to receive a copy, please contact the
respective Ministries or OAS/DSD Natural hazards Project
natural-hazards-project@oas.org.
249Kb - 51 pages
The paper
proposes specific institutional measures to foster a more active
partnership between the World Bank Socially and Environmentally
Sustainable Development Sector Management Unit (IBRD/LCSES) and the Office
for Sustainable Development and Environment of the OAS (OAS/DSD), key
international NGOs, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It explores
the constraints to collaboration, analyzes trends in development
assistance, and sketches a general framework for strengthening levels of
collaboration among technical assistance and donor organizations active in
natural resource management issues in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Biodiversity, water resources, and disaster reduction proposals and
projects are suggested as examples of how an improved collaborative
framework between the Bank, the OAS, and cooperating institutions can be
implemented. Improving the climate for donor coordination is in the best
interest of both client nations and the assistance community.
111Kb - 37 pages
This
document was prepared by the Department to help identify the major
constraints and opportunities to further the use of natural hazard
information during the investment project formulation process, focusing on
development assistance agencies. It describes their roles, procedures,
structure, and influence, and presents a strategy for promoting natural
hazard assessment and mitigation in investment projects. Also included is
a list of issues for discussion by CIDIE members to assist each member in
defining future actions it might undertake.
98Kb - 20 pages
While
today's low oil prices have reduced the sense of urgency surrounding
energy issues, most development practitioners realize that the current
calm is neither the end of energy problems in developing countries nor are
these low prices likely to continue indefinitely. Instead, it is the ideal
time to reflect on recent experiences, evaluating both successes and
failures with an eye toward preparing for the future.
This
document is intended for development and energy planners in the OAS member
states, international agencies and elsewhere. We hope that the lessons
which the Department of Regional Development (DRD) has learned through
programs in integrated energy development can be beneficial to others.
244Kb - 45 pages
A critical
problem facing agricultural development in the Eastern Caribbean is the
acute scarcity of arable land. Concentrated ownership of best lands
compounds this scarcity. The majority of the rural population is left to
farm small holdings on unsuitable hillsides. In turn, this intensive
cultivation of hillsides triggers a complex process of soil erosion and
environmental degradation of entire watersheds. Isolated soil-conservation
efforts have at best been palliative. The roots of the problem remain in
land scarcity.
This
volume, designed as a follow-up to the original report, addresses the
Morne Panache Pilot Project, the LRTP, and the Mabouya Valley Development
Project. Together, the results of these projects illustrate the importance
of an integrated approach to land issues, an approach that deals not only
with the consequences of problems, but also with causes. The Department of
Regional Development and Environment at the OAS is pleased to have
cooperated with the Government of St. Lucia in this effort and believes
that the following account may be helpful to other governments faced with
similar development challenges.
1,102Kb - 66 pages
Reviewing
20 years of experience with integrated regional development planning is a
humbling exercise. Mistakes and failed plans stand out clearly with the
perspective of time, but so do the occasional successfully implemented
projects that flowed from the plans. Less obvious but perhaps equally
satisfying are the mistakes avoided because of the plans. DRD draws here
exclusively on its own field experience in Latin America, leaving it to
other technical assistance agencies to catalog theirs. Accordingly, the
emphasis in this book is on the development of natural resources, energy,
infrastructure, agriculture, industry, human settlements, and social
services. In these accounts, we believe, are information and ideas of use
to developing-country governments from the local to the national levels,
sectoral agencies, river basin authorities, regional development
corporations, other technical assistance groups, and - most of all - field
study managers.
6,637Kb - 313 pages
The
governments of the Western Hemisphere recognize that sustainable
development depends on the availability of potable water, the prevention
of pollution, the protection of aquatic ecosystems, international
cooperation, the involvement and participation of users in planning and
decision making, and the promotion of integrated management of this
resource. To promote the sustainable development of water resources, the
governments have adopted initiatives 47 to 58 related to water resources
and coastal areas of the Action Plan for the Sustainable Development of
the Americas, which was prepared during the Summit on Sustainable
Development in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, 1996 (Table 1).
The
Workshop on Integrated Water Resources Management in Mesoamerica took
place in Panama City on October 20 to 22, 1997. The objective of the
workshop was to obtain cooperation, understanding, and agreement between
policy- and decision-makers and scientists on issues related to
water-resources management in Mesoamerica.
This
workshop report contains an evaluation of the degree to which countries
have implemented each of the initiatives that were approved and adopted by
the governments of the region. It lists national and international
meetings on integrated water-resources management that have taken place or
will be organized in the near future to discuss similar initiatives and
recommends a set of future activities.
769Kb - 121 pages (Spanish)
The
formulation of this innovative strategy is a prompt response to a mandate
entrusted to the OAS by the 1996 Bolivia Summit Conference on Sustainable
Development. For almost three years, the DSD led an open and
participatory process to give shape to the ISP, working with public sector
and civil society organizations in the 34 member states in conducting
technical studies, seminars, and extensive consultations. This broad
consultation process gave governments, civil society organizations, and
other stakeholders in the Americas the opportunity to exchange ideas and
opinions regarding the recommendations and principles to be taken into
account in the design, implementation, and evaluation of participatory
projects, policies, or programs. As a result, the ISP contains principles
and policy recommendations aimed at achieving greater involvement of all
sectors of society in the making of decisions on sustainable development
and environment.
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