CAFTA-DR Environmental Cooperation Successes

In signing the Trade Act of 2002, President Bush recognized that advancing free trade and promoting environmental objectives are mutually supportive.

• Trade agreements that the United States negotiates under the Trade Act of 2002 include comprehensive environmental provisions that are legally binding.
• The U.S. Government is working with our CAFTA-DR partners to implement cooperative environmental projects. The Administration has committed to support $40 million a year from 2006 through 2009 in CAFTA-DR labor and environment projects. In fiscal year 2006, the Administration allocated $18.5 million of the $40 million toward cooperative environmental projects with CAFTA-DR countries.
• U.S. funding helps implement a broad range of cooperative environmental work in the CAFTA-DR region to:
  • Strengthen and improve enforcement of environmental laws, at the national, local, and municipal levels;
  • Improve private sector environmental performance;
  • Promote market-based conservation through sustainable tourism, agriculture, and forest product production;
  • Protect and conserve biodiversity and other natural resources; and
  • Meet specific CAFTA-DR obligations, such as establishing a Secretariat on Environmental Matters to process public submissions regarding the CAFTA-DR Parties' enforcement of environmental laws.

#1 -- Strengthen and Improve Enforcement of Environmental Laws

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) are helping Central American countries develop a model wastewater regulation and implementation plan and a regional Solid Waste Management Policy. In turn, the countries are using these models to develop national regulations and policies.

EPA has trained environmental compliance inspectors, prosecutors, and other enforcement personnel in every CAFTA-DR country. Currently, there are over 300 trained individuals who themselves are training inspectors, investigators, police officers, prosecutors, and environment ministry officials throughout the region to enforce environmental laws effectively.

The U.S. Department of Interior has completed protected area law assessments in five CAFTA-DR countries and, in Guatemala, conducted the first-ever protected area law enforcement training courses to over 100 officials across multiple sectors, including representatives from the Guatemalan Parks Service, Ministry of Culture, Institute of Tourism, several NGOs, and local community forestry concessions.

USAID has worked with 15 Municipal Environmental Management Units (UGAMS) in the Dominican Republic to conduct environmental diagnostics and develop and implement Municipal Environmental Ordinances. To date, UGAMS have issued and currently are implementing 28 Ordinances regarding solid waste/waste water management, noise reduction, and extraction of aggregate materials.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided environmental policy training to ranking committee staff from the Congresses of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

#2 -- Improve Private Sector Environmental Performance

 USAID and CCAD have worked with the CAFTA-DR governments to develop a regional policy on clean production that the countries are beginning to implement.

Honduras is developing regulations, standards, and procedures for environmental auditing, cleaner production, environmental management systems, and environmental due diligence.

El Salvador established a Cleaner Production Fund that provides grants to small and medium enterprises that request technical assistance to introduce cleaner, more efficient processes into their factories.

USAID and CCAD have worked with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua to develop uniform regulations and procedures for registering environmental service providers.

#3 -- Market Based Conservation

USAID provided technical assistance, training, and funding for environmentally-friendly small business projects dealing with ecotourism, environmentally sustainable coffee and cacao production, and solid-waste to organic-fertilizer conversion in the Dominican Republic.

USAID is working with the Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Research to identify at least 100 farmers and at least 100 hectares in the buffer zone of the four protected areas in northern Honduras to assist farmers in adopting agro-forestry practices and begin cultivating higher value alternative crops.

The Humane Society International (HSI) is working to improve the livelihood of Central American cacao producers through environmentally-friendly production systems. These systems will create economic incentives for producers and enhance long-term environmental conservation and wildlife protection.

• HSI has trained over 130 cacao producers in Guatemala and Nicaragua on how to conduct wildlife inventories on their cacao farms (a requirement for certification).
• HSI has developed training materials on (1) controlling black pod disease; (2) proper pruning techniques; (3) environmentally friendly fertilizing techniques; and (4) pest control.

#4 -- Biodiversity and Natural Resource Conservation

USAID and the U.S. Forest Service have helped the Honduran Forestry Agency set up permanent plots for forest monitoring, establish regeneration protocols, and incorporate better environmental impact assessment procedures into forest management planning.

Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are teaching fisherman in Costa Rica, and other countries, to use circle hooks and turtle excluder devices to reduce turtle by-catch.

HSI and TRAFFIC North America are working to strengthen implementation and enforcement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species by supporting local organizations and initiatives that promote animal conservation.

The Wildlife Conservation Society is working to establish a “jaguar corridor” in Central America so that these endangered cats can roam freely and maintain their genetic integrity.

#5 -- CAFTA-DR Specific Obligations

The CAFTA-DR Parties established a Secretariat for Environmental Matters to receive and process submissions from the public alleging that a CAFTA-DR Party is failing to enforce its environmental laws effectively. The Secretariat is currently up and running and, thus far, has received one submission from the public.