First Hemispheric Meeting of SOA Environment Ministers

  
Canadian Environment Minister David Anderson hosted the first ever meeting of the Environment Ministers of the Americas on March 29-30, 2001. The environment ministers of all 34 Summit of the Americas countries attended the meeting in Montreal, which addressed issues of sustainable development and management. In addition, the Canadian government invited eight international organizations-CBD, IDB, ECLAC, IUCN, UNEP, OAS, PAHO and IISD-to participate in and observe the proceedings. The official conclusions will be submitted to the heads of state of the Summit countries prior to the third Summit of the Americas, which will take place on April 20-22 in Quebec City.

The first theme addressed was the challenges of environmental management in a changing hemisphere. The participants stressed the need for innovation, concluding that environmental management systems should be strengthened by accelerating the development and application of hemisphere-wide environmental knowledge. Furthermore, the ministers emphasized the importance of developing and enforcing environmental laws and building environmental institutions to sanction their violation.

The ministers also linked improved environmental conditions to human health. They called on PAHO and the UNEP to support a regional meeting between ministers of environment and health and to identify areas of priority and cooperative initiative for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The representatives emphasized their commitment to improve the quality of air and to provide safe drinking water.

Lastly, the ministers conferred on the conservation of biodiversity in healthy ecosystems. Their official statement noted that the Summit countries face a great challenge with respect to environmental conservation, pointing out that "half of the world's wealthiest nations, as measured by the richness of their endemic flora and fauna, are countries of the Americas." Since the 1996 Summit on Sustainable Development in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, many environmental issues have been brought to government leaders' attention, and several initiatives, such as the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN), have been launched to improve the preservation of healthy ecosystems. The ministers emphasized the need to continue with a hemispheric strategy to enhance current conservation initiatives, such as the protection of habitats from invasive alien species, the illegal trade in wild flora and fauna, and the sustainability of forest management.

The Montreal meeting was intended as an initial step to prepare for successful presentation of urgent environmental issues at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The next step in this preparatory process will be another meeting at the ministerial level, which will be organized at the end of this year by the OAS General Secretariat to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the 1996 Bolivia Summit. In their official statement, the ministers claimed that the region's leaders have made "important strides in defining the international sustainable development agenda and have taken some initial but important steps toward implementation," concluding that "the time has come to make this the decade of action."