2016-07-13
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The “International Seminar on Urban Environmental Management” was attended by specialists, scholars, professionals, representatives of Brazilian municipalities and public servants from Federal Government entities working in the area. Discussions centered on good national and international experiences related to the search for a quality urban ecosystem, aiming at preparing a Federal Strategy for Urban Environmental Management. The Seminar took place on May 12-13, in Brasília.
The event is part of the action “Policies, Instruments and Experiences on Urban Environmental Management in the European Union and in Brazil”, coordinated by the Ministério do Meio Ambiente (MMA) [Ministry of the Environment], in connection with the 8th Call of the European Union-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Project, an initiative carried out by the European Union Delegation to Brazil (DELBRA) and the Ministério do Planejamento, Orçamento e Gestão (MP) [Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management].
During the opening session, Asier Santillán Luzuriaga, Cooperation Attaché and Programme Officer at DELBRA, stressed that correcting the current uncontrolled city growth model requires a broader measure that involves all three government levels: the federal, State and municipal levels. “By promoting studies and experiences for exchange on the theme, this action intends to support the preparation and improvement of public policies for the planning and territorial organization of urban areas”, he emphasized.
On that occasion, Asier Santillán also informed the delegates that the European Union approved a 40-million Euros financial support a package to Latin America, as part of the Regional Cooperation Program for Climate Change. “The objective is to reinforce the capacity of Latin American countries to mitigate the impacts caused by climate change”, explained the DELBRA representative.
In her talk, Giovana Rocha Veloso, National Deputy Director for the Sector Dialogues Project, stressed the effectiveness of the initiative and the importance of bilateral cooperation between the European Commission and the Brazilian Federal Government. “The Project has a performance rate which surpasses 90%, an extremely high rate for the Brazilian context”, she stated while listing the figures for the 8th Call: “We have 70 actions in progress addressing 24 themes and involving 29 Brazilian and 21 European institutions”. She also praised the participation of the MMA. “The Ministry of the Environment has been a partner to the Project since 2010. It has already carried out 29 actions and is currently developing six additional actions”.
The opening ceremony counted on the participation of Wófsi Yuri de Souza, General Coordinator for Bilateral Technical Cooperation of the Agência Brasileira de Cooperação - ABC [Brazilian Cooperation Agency]; Haroldo Pinheiro Villar de Queiroz, President of the Conselho de Arquitetura e Urbanismo do Brasil - CAU/BR [Architecture and Urban Planning Board of Brazil]; Luís Oliveira Ramos, National Secretary for Accessibility and Urban Programs of the Ministry of Cities and Adalberto Eberhard, Director of the Department for Territorial Zoning of the MMA, who highlighted the need for joint work not only between Brazilian and European institutions, but, particularly, between the Brazilian agencies at the three levels of government.
Mission to Europe
In April, Luís Eduardo Freitas Tinoco, Environmental Analys at the Secretaria de Recursos Hídricos e Ambiente Urbano [Secretariat for Water Resources and Urban Environment] of the MMA and Marcel Cláudio Sant'ana, Project Manager at the Secretaria Nacional de Acessibilidade e Programas Urbanos [National Secretariat for Accessibility and Urban Programs] of the Ministério das Cidades [Ministry of Cities], visited three European cities to learn about actions geared towards sustainable urban development. The technical mission was sponsored by the Sector Dialogues Project.
In the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, the federal public servants visited the Municipal Administration, the Environmental Studies Centre (CEA) and the Salburua Wetlands Interpretation Centre (Ataria), to learn about strategies, policies and actions for the protection and recovery of urban water bodies in urban expansion areas. In Copenhagen, Denmark, they visited the Municipal Administration and the Danish Architecture Centre, where they learned about the environmental zoning and urban planning instrument based on the Finger Plan (five convergent axis) used by the municipal government and metropolitan region authorities. Finally, they travelled to Ljubljana, in Slovenia, to visit the seat of the Municipal Administration, the renovated Smartinski Park, the revitalized River Sava and the renovated and reurbanized banks of the Ljubljana River.
According to Luís Eduardo Freitas, in addition to gaining a better understanding of issues related to the protection and recovery of water bodies, urban environmental zoning and the protection and expansion of urban green areas, the visits also helped the delegates to understand the political-administrative structure that enabled the implementation of such urban environmental management initiatives and how society participated in the process. “Moreover, we sought to understand these measures in the context of territorial management policies that go beyond municipality borders and provide an understanding of a city as a whole, including their systems and sectoral policies, such as urban mobility, housing, sanitation and adjustment to climate change”, he pointed out.
Luís Eduardo Freitas stated that the knowledge acquired during this technical mission will serve as an element to consolidate the studies carried out by both experts hired by the Project (a foreign and a local expert), which will be posted online, and to develop a Federal Strategy for Urban Environmental Management.
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