This document presents the proceedings of a one-day Workshop on Investing in Biodiversity Conservation held at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., on October 28, 1996. The first part of the workshop was dedicated to the presentation of key topics on biodiversity financing by...

The key question the research in this paper tries to answer is whether those four activities truly represent a viable economic alternative in Latin America's environmentally fragile hinterlands. Several cases in each line of activity are analyzed to determine the level and distribution of the...

The stories included in this volume were published originally in IDBAmérica and tell of new approaches the people of Latin America and the Caribbean are taking to protect the rainforest, reduce erosion, conserve marine life, create protected areas, and ensure a better future for themselves and...

The Environment and Safeguards Group (ESG) of the IDB has examined how potential environmental and social risks of major Bank-supported road improvement investments in natural resource rich and socio-culturally diverse "frontier" regions have been identified and addressed in various parts of...

This paper proposes a concept of green infrastructure, centered on a multi-level approach to infrastructure development that addresses these impacts. The paper argues that only multi-level solutions, encompassing national policy, sector planning, and sound project engineering, will be able to...

Bank investments in tourism and other coastal development projects have been on the rise, generating an interest in the development of instruments and tools that would more effectively inform Bank staff on critical issues, and support the management of the environmental and social risks of the...

This paper explores options to minimize threats posed to IDB-financed physical investments by the impacts of climate change. A large proportion of projects are implemented in climate-sensitive sectors (e.g., agriculture, water resources, and transport). In these cases, the norm is to consider...

This paper provides an overview of the characteristics of Central American rivers and related freshwater ecosystem services, discusses trends in hydropower development and known environmental and social consequences, and offers suggestions for finding a balance between hydropower and the...

The past decade has seen a rapid increase in the adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops. This is generally attributed to two main reasons: intellectual property protection that has stimulated large investments in agricultural biotechnology (Cuffaro, 2002, p35) and increased profits for...

This paper provides a brief overview of the linkages between the primary factors driving gold mining, how these interact with regional geology to concentrate impacts on specific river basins, and the primary environmental and social impacts that can erode the economic benefit delivered from gold...