World's largest wetland to get new protection

IDB-financed program will protect biodiversity and forge community links

By Roger Hamilton

A plan to ensure long-term protection for Brazil's threatened Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands complex, will be financed with the help of an $82.5 million IDB loan.

The loan will support the first stage of an eight-year program that will initially focus on strengthening local government institutions, research, monitoring, planning, land protection, new productive activitie, and public works.

"This was a difficult, pioneering and complex project that does credit to our institution," said IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias. He stressed the importance of consultations that preceded the project and the mobilization of public opinion in defense of the environment.

The program will be carried out by Brazil's Ministry of the Environment together with the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources and the environmental authorities of the participating states.

The IDB-financed program will encourage local residents and civil society organizations to participate in environmental protection activities. "Environmental quality is ultimately demand-driven, and depends on individual people and businesses to voluntarily comply with environmental laws and adopt sustainable practices," according to Raúl Tuazón, an IDB environmental specialist.

Through improved availability of information, including data from program monitoring, local people will have the information and tools they need to balance competing uses of natural resources within the basin and to create a workable system of regulations and safeguards, he said.

Public participation in the program began four years ago with a series of hearings, meetings, and workshops to guide initial design work. After the program is launched, citizen participation will be institutionalized with the creation of watershed committees made up of local stakeholders to help design plans and regulations.

A major program focus will be management of water resources, including monitoring of water quality, assigning water rights and charging for them, and supporting the work of the watershed committees and state environmental management units. In addition, watershed management plans will be drawn up, green zones along watercourses will be established, and soil management measures will be undertaken to reduce erosion.

The problem of sewage pollution will be addressed by a series of sanitation works slated for nine cities as well as by measures to improve the efficiency and maintenance capability of local sanitation authorities.

Measures to protect ecosystems and conserve resources will include financing for four federal protected areas and four state parks. Restrictions will be placed on fishing and boating in areas designated as fish reserves, and the number of enforcement officers and fire fighters will be increased.

Additional projects will help to provide new economic activities for the local residents that do not adversely affect the Pantanal environment. In the area of fisheries, research will be carried out on the principal commercial species, which will result in better regulations to ensure sustainable production. Training will be provided in aquaculture, and species will be reintroduced in depleted areas.

The program will finance a master plan for ecotourism, which will be supported with workshops and educational campaigns as well as equipment for the two state tourism authorities.

New agricultural activities in the Pantanal will boost income for producers while protecting the environment. Improved cattle raising techniques will be promoted, as well as the possible environmental certification of Pantanal beef. Demonstration projects will be carried out for the commercial production of several wildlife species, including the capybara, the world's largest rodent, and the ostrich-like rhea.

Both the tourism and agriculture sectors will be supported with a program to improve roads to provide all-year access to parks and provide evacuation routes for cattle during flood season. The roads will include parkways with buffer zones in which development will be restricted or prohibited.

Finally, the program includes a series of measures to promote sustainable land use on the lands of indigenous communities, such as restoration of forests and streamside vegetation, reintroduction of traditional crops, and new productive activities.

The total cost of the first phase of the program is estimated at $165 million. Local counterpart funds total $82.5 million. The IDB loan is the Bank's first in euros.

Date posted: March 2001

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