Evaluation : Central America regional environmental program (PROARCA)

PROARCA"s most important achievements, at the highest level, were as follows: The Comision Centroamericana de Ambiente y Desarrollo (CCAD), USAID-G/CAP"s regional counterpart in this project, has been strengthened and is recognized by national authorities in the region as responsible for organizing regional environmental protection and sustainable resources management. Numerous NGOs, PVOs, and governmental organizations have been technically and organizationally strengthened to confront national environmental issues with a regional vision. PROARCA has helped reduced the gap between managing terrestrial and coastal marine resources, a condition that had been unnoticed and that requires highly technical and organizational skills. PROARCA has put in action project implementation processes (e.g., small grants, coalitions) that should yield important results for both the region and the achievement of USAID"s regional strategic objective. Specific accomplishments are noted below. The Central American Protected Areas System (CAPAS), managed by International Resources Group (lead) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), provides multi-faceted TA in a broad array of project-related topics. It has produced high-quality technical studies and training to 1,500 professionals, contributing to: improved resource conservation strategies and coalitions and a larger and more capable group of managers associated with protected areas management; broader, more technical approaches for conserving the region"s threatened and endangered species; improved strategies for marketing and for environmentally-friendly productive activities, especially forest management, organic coffee, and environmentally-sound tourism; and support to carbon sequestration initiatives. CAPAS manages a regional web page and disseminates information and numerous project reports, many of which serve as technical manuals and best-practice guides. CAPAS"s widely inclusive small- and genius-grants programs offer financial resources usually not available to NGOs and individual scientists. CAPAS has cooperated with CCAD in biodiversity protection, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora & Fauna (CITES) and climate change control initiatives, as well as in policy research on transboundary resource conservation. Under CAPAS, a widely popular protected areas monitoring system was developed that is being considered for official adoption by several countries. The coastal zone management (Costas) component is managed by TNC (lead), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the University of Rhode Island/Coastal Resources Center (URI-CRC). The Costas approach of building coalitions between stakeholders of varying interests (government, non-government, and community), though still incipient, is yielding positive results in its four sites. The Trinational Alliances in the Gulfs of Honduras and Fonseca, although fledgling, are seen as promising coalitions for meeting transboundary natural resource management challenges. Costas has been pivotal in facilitating the declaration of new marine-coastal protected areas, including reserves for fisheries management, and the strengthening of management in areas already protected. Initiatives promoted through counterparts include ecotourism development, marine port contingency planning, support of community vigilance committees for environmental protection, and community-based conservation of lobster fisheries. Costas has cooperated with CCAD in developing the Meso-American Barrier Reef Initiative and in analyzing policy for fisheries and coastal resources use. Under the environmental protection and legislation component, CCAD"s legislation program (PROLEGIS), with assistance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), helped elaborate and promulgate environmental framework laws in five countries and conducted follow-on training and technical information dissemination activities for key mid- level professionals in all seven countries, including: training in environmental law enforcement; training and distribution of manuals in principles of environmental impact assessment, including preparation of Central American professionals to carry out training courses without EPA assistance; and training and information dissemination to government and private industry in responsible pesticide importation, management, and disposal, and to industry and government officials in clean technology. These efforts have led to the creation of networks of professionals with connections to EPA to continue information and TA exchanges. Under its Biodiversity Protection (PROBIO) program, CCAD has collaborated with CAPAS and Costas, as well as with other international agencies, in promoting international conventions to which most Central American countries are signatory. PROBIO has also promoted regional biodiversity conservation networks with CCAD"s constituency. Under the Local Environmental Policy and Program Initiative (LEPPI), the Community Housing Foundation, with EPA assistance, has facilitated the prioritization of, and pilot projects in, environmental sanitation in selected municipalities through a highly participatory process. LEPPI also helped create steering committees of municipal employees and community members to facilitate project design and development, and is helping to establish community and municipal responsibilities in managing the projects, including payments for sanitary services. Several of the projects will be analyzed for replicability elsewhere. Opportunities for improvement and recommendations for the design of PROARCA II are detailed in conclusion.