Inter-American Environmental Program

Since 1989, ELI’s Inter-American Environmental Program has played an important role in promoting sustainable development in the western hemisphere. Launched in partnership in 1989 by ELI and the Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN) of Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Inter-American Program now works with an extensive network of partners in the region to foster regional strategies and strengthen national capacity for promoting sustainable development.

In order to create a legal and institutional framework for protecting the western hemisphere’s environment, ELI’s Inter-American Program seeks to reach a broad constituency of legislators, enforcement officials, judges, community leaders, and private sector actors from across the region. The program focuses on four activities:

1. research and policy development;
2. capacity-building activities;
3. information exchange; and
4. an Inter-American Visiting Scholars Program.

Critical to the success of the Inter-American Program is the existence of cooperative partnerships between ELI and other western hemisphere environmental organizations. One example of this kind of collaboration is an initiative in partnership with the Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental and Oxfam America to help mining communities in the Andes develop their environmental and social agenda and identify tools, such as certification, for addressing these needs. Many of ELI’s projects engage several partners to conduct comparative analyses of national laws in order to develop regional approaches. In 2003 ELI produced Legal Tools for Private Lands Conservation in Latin America: Building Models of Success in cooperation with Fundação Boticario (Brazil), Protección del Medio Ambiente Tarija (PROMETA, Bolivia), Centro Ecuatoriano de Derecho Ambiental (CEDA, Ecuador), Centro de Derecho Ambiental y de Recursos Naturales (CEDARENA, Costa Rica), Comité Nacional Pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora (CODEFF, Chile), Pronatura, A.C. (Mexico) and Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA, Peru).

Support for the Inter-American Program is provided by a variety of private and public sources. Funding sources have included the Tinker Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, U.S. Department of State, United Nations Environment Programme, Ford Foundation, Global Environment Facility, Agnese N. Haury, Goldman Foundation, Catherine T. and John D. MacArthur Foundation, The Overbrook Foundation, John P. and Virginia B. Sall, Peter Bross, Marshall Field, Perkins Bass, U.S. Agency for International Development, International Development Research Centre, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, United Technologies, and the W. Alton Jones Foundation.

Inter-American Program Outline

Introduction

1. Land and Biodiversity
2. Advancing an Agenda for Pollution Prevention
3. Capacity-Building Initiatives
4. Promoting Public Participation
5. Information Exchange & Dialogue
6. Visiting Scholar Program
7. Related Publications