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PUBLICATIONS
The Unit
for Sustainable Development of the Organization of American States (OAS/DSD)
has had an active role in vulnerability reduction to natural hazards and
has been supporting disaster reduction activities related to the
transportation sector. Prior to Hurricane Mitch the OAS/DSD approached the
Central American Secretariat for Economic Integration (SIECA) and COMITRAN
on the need to begin a systematic evaluation of the Pan American Highway
to natural hazards.
Following that disastrous event, and as part of the U.S. Government’s
interagency support of reconstruction activities in the affected
countries, which are coordinated by the USAID, the OAS/DSD approached the
U.S, Department of Transportation (USDOT) for financial support studies on
the disaster reduction of the Central America transportation sector. One
component of those studies is a the preparation of a document to identify
existing and potential mechanisms for mutual assistance in case of damage
to infrastructure and vulnerability reduction of the transportation sector
in Central America. This study also forms part of USDOT’s support of the
implementation of the Western Hemisphere Transportation Initiative (WHTI)
through is action plan adopted at the WHTI meeting in New Orleans,
Louisiana in December 1998.
287Kb - 580 pages
Minimum
Conflict: Guidelines for Planning the Use of American Humid Tropic
Environments represents the Phase I report of the OAS/UNEP/Government
of Peru sponsored project: "Case Study of Environmental Management:
Integrated Development of An Area in the Humid Tropics - The Selva Central
of Peru." To a large degree this effort is a follow-up of the OAS/UNEP/Government
of Argentina study of the Upper Bermejo River Basin of Argentina in
1975-1977 which sought to develop a planning methodology for river basins
in semiarid areas. The results of this early study were published in 1978
as a small book, Environmental Quality and River Basin Development: A
Model for Integrated Analysis and Planning. Both of these studies have
their basis in Resolution 61 of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment Action Plan, which requests that research be undertaken
to design practical planning methodologies for distinct categories of
development activity in specific individual biomes and which would include
"concern for the environment" as an integral part of development planning.
3,375Kb - 283 pages
In recent
years, a fundamental change has taken place in the way national
governments and the international community measure and think about
countries' economic performance. Leading economists now agree that
national income accounting should treat natural resources as it does other
tangible economic assets. Standard-setting agencies, such as the United
Nations Statistical Office, have formulated new methodological guidelines.
More and more industrialized and developing countries are constructing
revised resource and environmental accounts in order to make them more
relevant to sound environmental management and sustainable development. In
our own hemisphere, while Canada and the United States have taken the lead
in this initiative, other countries are also taking steps to initiate the
process of revision.
In serving
as host of the seminar reported on in this document, the OAS is pleased to
have provided, through a joint effort with the World Resources Institute,
a pioneering hemispheric forum for discussion of the issues arising from
its member countries' new and incipient accounting experiences.
383Kb - 56 pages
The study
presented here forms part of the series entitled Trends for a Common
Future, which shall explore the current state of cooperation in our
region in each of CIDI's priority areas. The studies present, among other
things, historical backgrounds, current situations, sectoral analyses and
challenges to be faced in the new millenium.
211Kb - 50 pages
2,802Kb - 148 pages
Grenada is
in the process of better defining its land use policy. The national parks
and protected areas program is an important step towards viewing the
finite resource of land in a multiple use context. Grenada's actions in
the protection of the upper watersheds and important ecosystems, promotion
of cultural and natural attractions, and the development of educational
and tourism programs are noteworthy in this respect.
The
methodology for the establishment and management of a system of national
parks and protected areas was developed by a team of national and
international specialists working together under the direction of the
Ministry of Agriculture. The inventory of the natural and cultural
resource base relied on an interdisciplinary team made up of fisheries,
forestry, land use, extension, and physical planning personnel as well as
first-hand information of local hikers, naturalists and historians.
In
conjunction with this report, and as part of the Government of Grenada/OAS
Integrated Development Project, land policy and infrastructure development
guidelines have also been defined. A zoning map has been generated to
identify productive agricultural and grazing lands, especially in the
southeast section of the island of Grenada where development pressures are
most intense. The goal of these efforts is to protect and develop the
natural resources of Grenada and Carriacou.
2,807Kb - 144 pages
Following
the El Niño occurrence of 1982-83, the member states of the Organization
of American States (OAS) expressed the need for technical cooperation in
natural hazard management. In response, the Department of Regional
Development and Environment (DRDE) initiated the Natural Hazard Project
with support from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the
U.S. Agency for International Development (AID).
The need
for this book became clear through field work and discussions with
planning agency counterparts and representatives of other development
assistance agencies. Great strides were made in the past two decades in
emergency preparedness and response, but up to now insufficient attention
has been paid to reducing the vulnerability of existing and planned
development. After seven years of field work, it is now possible to
prepare this synthesis of OAS experience with this neglected subject.
