Volume 30 Issue 1 Winter 1990 Winter 1990 Risk Perception in International River Basin Managemnt: The Plata Basin Example Jorge O. Trevin J. C. Day Recommended Citation Jorge O. Trevin & J. C. Day, Risk Perception in International River Basin Managemnt: The Plata Basin Example, 30 Nat. Resources J. 87 (1990). Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol30/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resources Journal by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]. JORGE 0. TREVIN* and J.C. DAY** Risk Perception in International River Basin Management: The Plata Basin Example*** ABSTRACT Perceptionof the risk of multilateralcooperation has affected joint internationalaction for the integrateddevelopment of the PlataRiver Basin. The originsof sovereignty concerns amongArgentina,Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay are explored in terms of their his- torical roots. The role of risk in determining the character of the PlataBasin Treaty, and the ways in which risk was managedin order to reach cooperative agreements, are analyzed. The treaty incor- porates a number of risk management devices that were necessary to achieve internationalcooperation. The institutional system im- plemented under the treaty producedfew concrete results for almost two decades. Within the currentfavorable political environment in the basin, however, the structure already in place reopens the pos- sibility of further rapid integrative steps. INTRODUCTION Joint water development actions among the five states sharing the Plata Basin-Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay-have been dominated by two factors: the enormous potential benefits of cooperation, and long-standing international rivalries.