Conference on Agricultural Growth, Natural Resource Sustainability, and Poverty Alleviation in Latin American Hillside Regions

摘要

The ingredients for more widespread sustainable development of Latin American hillsides may be starting to come together. Technologies exist that conserve, and even enhance, the productivity and ecological functions of a variety of types of hillsides.Encouraging examples of "pockets" where those technologies have been effectively applied abound in the region. Such local successes, though, have often remained just that - local, with many hillside regions or parts of communities left out. Now, new ways that hold promise for fostering more local successes (and even expand or replicate existing ones) are beginning to emerge throughout the region, A necessary step seems to be overcoming obstacles caused by lack of coordination between groups and programs at work locally, be they local organizations, policies at local and national levels, researchers, and international actors, or all of the above. As programs and policies proliferate with few mechanisms to sort out the objectives and strategies involved, development initiatives - even locally based ones - can get in each other's way. Why are effective coordinating mechanisms emerging now? Recent trends - toward liberalization, decentralization, democra-tization, and heightened interest in the environment - sweeping the region and beyond may have played a catalytic role, opening up new lines of communication between "players" in hillsides not used to interacting. How to build on the momentum? The process has some of its own, as greater local participation can itself draw in more local actors, and better communication with external ones. Still, policy" can encourage emergence of locally based coordinating mechanisms in other hillside areas. At the same time, it must set in motion mechanisms to recognize local successes, analyze where else they are likely to take root, and get them moving in the new areas. And, measures need to be in place to monitor effects of these changes on the welfare of local inhabitants and the environment. In all, it seems a propitious moment to re-think development strategy for Latin America's hillsides.