7,700Kb - 520 pages
In
concurrence with the objectives, policies and strategies specified in each
country's Amazonian Development Plan, the overall PPCP goals can be
summarized as follows: (a) To promote the harmonious and sustained
development of the area; (b) To integrate the area with the rest of the
territory by constructing roads and other transportation facilities and
establishing communication links, as well as through political, cultural,
social and economic inter-action; (c) To improve the population's standard
of living; (d) To concentrate, in the native communities, on substantially
improving the handling of territorial issues, and the provision of basic
social and health services, including the conservation of areas
traditionally inhabited by such communities while protecting the
fundamental rights of those communities, and, in particular, their social
and cultural integrity; (e) To promote research and the compilation of
information on the area.
2,611Kb - 580 pages
Regardless
of their size, their location, or the degree of development of the country
in which they are situated, river basins play an important role in the
economic life of their countries. This becomes even more important when
flood-caused losses of capital goods and production and service capacity,
especially in major economic sectors such as agriculture, energy, and
transportation are taken into account. It is the variability of water
resources and its effects on the socioeconomic infrastructure that make
the relationship between river-basin management and environmental
management so pertinent to sustainable development.
With the
support of the Secretariat of Water Resources of the Brazilian Ministry of
Environment, Water Resources, and Legal Amazonia, experts from these
economic sectors and specialists in the environment, planning, and flood
mitigation met in Foz do Iguaçu to deal with this topic. The conclusions
and recommendations of the Seminar-Workshop on Reduction of the
Vulnerability of the Agriculture, Energy, and Transportation Sectors to
Floods in River Basins are presented in this publication.
1,330Kb - 153 pages
An
undertaking that attempts to provide renewable energy policy guidance to
policy strategists who operate across a spectrum of national energy
systems inherently contains both the flaws and the strengths of
“universal” or general concepts. Readers are asked to apply broad
conceptual ideas in a specific national context. The authors have used
operative or normative words with the objective of describing concepts
neutrally - without implying conceptual bias. This objective is difficult
to achieve - especially for multi-language translations. When possible,
normative words are defined the first time they are used in the text.
680Kb - 141 pages
In the
context of the institutional arrangements set up in Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, Bolivia, the Secretary General of the Organization American States
was given the mandate to submit a report on progress attained in the
implementation of the initiatives of the Plan of Action on Sustainable
Development. The report, to be made available prior to the 1998 Summit of
the Americas, was intended as a follow-up on the commitments entered into
in Bolivia. This paper is in compliance with the coordinating and
follow-up roles entrusted to the OAS.
224Kb - 50 pages
The process
of decentralization in the Hemisphere is a response to the profound
changes that are occurring in contemporary societies, governmental
reforms, and the advance toward a global society. The object of this
decentralization is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the
public sector and of the central government in particular, while promoting
the participation of civil society in decision-making.
Environmental management is closely linked to this strengthening of the
basic structures of government and of the institutional mechanisms for
identifying, dealing with, and solving environmental conflicts and
bringing about the necessary participation of local communities.
The Seminar
whose results and conclusions appear in this publication was organized
jointly by the OAS and the Foundation for the Development of the
Midwestern Region (FUDECO) of Venezuela. Its purpose was to consider the
experiences of a number of countries in the region in solving a variety of
environmental problems through joint action by local governments and civil
society within the countries' own institutional frameworks and
environmental policies.
213Kb - 40 pages
The unique
land tenure problems inherited by Saint Lucia have represented a major
constraint for the development of the agricultural sector. They are one of
the most important factors preventing the farming community from
diversifying production and increasing productivity. Conscious of the
complexity of the problem, and cognizant of the far-reaching social and
economic impact that possible solutions could have, the Government of
Saint Lucia requested technical cooperation from the Organization of
American States. This cooperation had two objectives: to undertake the
studies required to design feasible technical alternatives and to identify
complementary actions capable of taking full advantage of the solution of
land tenure problems.
The present
report synthesizes the technical studies undertaken during 1981 by a team
of national and international specialists working with the Ministry of
Agriculture.
2,840 Kb - 235 pages
The
Source Book of Alternative Technologies for Freshwater Augmentation in
Latin America and the Caribbean was prepared by the Unit for
Sustainable Development and Environment of the General Secretariat of the
Organization of American States (OAS) as part of the joint United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) Water Branch and International Environmental
Technology Centre (IETC) initiative to provide water resource managers and
planners, especially in developing countries and in countries with
economies in transition, with information on the range of technologies
that have been developed and used in the various countries throughout the
world.
2,387Kb - 323 pages
On May 4,
1989, the Government of Uruguay and the Inter-American Development Bank
signed a technical cooperation agreement to finance a national study that
would help incorporate the environmental dimension into the development
process of Uruguay.
This
document synthesizes the findings of the study and provides an action plan
to implement the strategy, projects and programs that are based on these
findings. In summary, the study established that a formal environmental
policy was needed to meet the national objectives of improved quality of
life for the people of Uruguay.
433Kb - 39 pages
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