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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.
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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