Included in this working paper is a discussion of the history of deforestation and forest degradation in Latin America and policy recommendations towards conserving natural forests. The author argues that the main opportunity to conserve natural forests may be in the recognition of and payment...

This paper begins with a summary of the Bank's involvement with large infrastructure projects, including dams, since the 1960s. In the energy sector, the IDB has provided financing for the construction of a large number of hydroelectric projects. A large proportion of IDB's financing for...

This working paper concerns the estimation of benefits used in the evaluation of development projects, especially those within public facilities or environmental projects. The estimation of benefits uses a variety of techniques, both contingent valuation and behavioral techniques. Benefit...

En este informe técnico figura la estrategia del Banco para su participación en el manejo integrado de los recursos hídricos en América Latina y el Caribe. La estrategia fue formulada mediante un procedimiento gradual de iteración y en consulta con funcionarios nacionales responsables de...

The countries in Mesoamerica have achieved major advances in the field of environmental management over the last ten years. Both Mexico and the Central American nations have put a whole series of legal, institutional, and operating changes in place with regard to environmental management, both...

There are many situations where policy makers would like to induce firms to make a major discrete conversion in production technology to help the environment. This paper examines how heterogeneity in the operating condition of firms' plant and equipment, which cannot be observed by policy...

This executive profile summarized here identifies the great environmental challenges of the Mesoamerican region, highlights the achievements of the last decade, and points out the future course that will guide the region's environmental management advancements. There are three main issues...

This report represents a selection and analysis of key indicators that bear upon the particular set of issues that the IDB borrowing member countries are facing at this point. Some of the indicators presented in this report document the main pressures caused by economic development on the...

This report delivers systematized information intended to direct the work of the Regional Dialogue, with an emphasis on the efforts that Southern Cone countries. The report includes recommendations on how the countries could improve their environmental institutions and management practices,...

This technical study contains the strategy of the Inter-American Development Bank for its involvement in integrated water resources management in Latin America and the Caribbean. The strategy was developed through an iterative step by step procedure in consultation with country water resource...