Strengthening environmental management in municipalities of the Bolivian Pantanal

The project takes places in the department of Santa Cruz, in the provinces of German Bush and Chiquitos and specifically in the municipalities Quijarro Port, Suarez Port and Robore. The Bolivian Pantanal is one of the best preserved portions of the Pantanal. In the coming years, development will take place in the region due to several large infrastructural projects that are planned, growing industries and expanding agriculture. The main problems encountered for the implementation of sound environmental management at municipality level are firstly the absence of municipal environmental policies, action plans, and institutional capacity, secondly the local perceptions that conservation only slows down development, thirdly the lack of knowledge of the technical staff of the municipalities of the Bolivian environmental legislation. The project is aiming to facilitate a process of capacity building and implementation on/of environmental policies in the three municipalities. This is done by increasing the environmental capacity of municipality officials on the possibilities of environmental planning taking into account the departmental and national law which allows for a significant local sustainable development planning. During the project the process is focused at training officials and facilitating the process of writing a policy document and an action plan with the mayor, technical municipality staff and municipality council. There are two moments in which the broader community is involved: firstly in a few workshops and secondly the organization of civil society for participation in local environmental planning. The main objectives the main corresponding activities of the proposal are: 1) Capacity building of local officials and population on environmental policies; 2) The design and implementation of environmental policies for the municipalities which are applicable to both rural and city realities and 3) The strengthening of civil society on environmental management and policies.