Ipe Rosa in the Cerrado Photo: © Domiciano Dias Brazil is an incredibly diverse country – when mentioned, the country’s name instantly conjures images of a multi-ethnic, culturally diverse society, not to mention its art, beaches and the Amazon rain forest.Sustainable infrastructure? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Maybe once it was, but in the future, if done right, it could be a huge opportunity. The stakes couldn’t be higher to build the right kind of infrastructure. We are in the midst of an unprecedented infrastructure boom that is forever changing the face of our planet, with human needs and economic growth stressing natural and social environments.
The Norte Grande Electricity Transmission Program in Argentina, financed by the IDB, included an extra high tension transmission line to strengthen the national power grid and facilitate competition in the wholesale generation market.
The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have made great progress in terms of food security since they set out to meet the first of the Millennium Development Goals, expiring this year.
This past February Argentina suffered one of its worst catastrophes of the last 50 years, resulting in more than 4,000 affected households, around a dozen fatalities, close to 5,000 evacuees and a financial loss close to 200 million U.S. dollars. These numbers are merely an estimate of the damage caused by the storm, which shook the province of Cordoba earlier this year. This terrible disaster left us with a bad aftertaste, also reminding us how vulnerable humankind is to nature.
On my way to the Caracol Industrial Park in the North of Haiti, I was observing the precarious way in which goods and people are often transported. Luggage, goods for market, livestock, and people often squeeze onto any available space on colorful tap-taps or speeding moto-taxis.Having worked in Haiti for the IDB for over 5 years, watching traffic go by reminded me of how challenging it has been to raise awareness and prioritize Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) management.
In the state of Acre, a remote corner of the western Brazilian Amazon, lies the staple of the rubbertappers’ livelihoods, latex. This milky fluid is released when the rubber tree is cut and hardens once it’s exposed to the air.
Availability of quality data is essential to solving environmental problems and monitoring impacts. Furthermore, ecosystem service analysis, which is used more and more to address environmental management challenges, is often data intensive, requiring information from multiple sectors, at different scales, and with spatial and temporal qualities. Unfortunately, collecting primary data is often costly and labor intensive, resulting in a shortage of such information.
Forests are highly valued for the wood and other non-timber products they provide such as fruit, food, medicinal products, and countless other benefits with aesthetic and spiritual value. Forests also play an important role in protecting the soil, generating water and oxygen, and housing very rich biodiversity. Their value to humanity is immeasurable. These attributes of natural ecosystems that benefit all of society are referred to as “environmental services”.
New infrastructure often requires space, and many development projects have to destroy or modify habitats in order to make that space. Even with the most careful planning, the reality is that trees may need to be bulldozed and wildlife may be killed.