The Inter-American Development Bank’s Japan Program and Mexico’s Environment and Natural Resources Department (SEMARNAT) will hold a seminar in Mexico City on February 17 and 18 to analyze the Japanese and Latin American experiences in balancing economic growth with environmental protection.
The event will bring together top officials of environment ministries and regulating agencies from Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Japan; academics, researchers, and leaders of environmental groups and non governmental organizations.
Participants will discuss successful as well as failed experiences in reconciling rapid development with sound environmental practices. Panels will cover the links between environmental and economic policies, the challenges posed by government decentralization, and civil society and private sector participation in the sustainable management of natural resources.
IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias and Mexico’s Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Víctor Lichtinger Waisman are scheduled to open the event on Monday, February 17, at the Hotel Nikko. Japan’s former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will deliver the seminar’s keynote address on the Japanese experience in environmental management.
The Japan Program was created in 1999 by the Japanese government and the IDB to build stronger ties among Asian and Latin American and Caribbean countries by promoting partnerships for economic and social development.