FIU Workshop Finds Little Progress on Trade and Environmental Issues

 
The Summit of the Americas Center hosted ecologist Eduardo Gudynas of the Latin American Center for Social Ecology of Montevideo, Uruguay for the workshop "Sustainable South 2025: Ecology, the Social Dimension and Trade" in February 2001. Joining Gudynas were Alberto Palombo of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University and Dr. Robin Rosenberg, associate director of the North-South Center at the University of Miami.

The event touched on three interrelated themes:

• Environment, trade and development: The current process in MERCOSUR and the hemisphere.
   

• Comparative perspectives and specific cases in which globalization is having an impact on important ecosystems.
   

• Efforts to include the environmental and social dimensions in the Plan of Action of the Quebec Summit and the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Participants debated the most effective ways of making environmental questions a larger part of the process of growth and development. Concern was expressed over "global encroachment" on the ecology of the region and the sense that economic pressures stemming from globalization are making it harder to resist ecologically damaging practices. Rosenberg pointed to the internationalization of questions that a few years ago might have been considered part of national sovereignty, noting that it is difficult to make the costs of ecological degradations felt in economic terms. A good portion of the discussion was aimed at how the public and decision makers can understand and account for environmental costs as they develop investment projects.

Gudynas led a discussion of integration and its alternatives based on his proposal, known as Sur Sustentable 2025. He views free trade as a detriment to integration, arguing that it retards the political mechanisms necessary for countries to come together to solve their problems. The so-called free market inhibits the process of building regional democratic regulatory mechanisms through the political process, he claims. The Sur Sustentable proposal seeks to develop subregional approaches, such as MERCOSUR, taking into account the ideal use of natural resources within regions instead of within nation states. This focus would allow a more selective approach to globalization, according to Gudynas. More information on this proposal can be found in Spanish at www.ambiental.net/sustentable2025.

The workshop also discussed the Pantanal-Everglades project, which draws on decades of experience with conservation efforts in the Florida Everglades to form a basis of comparison for policy direction in the Brazilian Pantanal. Palombo led this discussion, which stressed the importance of not only talking about best practices, but also avoiding the errors of past experience to produce better policy decisions. This is a notable example of how Florida environmentalists can draw on their experiences to assist in formulating programs and policies in Latin America. More information on this cooperative effort between South Florida and Brazil can be found on the web at http://epi.ces.fau.edu.

Finally, the participants addressed the future of environmental questions in the Summit of the Americas process. They didn't find much to be optimistic about; since the Santa Cruz Summit on Sustainable Development, environmental issues have been relegated to a side issue in the OAS process. At the same time, the FTAA negotiations involve a significant environmental impact that is not being assessed or discussed. Many of the negotiating groups are discussing issues that have environmental relevance, but environmental groups lack the consensus or vehicles to influence these developments. Gudynas cited the Hemispheric Social Alliance, noting that he was unsure how to join this group or just how much progress it has made in bringing together diverse environmental NGOs and organizations.

In general, the participants expressed a great deal of pessimism about the link between trade and the environment. One optimistic note was the strength of local interest in the topic, evidenced as well by a well-attended talk by Gudynas sponsored by the Earth Alert group at the University of Miami on the night before the workshop. Both events afforded an opportunity for making contacts and sharing views and experiences among those interested in seeing this agenda included in regional and hemispheric agreements.