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Environment and development
in coastal regions and in small islands |
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ECOPLATA receives
further support
ECOPLATA, a project for the integrated management of the Rio
de la Plata coastal zone, recently received funding (US$100,000)
from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which, when
added to the support already given by the other co-sponsors of
the project, will enable the implementation of a number of
project activities. Many of the proposed activities were
recommended at an international conference, held in Montevideo,
Uruguay (25-27 November 1996) on this topic. As well, a
number of proposals were made at a planning workshop on
integrated management of the coastal zone, also held in
Montevideo (28-29 November 1996). Both of these events were
sponsored by the International Research Development Centre (IDRC)
of Canada, UNESCO and the Strategy for International Fisheries
Research (SIFR).
Various ECOPLATA activities are receiving UNESCO's financial
and technical support through the CSI platform. Some of the
activities will contribute to a preliminary diagnosis (an
objective of the UNDP Project Document) of the state of the
Uruguayan coastal zone. Examples of ongoing and planned
activities are:
- A bi-national (Argentina-Uruguay) project for the
establishment of an "information and consultation
system on the biodiversity of Rio de la Plata and
adjacent waters (BIOPLATA)", also financially
supported by Uruguay's Ministry of the Environment and by
the UNESCO-associated Expert Centre for Taxonomic
Identification (ETI) of the University of Amsterdam.
BIOPLATA will serve as an aid for decision-makers dealing
with coastal zone problems and will provide scientific
background material with considerable educational value.
It will also constitute a geographically referenced data
base, to be published on CD-ROMs and therefore will be
easy to update.
- A socially oriented project on population and environment
of the Rio de la Plata coastal zone, to be implemented in
collaboration with experts from Uruguay's School of
Social Sciences, will begin collecting important
information on the socio-economic profile and demographic
indicators of the population, living in the coastal
region, that will be involved in the integrated
management of the area.
- A postgraduate course on ‘Integrated Coastal
Management with Socio Cultural Components (24-29 November
1997)’ will be developed at the School of Sciences
of Uruguay with the participation of national and Spanish
(International Centre for Coastal Resources Research
— CIIRC, Barcelona) teaching staff. Guidelines
concerning important topics related to the integrated
management of the coastal zone will be provided to the
participants. Socio-economic and cultural topics, as well
as some other aspects on the environmental dynamics of
the region will be considered as well.
- Publication of the Spanish version of the book ‘The
Rio de la Plata: an Environmental Overview’ will be
of great value as the book compiles all the existing
available information about the studies already carried
out in the Rio de la Plata river.
- UNESCO intends to publish, in 1997/98, a volume
(‘ECOPLATA´96: towards sustainable development of
the Rio de la Plata Coastal Zone’, Conference
Reports and Papers) containing the most relevant
scientific articles presented during the ECOPLATA'96
Conference (resulting from the first phases of the
ECOPLATA project) and the main lectures given by the
invited experts.
For more information on these activities, contact:
Ms. Silvia Mendez,
UNESCO-Montevideo Office,
Avenida Brasil 2697, PO Box 859,
11300 Montevideo, Uruguay.
Fax: (598-2) 772 140.
E-mail: smendez@unesco.org.uy
