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1. Protecting the Environment While Opening Markets in the Americas

Author:
William Krist
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
Market Access Negotiations are a major element of the efforts to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2020. If successful, these negotiations will remove all tariff and nontariff barriers to trade among the 34 participating countries on all nonagricultural products, including forest and mining products, fish, and manufactured goods.
Topic:
Development, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America

2. Evolution of Coastal Management in Panama

Author:
Daniel Suman
Publication Date:
09-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
A window of opportunity for integrated coastal management (ICM) may exist in Panama as the new century begins. Panama emerged from a period of political instability in the 1990s and began the new century with full political control over its most important resource – the Panama Canal. A major institutional reorganization in the late 1990s merged a number of agencies with authority in the coastal and marine areas into the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) and expanded the responsibilities of the marine resource directorate to include marine and coastal resources. This reorganization occurred with the adoption of new legislation that clearly recognizes the importance of ICM. Concurrent with the formation of the Maritime Authority, the Legislature of Panama passed the General Environmental Law and created the National Environment Authority (ANAM). Despite these positive developments, institutional change has been slow. Sectoral management of coastal resources continues. Interagency coordination remains deficient, and no formal coastal coordination mechanism exists. Legislation is contradictory and confusing, and the new laws only add to the confusion. As coastal environmental quality continues to degrade and conflicts between sectors increase, the AMP's marine and coastal directorate must strengthen its institutional role and take the initiative in the development of a meaningful ICM effort in Panama. This manuscript analyzes the evolution of Panamanian institutions and legal frameworks related to coastal areas and highlights themes that are ripe for future action.
Topic:
Environment and Government

3. Caribbean Tourism: Igniting the Engines of Sustainable Growth

Author:
Anthony T. Bryan
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
Tourism drives economic growth in ways that make it one of the best engines for job creation and development for poor countries that possess natural beauty and relevant infrastructure. The industry is highly labor intensive and encourages entrepreneurship. Under its ambit, property owners, restaurants, and local suppliers of goods and services, among others, develop the habits of risk taking without which no economy can realize its full potential. Tourism holds out the prospect of a better life for those stakeholders who make money from it. Not unlike trade, it improves an economy's competitiveness. Trade does so because it stimulates local suppliers to match the quality and variety of imported goods. Tourism does so because returning travelers to a destination demand the goods and services they have seen in other countries (Elliott 2001).
Topic:
Development, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, and Caribbean

4. Geography, Markets, Resources, and Development: The Assets of the Americas Revisited

Author:
L. Ronald Scheman
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
In May 1996, the price of copper crashed from US$2,600 to $1,775 per ton. The Sumitomo Corporation of Japan acknowledged unprecedented losses of $2.6 billion from unauthorized trading by its chief copper trader, one of the faceless manipulators of the international commodities markets, Yasuo Hamanaka. Among the major banks caught in this modern variation of the Ponzi scheme were J.P. Morgan and the London Metal Exchange. Chile, whose economy was highly dependent on income from the commodity, was quickly and painfully reminded that the highly leveraged markets on which it depended, even in the hands of the most reputable institutions, are fragile and subject to unexpected forces beyond its control. Copper prices began a downward spiral, and they have not yet recovered.
Topic:
Development, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Caribbean

5. Lessons on Sustainable Development from Costa Rica's Forests

Author:
Eduardo Silva
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
Costa Rica enjoys a reputation as a peaceful, democratic, and equitable Central American country with a strong commitment to nature protection. Government environmentalism began with a focus on nature preservation during the administration of Daniel Odúber (1974-1978), the presidential father of the national parks system. Under President Oscar Árias (1986-1990), Costa Rica's leaders became aware that responses to the problems of environmental protection versus development required more than the creation of national parks. Since then, they have worked tirelessly to weave the norms and principles of the concept of sustainable development into their nation's policies and institutional framework. Costa Rica's institutional and programmatic innovations have turned it into a laboratory for sustainable development, especially with respect to the forest. It is seen as a leader and pioneer in community forestry, bioprospecting, green taxes, carbon emissions trading, and administrative decentralization in the management of protected areas. As occurs with all trailblazers, Costa Rica's efforts to implement a policy of sustainable development raise a number of questions. What trade-offs have the forest and biodiversity conservation policies of the 1990s generated with respect to the different components of sustainable development? Are the measures adopted likely to be successful? How were those policy choices made? By what means can the components of sustainable development that have been neglected be incorporated, especially those related to livelihood? This paper will address these questions
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Environment
Political Geography:
Central America

6. Thinking About Environmental Security: Southeast Asia and the Americas in Comparative Perspective

Author:
Frank McNeil and Joseph Stark
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
This paper is styled a “work-in-progress” with good reason. It is the latest, not entirely ripe fruit of a North-South Center project, the “commonalities” study, about the shared challenges facing the developing nations of Latin America and the Caribbean and the developing nations of Asia, particularly those of Southeast Asia. These views have taken their shape, over more than three years, from the authors' reflections about their extensive interviews in both regions with policy “influentials” and knowledgeable academics, as well as through participation in occasional conferences.
Topic:
Security and Environment
Political Geography:
America, Latin America, Caribbean, and Southeast Asia

7. Institutional Challenges and Opportunities in Environmentally Sound Trade Expansion: A Review of the Global State of Affairs

Author:
Aaron Cosbey
Publication Date:
04-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
This paper surveys some of the key trade-sustainable development issues likely to be addressed in the coming years at the multilateral level that may have implications for the Americas. The study looks further to opportunities and threats at the domestic level and recommends a number of ways in which sustainable development might be advanced, striving to achieve environmental improvement and improved development prospects North and South. Whether in the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), or other similar forums, these are the types of solutions that will pass the acid test of political acceptability.
Topic:
Environment, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
America

8. Making Sense of Environmental Security

Author:
Frank McNeil
Publication Date:
02-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
The concept of environmental security—even after more than two decades of discussion—has no widely agreed-upon formulation. However, in the metaphor used by environmentalists, environmental security can be a “canary in the mine,” signaling conflicts within nations and across borders. While environmental insults may foster violence, conflicts short of war also impose high costs, wreaking damage to economies, to societal stability, to the effectiveness of political institutions, and to international cooperation. Recent examples of such conflicts and their costs can be seen in locales as diverse as the Western Hemisphere and Southeast Asia (for example, in Guatemala, the Philippines, Colombia, Indonesia, and Nicaragua's maritime and riparian disputes with Honduras and Costa Rica).
Topic:
Security, Development, Environment, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Central America and Caribbean

9. The Implementation of Agenda 21 in Latin America, 1992-1997

Author:
Gisela Salomón
Publication Date:
03-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
In June 1992, 172 governments meeting at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, agreed to work together to promote sustainable development. Five years later, in 1997, environmental problems continued to deteriorate. In this article, Gisela Salomón analyzes the difficulties faced by Latin American countries in implementing Agenda 21 and points to areas where progress has been made in sustainable development. The author expresses the need for governments to strengthen their political will to implement environmental strategies and to consider not only the economic aspects of development but social and ecological as well, emphasizing the importance of conscience-building, especially through education.
Topic:
Development and Environment
Political Geography:
Latin America