USAID/BRAZIL ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM MEETING.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 001324 SIPDIS DEPT FOR F: AFULGHAM , WHA USAID FOR LAC: JBALLANTYNE E.0. 12958 TAGS: EAID SENV BR SUBJECT: USAID/BRAZIL ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM MEETING. BRASILIA 00001324 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. SUMMARY: On October 27-30, 2009, USAID/Brazil Environment Program held its annual meeting in Belm, State of Par. The objective of the event was to promote cooperation and better integration among Program partners, as well as to discuss current themes of sustainable development in the Amazon region. To accomplish this, six panels were organized that facilitated the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and discussions on technical issues relating to sustainable development. END SUMMARY. ¶2. The 17th USAID Brazil Environment Program was held in Belm, Par, 27-30, October, 2009. The meeting was attended by 123 people from 13 states of Brazil, representing 51 institutions - both governmental and non-governmental, including Program partners and other invited institutions. Participants from USAID/Washington included Anne Dix, LAC Regional Environment Team Leader, Peter Keller, LAC Biodiversity Advisor, and Ilya Fischoff, EGAT/GCC AAAS Fellow. ¶3. Annual coordination meetings have been held in Brazil since the inception of the Environment Program in 1990, with the goals of promoting synergies and better integration among program partners, as well as to discuss current themes of sustainable development in the Amazon region. The core theme of the 2009 meeting, "Valuing the Forest in Times of Change", included six round-table discussions on different aspects of this topic. ¶4. Other meeting sessions included presentations on: (a) an outline of a draft USAID/Brazil Strategy for FY 2010-2014, presented by Environment Program Coordinator Eric Stoner, (b) an overview of the Environment Program, presented by USAID/Brazil Senior Environment Officer Elke Costanti; and (c) results from the capacity building training course on monitoring and evaluation developed by USAID/Brazil Consultant Neusa Zimmermann. ¶5. Opening the meeting, the Environment Program Coordinator presented a draft of the Environment portion of the USAID/Brazil Development Strategy for FY 2009-2014, which included input from partners and stakeholders. The Strategy focuses on the contribution of sustainable landscapes to biodiversity conservation and climate change stability, and includes new activities for implementation in upcoming years. It is structured around USAID's three development pillars addressing global climate change: (a) clean energy, (b) sustainable landscapes, and (c) adaptation to climate change. ¶6. Under the above mentioned development objectives, the draft Environment Program strategy includes three components: (a) strengthening the capacity of institutions and individuals, in forest and grassland areas under pressure to convert to economic use, by providing support to communities and civil society groups to promote environmental governance, improve community natural resource management, and increase use of landscape knowledge; (b) environmentally sound management of public lands to improve management of officially designated protected areas, establishing ethno-environmental corridors, and increasing the sustainable use of protected areas; and (c) environmentally sound management of private lands, with the goal of improving monitoring systems of land-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, territorial governance, and opportunities for carbon stock enhancement and emission reduction in soils and forests. ¶7. Also, two cross-cutting issues were noted that are relevant for the success of the strategy: (a) leveraging public-private partnerships to engage private sector involvement in international development; and (b) streamlining gender and women in development activities in all implementing mechanisms. ¶8. USAID advancements achieved during the last year highlighted the new partnership with the Government of Brazil (GOB),through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) of the Ministry of the External Relations (MRE),for trilateral actions. The USG and GOB have established joint activities to support Mozambique in HIV/AIDS and food security issues. This partnership will continue and may be expanded to other countries and areas of development. ¶9. The meeting highlighted the importance of an efficient system to monitor and evaluate Environment Program performance. During FY 2009, USAID/Brazil conducted a Data Quality Assessment and developed a monitoring and evaluation training course for its partners. Courses were held in Belem, Manaus, Porto Velho and Brasilia involving 171 participants representing 73 NGOs and 24 public institutions. Results of the training courses were presented and discussed. During discussions, course participants described how they applied the course material including the development of their own training programs. ¶10. Continuing efforts to strengthen Environmental Program oversight of projects, USAID/Brazil outlined two new consultancy services: (a) a program performance evaluation to verify monitoring systems, data collection and the reporting process, and (b) a monitoring and evaluation assessment of indigenous-based projects. ¶11. The event key-note speaker, Special Advisor of the Ministry of the Environment for Climate Change, Tasso Azevedo, presented a summary of various schools of thought on forest and natural BRASILIA 00001324 002.2 OF 002 resources valuation. ¶12. The meeting included the following sessions, in a panel format of four to six speakers per session: (a) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD): Trends and Opportunities; (b) Building Relationships Between Communities, Private-Sector and Natural Resource Management; (c) People of the Forest: Conservation and Autonomy; (d) Women of the Forest: Agenda, Concerns and Perspectives; (e) Responsible Sourcing and Purchasing; and (f) Conservation and Recuperation of Degraded Lands. ¶13. A highlight of the panel on Responsible Sourcing and Purchasing was a presentation by Adnan Demachki, mayor of Paragominas, on its program called, "Green Municipality." Paragominas has successfully addressed deforestation through strong public and private support for responsible production practices and efforts to eliminate illegal logging. This experience resulted in the field trip organized on October 30, 2009, when a group of thirty participants took a trip to Paragominas, Par, to visit a project integrating crops and pasture, a reforestation area, a wood flooring plant, and the Environmental Park of Paragominas. In FY 2010, USAID/Brazil will support the implementation of a system of land registration for all rural properties in Paragominas through a partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). ¶14. During the meeting, USAID awards of appreciation were given to partner representatives and community leaders in recognition of outstanding efforts in support of the Environment Program in FY 2009 and overall contributions to sustainable development in the Amazon region. The recipients included: (a) Paulo Amaral, Researcher, Institute for People and the Environment in the Amazon - IMAZON; (b) Manuel Amaral, Technical Coordinator, International Institute of Education in Brazil - IEB; (c) Vasco Van Roosmalen, Director, Amazon Cooperation Team Brazil (ACT-Brazil); (d) Major Alessandro Mariano Rodrigues, Fire Brigade of Mato Grosso, (e) Enrico Bernardi, Project Manager, World Vision, (f) Luzia Santos da Silva, Union of Rural Workers of Boca do Acre, Amazonas (g) Vanderleide Ferreira de Souza, National Council of Extractivist Population, Lbrea, Amazonas, and (h) Kleber Karipuna, Executive-Manager, Coordination of Indigenous Organizations in the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB),who received the award on behalf of COIAB, as an institution. ¶15. COMMENT. The 17th Annual Environment Program Meeting was a success. It facilitated the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and discussions on technical issues relating to the issues outlined in the six panels. In addition, it addressed a wide range of issues essential for the sustainable development of the Brazilian Amazon region. END COMMENT. KUBISKE