Sostenibilidad

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.

Urban expansion has changed the earth's surface and, at the same time, its biodiversity. Within just 40 years the world’s urban population will double. By 2050, 70% of the population will live in cities and an additional area the size of South Africa will have been developed. Much of this urbanization will be carried out in the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Between 1950 and 2010, the urban population in Latin America grew from 40 to 80%.

The social safeguards cluster works to ensure that people displaced by bank financed projects are left in better circumstances than before and that they also benefit from development projects. Executing a successful involuntary resettlement program is an enormous challenge because it entails negotiating with multiple stakeholders, some who often have competing interests.