Paracas Declaration
The Environmental
Ministers and Authorities gathered at the
First Meeting of the Andean Community
Council of Ministers of the Environment and
Sustainable Development, in Paracas, Peru,
on March 31 and April 1, 2005;
Stressing the importance
of the environment for the Andean
integration process, which has attributed
priority to it as a strategic theme of the
Andean Community, as ratified at the Tenth
Meeting of the Andean Council of Foreign
Ministers in March 2003;
Considering the
convergence of the integration processes
with a view to building the South American
Community of Nations;
Recognizing the strategic
position of the Andean countries,
particularly as a result of their rich
megadiversity and their Andean and Amazonian
hydrographic potential;
Considering the need to
reinforce the application of Decision 391
and to jointly and in coordination take part
in the negotiation of an International
Regime on Access to Genetic Resources and
Benefit-Sharing;
Taking due note of the
progress made toward implementing the
Regional Biodiversity Strategy – RBS and of
the Andean Plan to follow-up on the
Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable
Development 2003-2005, which includes the
issues of Climatic Change, Water and
Sanitation;
Considering the need to
establish the criteria and processes for the
design of the Andean Institute for
Biodiversity provided for in Presidential
Directive 33 of the Quito Act;
Considering the need to
draw up the next Andean Environmental Agenda
to cope with short- and medium-term
challenges;
Recognizing the
importance of reinforcing Andean
coordination in negotiations in
International Environmental and Trade Forums;
Recognizing that water is
one of the driving issues on the Andean
Environmental Agenda, and the need to move
toward more integrated management that will
help to reduce vulnerability stemming from
climate change, natural disasters, pollution
and destructive practices;
Recognizing the
importance of integral water resource
management for reducing poverty and fighting
exclusion, of the sustainable management of
water and sanitation services for complying
with Millennium Targets, and of the need to
improve mechanisms for methodically
organizing experiences and for the use and
exchange of information and know-how;
Emphasizing that the
Andean subregion is one of the regions most
vulnerable to the effects of climate change
and reiterating directive 32 approved at the
Fifteenth Meeting of the Andean Presidential
Council in July 2004, which commissioned the
formulating of the Andean strategy to
confront and alleviate the negative effects
of climate change in the Andean subregion;
AGREE TO:
The Andean
Environmental Agenda
1. To entrust the
Andean Committee of Environmental
Authorities (CAAAM) with the review and
evaluation of the Andean Plan to Follow-up
on the Johannesburg Summit 2003-2005, and
with the updating and prioritizing of the
Andean Environmental Agenda, which should
be submitted for adoption at the Second
Meeting of the Andean Council of Ministers
of the Environment and Sustainable
Development, to be held in Venezuela in
November 2005.
2. To request the
Andean Community General Secretariat to
prepare an evaluation report on the Andean
Plan to Follow-up on the Johannesburg
Summit 2003-2005, to be submitted to the
countries for their consideration within a
period of no more than one month.
3. To request the CAN
General Secretariat to reinforce the
institutional capacities of its
environmental and sustainable development
program so that the targets established in
the Andean Environmental Agenda may be
met. In principle, it will enjoy the
technical assistance of an official of the
United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)
in this task.
4. To strengthen the
alliances being established by the CAN
General Secretariat (CANGS) to guarantee
execution of the Andean Environmental
Agenda programs and projects, in
coordination with the CAAAM, thereby
safeguarding the integral nature of the
Andean Integration System and its
institutions.
5. To request the CANGS
to study possibilities for appropriate
mechanisms to finance the Andean
Environmental Agenda, placing special
importance on the financial mechanism of
the Regional Biodiversity Strategy.
Andean Institute for
Biodiversity
6. To instruct the
CAAAM to prepare a proposed design of the
Andean Institute for Biodiversity (AIB),
based on the preliminary proposal put
forward by the Government of Ecuador and
the Andean Parliament. The proposal will
be drawn up in coordination with the
Andean Council for Science and Technology
and will be based on criteria of technical,
financial and administrative viability.
The intention is that the Institute be an
entity for the coordination and
interlinkage of the installed scientific
capacity in the subregion, the
conservation and sustainable use of the
biological diversity, and to support the
implementation of the Regional
Biodiversity Strategy and that the
proposal be submitted to the Second
Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the
Environment and Sustainable Development
for its consideration.
