Lead Partner: Government of Costa Rica - Costa Rican Tourist Board (ICT)
Geographical Scope: Regional
- Latin America and the Caribbean Summary: The Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST), is one of the first systems, if not the first, to achieve the integration of the principle elements of sustainable tourism, analyzing good management practices, the environmental and social impacts of services, as well as the client's perception of image and the congruence between the service offered and the product's promotion. In its four years of operation in Costa Rica, CST has been able to objectively measure sustainability of operating businesses, improve business environmental and social practices, and motivate businesses to improve practices and clients to choose sustainable tourist businesses.
The main objective of this proposal is to transfer CST and make it fully applicable in other countries, in such a way that these countries can share a common foundation for promoting sustainability in tourism. This will achieve a number of goals: economies of scale, greater market recognition of the standard, increasing consumer awareness, and substantial improvement in the environmental and social impacts of tourism.
The widespread implementation of CST will produce direct individual benefits to businesses (reduced costs, increased occupancy, and better image) while offering substantial environmental and social guarantees to the local population. At a regional level, it serves as a unifier and a common basis for the promotion of sustainable tourism. [more]
Lead Partner: Geographical Scope: Global Summary: The objective is ambitious forested tropical countries collaborating to reconcile forest stewardship with economic development: facilitating new and improved revenue streams in order to underpin community-driven environmentally sustainable economic growth.
The Rainforest Coalition will facilitate substantive change within existing international frameworks, national regulations, and corporate policies. Specific to Coalition Initiatives, the Rainforest Coalition will:
Standards: Establish methodologies, standards and compliance & reporting procedures related to rainforest management, biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and climate change
Regulation: Institute domestic regulatory frameworks which uphold the policies and standards developed by the membership while seeking appropriate reform within international regulatory frameworks
Market Access: Facilitate market correction leading to more equitable market access within international markets for carbon emissions trading and certified forest products
Negotiation: Develop a cohesive negotiation platform related to the standards, regulation and market access which underpin the interaction between Developing Nations and Industrialized Economies. [more]
Lead Partner: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: - Building awareness on the importance of Education for rural people as a crucial step to achieve the Millennium goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education , gender equity and sustainable natural resources management
- Contributing to achieve the Education for All goals,
- Overcoming the urban/rural gap in education.
- Increasing access to basic Education for Rural People
- Improving the quality of basic Education for Rural People
- Fostering the national capacity to plan and implement ERP as part of National Education for All and Rural Development Plans.
- Building awareness on the importance of ERP as a crucial step to achieve all the Millennium Development Goals, and particularly, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and promoting gender equity.
[more]
Lead Partner: Government of Finland - Ministry for Foreign Affairs - Sistema de la Integracion Centroamericana (SG-SICA)
Geographical Scope: Sub-regional Central America Summary: The main objective of the Partnership is to promote the use of renewable energy sources and clean technologies in Central America in a sustainable manner, and to make energy services more accessible to the poor, particularly to those in rural areas.
Increased utilisation of renewable energy in the national and local energy mix, introduction of new energy and environmental technologies, utilisation of CDM potential, better energy sector management and increased access to energy services are the expected results of the Partnership. [more]
Lead Partner: The City of Knowledge Foundation - The City of Knowledge Foundation
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: The Panama Center for Sustainable Development is proposed as a strategic solution to the need for an integrated knowledge management system that take into account ecosystems behavior, the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability, and the relationship between local, regional and global processes and actions. The initiative will develop around five major objectives:
1. Promote and conduct interdisciplinary and interinstitutional research programs and activities aimed at supporting plans, policies, and the overall decission-making processes of sustainable development
2. Promote the exchange of experiences and the development of information systems necessary to spur sustainable development
3. Develop scientific and technical capabilities through specific educational and training programs aimed at the formulation and implementation of sustainable development plans, policies and actions
4. To provide a platform that integrates scientific, technological, institutional, legal, and other aspects required to support the decision making processes of sustainable development
5. To contribute to the analysis of trends in the global network of production, dissemination and utilization of knowledge for sustainable development
[more]
Lead Partner: Government of El Salvador - El Salvador National Territorial Studies Bureau
Geographical Scope: Sub-regional Central America Summary: The main objective is to contribute to risk reduction in Central America through the effective implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the action points of Agenda 21.
Given the frequency, variety and magnitude of the adverse natural phenomena that affect the Central American isthmus, and the vulnerability of its inhabitants, risk reduction is a key prerequisite to achieving sustainable development in the subregion.
Agenda 21 contains significant action points for hazard and risk reduction, particularly in the chapters on Sustainable Human Settlements, Environment and Development, the Planning and Management of Land Resources, Drought, and Protection of the Quality and Supply of Freshwater. The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) can help to systematize the activities underway to meet these challenges and consolidate the many efforts aimed at risk reduction and environmental protection in Central America. [more]
Lead Partner: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: This is a civil society led, government supported, FAO facilitated undertaking.The preliminary focus of the SARD Initiative has currently been focusing on three themes, which were discussed in the International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountain Regions (Adelboden, Switzerland, 6/2002), in the SARD Electronic Forum (6/2002-present) and in a number of local consultations in different regions of the developing world and among some of the NGOs/CSOs attending the World Food Summit: five years later (6/2002). Sub-Initiatives can be organized around the following or other thematic areas of action, based on the interests, priorities, commitment and resources of specific partners involved:
* Access to resources
* Fair conditions of employment
* Good Agricultural Practices for SARD
Given the critical mass of Mountain Governments supporting the SARD Initiative in the Adelboden Declaration, the relevant sub-Initiatives outlined in the Adelboden Plan of Action, and that 2002 is the International Year of the Mountains, it has been proposed that the Initiative should begin with a mountain focus, subject to the interest and resources of concerned stakeholders. The Initiative may capitalize on other key conferences and International Years, for instance, 2003 is the International Year of Fresh Water. [more]
to collapse the Summary of Partnerships.