Chapter 1: Regional Priorities and Drivers of Change


With regard to economic partnerships, there has been an emergence of the inclusion of environmental provisions into Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) internationally and some of that is occurring within LAC. Environmental cooperation mechanisms are usually contained in the RTAs and address issues such as capacity building, standards, and mechanisms for public participation. While there is a significant debate on the benefits of such provisions to the region, there are potential benefits to be accrued including strengthened national environmental enforcement, capacity building, enhanced environmental standards and enhanced regional cooperation. Prominent examples include the Mercosur Framework Agreement for Environment, where parties undertake cooperation on harmonization on environmental standards and the Forum of the Caribbean Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific States CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement, which focuses on developing environmental capacity in the CARIFORUM region to enhance international trade. It should be mentioned that some countries are also utilising this measure in bilateral trade agreements for example the United States-Peru Free Trade Agreement (PTPA) signed in 2009 incorporates provisions concerning the protection of the environment, enforces own domestic environmental laws. The Environment Chapter includes an Annex on Forest Sector Governance and includes provisions recognizing the importance of conserving and protecting biodiversity.


Also of significance to the region is that following the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012, the Declaration on the application of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean was adopted. This declaration calls for signatory countries, with technical support from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC), to advance the implementation of a regional agreement enabling rights of access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters.


The Declaration currently has 20 signatory countries3


and is


open to all countries of LAC. This instrument can be used as a critical tool in ensuring participation at all levels (regional, national and local) in the environmental governance process.


1.4 Multiple national approaches to Sustainable Development


The Rio+20 outcome recognized the existence of a number of “different approaches, visions, models and tools available to each country, in accordance with its national circumstances and priorities, to achieve sustainable development” (UN 2012). The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development builds on this concept recognizing that “targets are defined as aspirational and global, with each government setting its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances” (UNGA 2015).


LAC countries are as diverse in terms of their national priorities as they are in their approaches to development. An analysis of the visions of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (UNEP 2013a) and the recently issued “Multiple Pathways to Sustainable Development: Initial findings from the Global South” (UNEP 2015c) show that each national sustainable development approach emphasize different things and have different conceptual underpinnings. However, the goals to which these approaches ultimately aspire are universal.


A multiplicity of sustainable development approaches exists as countries develop their own responses to their unique challenges. Market-based approaches place human well-being and sustainability at the centre of the economy, challenging the way it is configured by using mechanisms to address policy, governance, and market failures. Ethics- based concepts, such as ‘Living Well’, define principles to


3 The signatories are Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Honduras, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominican Republic, and Jamaica.


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