Central America
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4,27MB - 52 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.
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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.
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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.
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In October of 1994, UNEP and GS/OAS signed an Agreement in
which both organizations agreed to support Costa Rica and Nicaragua the two
countries in carrying out this Project. The project's main objectives
were defined as those relating to human development and the preservation of
natural resources and ecosystems. The following aspects were given priority: (a)Management and preservation of shared basins and water
resources; (b)Management of protected areas and preservation of biodiversity; (c) Incentives for the development of sustainable economic activities; (d) Overcoming the population's conditions of poverty, and attention to
indigenous groups; and (e) Institutional strengthening and legislation which would reconcile key
issues at the border and Central American level.
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334 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.
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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.
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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.
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580 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.
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