As part of regional cooperation efforts for the sustainable development of the Amazon Basin, Brazil will be bringing together relevant national players in the area of water resources on February 27 and 28 in Brasilia to identify priority actions for implementing the Strategic Actions Program (PAE) in the Brazilian Amazon, with a view to shared management of transboundary waters by the eight countries that make up the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).
The event in Brasilia, which is being organized by the National Water and Sanitation Agency (ANA) and the ACTO, will be opened at 9am by the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, the Minister of Integration and Regional Development, Waldez Góes, the Acting Director-President of the ANA, Ana Carolina Argolo, and the Executive Director of the ACTO, Vanessa Grazziotin.
Through the Strategic Actions Program (PAE), the ACTO member countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela – are seeking to ensure the integrated and sustainable management of transboundary water resources in the Amazon River Basin, considering climate variability and climate change. The program is being implemented within the framework of the Amazon Basin Project, which is run by ACTO in association with the countries, with implementation by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The SAP implementation workshops have been taking place since August 2023 in all the Amazonian countries in order to prepare governments and societies for integrated and participatory water management in the Amazon Region. Divided into working groups, the participants formulate recommendations for the SAP implementation process, combining the technical and cultural dimensions and seeking to identify opportunities for regional collaboration, thus contributing to the formulation of the National Action Plans (NAPs).
In each of the Amazonian countries, the NAP will be a document aligned with national policies and in line with the strategic lines set out in the SAP for institutional strengthening of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), adaptation to climate change and monitoring of the basin’s water resources. At the same time, local cultural and educational aspects relevant to the development of the water theme will be taken into account.
To ensure the cross-cutting inclusion of gender in the implementation of IWRM and the SAP, the National SAP Implementation Workshops offer participants training in the planning and implementation of projects, programs and policies with a gender equity perspective.
