Claudia S' de Windt Senior Legal Specialist Chief Environmental Law Policy and Good Governance, Depa

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Claudia S. de WindtSenior Legal SpecialistChief
Environmental Law Policy and Good Governance,
Department of Sustainable Development

• Symposium Bringing the Human Economy in Line
  with Ecology
• Frontiers of policy

Montreal, Canada. May 14, 2009
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Economy and Environment Policy Linkages

• Increased scale of Economic Activity is the main
  cause of Environmental damage
• International trade is also an important driver
  of environmental change
• Soy in South America Soil loss of 1 ton
  /ha/year and 1KG of grain requires between
  1,000-2000 liters of water during
  production. Policies and decisions that
  promote soy exports remain.
• Forest in Peru Exports in forest products have
  increased 10 times between 1995 and 2005 (10
  years) from US16m to US168m. 66 of total
  exports destined to US and with PTPA there
  is a projected increase in exports of 2.42

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Economy and Environment Policy Linkages

• International Environmental Law increasingly
  defines the way countries structure economic
  activities (ie. Emission targets)
• Trade Law defines how countries should design
  their domestic laws in policy areas such as
  investment, IPR and environment,
• A positive relation between the economy and the
  environment requires supporting economic and
  environmental policies at the national and
  international level.

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Environment at the Policy Level in the Americas

• Environmental sustainability has been at the
  front and center of the concerns of the countries
  of the Americas for over a decade From Miami to
  Port of Spain.
• The relevance of the environment is clear. Thus
  in practice the order of priorities is wrong.
• As Right Relationship Highlights practice is to
  fuel the economy with as much natural capital as
  possible
• How can we sustain democracy with so much
  pollution and lack of clean water?
• What is the OAS doing to contribute to a balanced
  agenda?

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Policy contributions in areas such as

• Integrated Water Resource Management
• Environmental Law and Governance
• Sustainable Energy and Climate Change
• Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity
• Natural Hazards Risk Management

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Trying to get priorities in order

• Addressing Asymmetries by
• Supporting enforcement of Environmental Laws,
• Building capacity of developing countries in
  understanding the links between trade and
  environment,
• Facilitating hemispheric dialogue and bridging
  the gap among among countries in Climate Change
  Issues
• Promoting Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples
  Participation in Sustainable Development

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Walking the Talk Greening the OAS Strategy

• Focus Areas
• Procurement
• Sustainable Energy
• Water
• Paper consumption
• Recycling
• Transport

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• Thank you!
• Further information available at
• www.oas.org/dsd