Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

ENVIRONMENT-LATAM: Ministers Carve Out a Space for Themselves

Humberto Márquez*

CARACAS, Jan 5 2004 (IPS) - The natural riches of Latin America and the Caribbean – 900 million hectares of forest and unparalleled diversity of flora and fauna – have not yet translated into greater power for the region’s environment ministries, which are entrusted with managing and protecting that wealth.

But little by little, Latin America’s environment ministries are expanding their influence in the public sphere. Since 1998, they have formed part of a regional forum that has helped unite them as a single voice in global environmental politics.

The environment ministries have emerged as a result of global concern about the environment, and have advanced in a process that has been littered with obstacles, including funding shortfalls, according to Tierramérica’s conversations with the ministers.

Over the past three decades, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have created environment ministries, though with different levels of power, and in 1998 the ministers’ regional forum became the top authority in Latin America when it comes to environmental decisions at an international level.

The forum promotes a common regional policy and the "transversality" of public policies. In other words, all decisions, such as those related to industrial investment, mining, watershed management and agricultural development should take into account environmental rules and precautions.

"It is important for the environment to be incorporated into public policy in a region where 70 percent of the population is urban, and environmental questions mean cleaning up cities and improving access to housing and potable water," Juan Pablo Bonilla, Colombia’s deputy environment minister, told Tierramérica.

The political influence of these ministries varies from country to country, but among the determining factors are budget, constitutional authority and even the political weight of the environment ministers themselves.

The case of the Brazilian environment ministry is illustrative. Minister Marina Silva, a long-time supporter of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, leader of the leftist Workers Party (PT), has wielded her power where she can.

Despite some setbacks, particularly the green light given the cultivation and sale of genetically modified soy, the environment ministry maintains strong influence over policy, because it has the power to authorise or ban activities related to fishing, transport of species, construction of mega-projects, management of water resources and energy production.

"Transversality is present in all government policy-making. But there are differences of opinion. The duty of the Cabinet is to process and integrate them, and the environmental question is a priority," Mitzi da Costa, head of environmental affairs at Brazil’s foreign ministry, told Tierramérica.

But not everyone agrees that the environment is a priority. "The ministry faces a difficult situation and loses battles to the agriculture and finance ministries, even in the case of gains made by the previous administration" of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, says the editor of the environmental publication ‘Jornal do Meio Ambiente’, Vilmar Berna.

"The environment is second to economics," he said in a conversation with Tierramérica.

In Costa Rica, the "transversal" approach came hand-in-hand with institutional redesign.

"Ours is a politically strong office because it is the ministry of environment, and of energy and mines," says Costa Rican minister Carlos Rodríguez.

When he showed up for a ministry-level discussion on mining, several of his colleagues told him: "You came to the wrong meeting."

But "by integrating the environment with energy and mining issues we are trying to resolve a contradiction, and the environmental decisions are a strong presence in the government’s economic sector," says Rodríguez.

Venezuela is proud of being the first country in the region to establish an environment-specific ministry, which it did in 1976, promoting conservation laws and putting six of every 10 square kilometres of Venezuelan territory under some sort of legal protection.

In an interview with Tierramérica, minister Ana Elisa Osorio defended the role of her office in another area of policy transversality: environmental education. "This is outside formal education, and should be a component of the work of organisations and projects in all areas in the duty that belongs to all of us, which is the fight against poverty," she said.

But environmentalists are pessimistic about the role of the ministry. "This is the ministry with least political weight, and every time they have negotiated plans for social or economic development, it has had to cede to the ministries of finance, economy or agriculture," says César Aponte, leader of the non-governmental conservation group Bioparques.

The annual budget of the Venezuelan environment ministry is 187 million dollars, or 0.7 percent of state expenses.

The ministry in Colombia, one of the top six countries in terms of biological diversity, has a budget of 38 million dollars, which is not even one percent of the national budget.

The environment ministry is part of a much broader ministry so its power has been reduced, says Manuel Rodríguez, a former minister. This "is going to limit society’s ability to protect the environment. In Latin America in general it is insufficient, and in our case is increasingly reduced."

In Mexico, President Vicente Fox has built the environment ministry along political instead of technocratic lines, naming career politician Alberto Cárdenas, a member of Fox’s National Action Party (PAN), to head the portfolio.

The ministry, known as the Secretariat of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries, has an annual budget of 1.7 billion dollars, or 1.2 percent of the national budget.

In Surinam, the ministry is just a year old, and includes labour and technological development in addition to environmental matters.

"It is too early for an assessment. But the opportunities in Suriname lie in the management and sustainable development of 80 to 90 percent of its territory, which is uninhabited forest," minister Clifford Marica told Tierramérica.

Despite their limited budgets, the environmental ministries of Latin America and the Caribbean are fighting to expand their influence.

National campaigns or debates that were able to galvanise public opinion, such as those related to the spraying of illegal drug crops in Colombia with glyphosate, or the cultivation of genetically modified soy in Brazil, are proving that the ministries can be more than a mere "green" presence in the national Cabinets.

(* Humberto Márquez is a Tierramérica contributor. Mario Osava (Brazil), María Isabel García (Colombia) and Diego Cevallos (Mexico) also contributed to this report, which was originally published Jan. 3 by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)