Basin watering recipe
The Amazon basin countries recently launched a new initiative to help the region's inhabitants manage water, forests and wildlife more efficiently. Water will be the focus area of the project, announced at the Global Environment Facility's (gef's) Third Biennial International Waters Conference in Brazil. The basin accounts for 20 per cent of the world's freshwater supplies. gef is funding the two-year project, which will cost less than us $1.5 million. The un Environment Programme will implement it, with the Organization of American States managing the funds and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization functioning as its regional architect.
The effort aims at streamlining individual, scattered national programmes and identifying pollution hot spots and damaged habitats. It seeks to harmonise the existing laws of the region and evolve a vision for sustainable development in the all the eight countries of the basin: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam and Venezuela. A major task on the project's agenda is helping countries cope with climate change.