f Sustainable Development Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives Based on the Regional Consultative Meeting on Sustainable Development 19-21 January 2000, Santiago, Chile Sponsored by: Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, The Organization of American States United Nations Development Programme The Inter-American Development Bank ECLAC 900041950 900041950 - BIBLIOTECA CEPAL Sustainable Development: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives ii Contents Foreword ................. vii Abbreviations ......................................................... xiii Final Report Conclusions and Recommendations of the Regional Consultative Meeting on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean ..................... 1 Section I Country Experiences in Implementing National Sustainable Development Strategies ..................................................................... 29 An Assessment of Antigua and Barbuda’s Sustainable Development Strategies .................................. 31 Preliminary Evaluation of the Implementation of Bolivia’s National Strategy for Sustainable Development..................................................... 45 Sustainable Development Strategies and Related Activities Currently in Place in Brazil ............................ 59 Chilean Government's Report on Sustainable Development .................................................. 71 Cuba in Search of Sustainable Development ............... 89 The Dominican Republic and Sustainable Development .................................................. 107 Environmental Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Ecuador ........................ 119 Assessment of Sustainable Development Strategies—Jamaica .............................................................. 143 iii Sustainable Development: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives Report of Mexico on Sustainable Development ................................................ 155 Development and Implementation of Sustainable Development Strategies in Saint Lucia ....................................................................... 169 Section II Role of IGOs and NGOs in Promoting Regional/Subregional Cooperation in Sustainable Development ..................................... 187 Sustainable Development and Much More—ALIDES ...................................................... 189 C A R IC A D ’s Role in Promoting Regional and Subregional Cooperation in Sustainable Development ............................................. 227 Sustainable Development Programme of the Caribbean Community—CARICOM ............... 239 Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development in the Amazonian Basin—COICA ............................................ 253 Experience of IUCN-South America in the Implementation of Sustainable Development Strategies .............................. 261 Strengthening of Regional and Subregional Cooperation in Sustainable Development—UNEP ................................ 271 The Role of the World Bank in Promoting Regional Cooperation in Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean ................................. 287 Annex List of Participants .............................................................. 299 iv Foreword Much has been achieved in the Latin American and Caribbean region since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Notwithstanding the serious problems the region still faces, and the urgency of dealing with them, important progress has been made in the area of sustainable development. The level of public awareness has increased markedly, and sustainable development issues have moved from being the concern of the few to being topics of broad public discussion. However, sustainable development is not achieved overnight. In an increasingly globalized world, all countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region are subject to a variety of external, political and economic influences, carried through investment, trade, external debt, technology transfer, development assistance and other factors. Continued economic and social development and institutional reform, however, should make the prospects for achieving sustainable development an achievable goal. In the past decade, awareness of the environmental aspects of development and the related concept of sustain­ able development has gradually penetrated public policy and some economic and social practices in countries in the region. This has been reflected in the development of institutions, strategies and policies. Almost all countries of the region have established a high-level institution, at the ministerial level, to deal with environment and sustainable Sustainable Development: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives development. In addition, the global conventions have also generated a series of important institutional changes and innovative mechanisms for international cooperation. In this regard, the region has strengthened and/or created a set of regional and subregional processes and mechanisms for cooperation, including: • The Programme of Action for Small Island Developing States; • The Alliance for Sustainable Development in Central America (ALIDES); • Mercosur (Southern Zone Common Market); • The Andean Community of Nations; and • The Forum of Ministers of the Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean. However, the region still confronts a number of important challenges, such as: • The principles of environmental protection and sustainable development continue to be viewed by most of the produc- tion sectors and a significant number of government economic sectors as external interference that hinders development. • The economic policies of the energy, agricultural, industrial and urban development sectors, which lead to conflicting environmental practices, call for a review of policies and instruments of environmental management. • Liberal trade policies in the region and the increase in foreign direct investment (FD1) have altered the course of development, the export profile and, with it, the environ- ment as well. Insofar as the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are seeking more and better international trade links, their pattern of production specialization in resource-intensive branches places the region in a more vulnerable situation in terms of the environmental demands. Foreword In response to these challenges, a regional agenda is emerging particularly under the supervision of the Forum of Ministers of the Environment and, hence, the priority tasks identified for implementation in the following years in conjunction by different bodies of the United Nations system are as follows: • to carry out periodic evaluations of sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to determine sustainable development patterns in the region, integrating environment into economic and social decision-making; • to modernize public policy and consolidate institutions and instruments in order to create synergies between the different environmental conventions and regional and subregional institutional settings; • to harmonize and articulate strategic areas of economic development with social and environmental dimensions; • to redefine the region's comparative advantages on the basis of the global environmental agenda; • to promote the effective participation of other stakeholders; and • to strengthen cooperation between the United Nations programmes, funds and specialized agencies operating in Latin America and the Caribbean in the area of sustainable development. vii Sustainable Development: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives The 1997 Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed the fundamental role of Agenda 21 as a basis for achieving sustainable develop­ ment. It stressed that sustainable development objectives require the integration of economic, environmental, institu­ tional and social components and cannot be carried out without greater integration at all policy-making and operational levels. Additionally, the importance of regional implementation and regional cooperation in the implemen­ tation of Agenda 21 was stressed. This publication is a result of a Regional Consultative Meeting on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean held at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile, 19—21 January 2000. The partners in the organization of this meeting were ECLAC, the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Inter-American Development Bank(IADB). Fifty-four participants, representing governments from the region at the senior policy-making level, regional and subregional intergovernmental organizations, financial institutions, key United Nations regional entities and selected non-governmental organizations active in the region, attended the meeting. The meeting proved to be an excellent forum for exchange of experiences in the area of national strategies and regional/subregional cooperation in Foreword sustainable development. It proposed mechanisms for more effective interagency coordination, taking into consideration the complexities of economic globalization. This exchange of experiences has been instrumental in building momentum for the ten-year review of UNCED in 2002. It is the objective of the organizers