Mexico UK Sustainable Development Dialogue

Sustainable development refers to development that satisfies the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future. At present, our way of life is placing an increasing burden on the planet that cannot be sustained. Sustainable development uses new technologies to conserve natural resources, in order to help stabilise the climate and adjust to economic and population growth.

The UK has Sustainable Development Dialogues (SDD) with five countries across the world –China, Brazil, India, South Africa and Mexico. These countries were chosen because they are all key regional players with expanding populations and rising expectations who are now experiencing significant environmental and social pressures. The policy decisions that are taken now will profoundly affect the rest of the world's future style of life.

The SDD recognises that in a globalised world, nations are inseparably linked, and that global challenge requires mutual understanding and dispute resolution. The Dialogues offer a new, coherent path for governments to incorporate sustainability into their long-term development and security. SDD projects are aimed at creating projects that address the needs of today without leaving negative effects for future generations.

On 4th October 2006, the then Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, and Margaret Beckett, the then UK Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed the Memorandum of Understanding for Sustainable Development Dialogue between the UK and Mexico, formally beginning collaboration on projects to create shared sustainable development objectives. Later, in July 2007, a work programme was agreed between the two countries, setting out six priorities for year one:

1. National Governance for Sustainable Development
2. Climate Change and Energy
3. Sustainable Tourism
4. Sustainable Consumption and Production
5. Sustainable Cities
6. Natural Resources Management

The SDD in Mexico currently funds 13 projects across the country, including promoting transit-orientated development in Mexico City; developing biofuels in arid areas; designing and developing a chemicals inventory; and developing community conservation areas in Oaxaca. Further information about all our projects can be found on our website: www.embajadabritanica.com.mx

SDD Project Focus: Conserving Mangrove Swamps in Nayarit

The British Ambassador Giles Paxman visited one of the SDD projects on Monday 26th May. Funded by the British Government through the SDD, the project aims to improve the conservation and restoration of the mangrove swamps of Nayarit, by training and building capacity of the local community and developing tools for wetland restoration, conservation and ecotourism.

Along with the Conservation Coordinator of the National Forestry Commission (Conafor), who are co-funding and implementing the project, Ambassador Paxman toured the area by plane. He said that conservation and restoration of the mangroves is not just a question of the environment, but also a question of the future development of the region.

More info on this project please click:

http://www.enfoqueinformativo.com/note.asp?note=61241

http://www.enfoqueinformativo.com/note.asp?note=61229

http://www.conafor.gob.mx/portal/docs/secciones/comunicacion/B-692008.pdf

http://www.mexicoforestal.gob.mx/nota.php?id=480