Genetic Resources
7. To entrust the
Andean Committee on Genetic Resources with
defining an Andean negotiation strategy on
the International Regime on Access to
Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing that
would prioritize the following: a)
inclusion of by-products, b) benefit-sharing,
and c) recognition of Decision 391, among
other things. This strategy will seek to
coordinate actions with the other Latin
American and Caribbean countries and with
the Group of Like-Minded and Megadiverse
Countries, insofar as possible.
8. To take steps toward
the preparation of the sui generis Andean
regime for the protection of traditional
knowledge, in compliance with Decision 391
and Directive 36 of the Quito Presidential
Act.
9. To give priority to
the execution of the project to strengthen
Andean capacities for the application of
the Andean Regime on Genetic Resources
that will be prepared in coordination with
the Latin American Regional Office of UNEP-ORLAC,
on the basis of priorities identified by
Member Countries.
10. To reiterate the
request to the CAF for economic and
technical cooperation, as agreed at the
June 2004 Meeting of Environmental
Ministers and Authorities, in order to be
able to guarantee the coordinated
participation of the Andean countries in
the negotiation of the International
Regime. In addition, to request the CANGS
to set up a coordination mechanism to
facilitate the design of the Andean
negotiation strategy.
11. To coordinate a
joint position with the respective
Agricultural and Foreign Relations
authorities for the negotiation of the FAO
International Treaty on Phytogenetic
Resources and to strengthen the
interlinkage of this Treaty with the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Climate change
12. To instruct the
CANGS to take the necessary steps to
rapidly secure the resources needed for
the preparation of the Regional Strategy
on Climate Change and, in this connection,
to request UNEP and other cooperation
institutions to provide the support
required.
Integrated Water
Resource Management
13. To entrust the
CANGS, in coordination with PAHO’s CEPIS
and the World Bank Water and Sanitation
Program, with the organization of
consultations in order to create
mechanisms to improve access to
information and knowledge, the exchange of
experiences and collaboration among
countries to help reach the Millennium
water and sanitation targets, bearing in
mind criteria of inclusion and
sustainability.
14. These consultation
mechanisms include an Andean workshop for
the exchange of experiences on matters of
integral basin management, the
participation of organized communities and
payment for environmental services, in
such a way that common guidelines can be
established.
Forests
15. To express the
inadvisability of moving toward a legally
binding international regime for the
conservation and sustainable use of
forests of all kinds that will be
discussed in the Fifth United Nations
Forum on Forests.
16. To entrust the
Chair of the Council of Ministers of the
Environment and Sustainable Development
with holding consultations that will
enable our countries to consolidate an
Andean position on the subject, and to
move toward the adoption of a common
policy, starting at the meeting convened
by the ACTO in Quito and continuing with
this process of consultations during the
sessions of the Fifth Forum.
Strategic alliances
17. They expressed
their satisfaction at the increase in
number of strategic alliances that
contribute to the fulfillment of the
objectives of the Andean Environmental
Agenda and that recognize and consolidate
present and future processes in the
development of that agenda. They instruct
the CANGS to report to the CAAAM any
initiative or proposal involving
strategies, projects and frameworks for
action launched by other intergovernmental
organizations, so that subregional
interests may be safeguarded in the
context of possible joint actions.
Acknowledgments
The Ministers welcomed
the presence of the Executive Secretary of
the Amazon Cooperation Treaty – ACTA, Mrs.
Rosalía Arteaga, and expressed their
interest in studying the proposed program
“Equity and Inclusion in the Context of
Sustained Development in the Andean Amazon
Region;”
They also welcomed the
presence of Mrs. Cristina Boelcke, Director
of the UNEP Regional Cooperation Division,
and of Mr. Ricardo Sánchez, Regional
Director of UNDP/ROLAC, and expressed their
appreciation for the financial support
received to hold this meeting and to
implement the Andean environmental agenda;
They went on to express
their pleasure at the presence of the
representatives of the PAHO’s CEPIS, Finnish
Cooperation, the Institute for Research on
the Peruvian Amazon, German Cooperation –
GTZ, Spanish Cooperation – AECI, the Andean
Parliament, the World Conservation Union –
IUCN, and the United Nations.
In concluding, they
expressed their special appreciation to the
National Environmental Council, as Chair of
the Council of Ministers of the Environment
and Sustainable Development, for the cordial
hospitality extended to the participants and
for the organization of the event, and to
the Andean Community General Secretariat for
its efficient support, and in particular to
the municipal authorities of the Districts
of Pisco and Paracas, of the National
Paracas Reserve and of the local community
for their generous welcome during the event.
Paracas, April 1, 2005
