Where was the role of the environment at the Regional Platform for DRR in the Americas?
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Climate and disaster risks
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Coastal resilience
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Integrated delta management
The Panamanian delegation and Wetlands International call for ecosystem conservation in Disaster Risk Reduction.
The Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the Americas (RP14), held last week in Ecuador, concluded with little attention for one of the root causes of increased disaster risk: Environmental degradation. Ecosystems, such as wetlands, in a healthy state provide many benefits and play a key role in disaster risk reduction (DRR). Nevertheless, they received few mentions during the entire platform of three days, and in the final Communiqué their role is limited as a topic to be addressed in cases of transboundary risk management.
However, assuming leadership in the matter, the Panamanian delegation – on the verge of the event’s closing ceremony – in their official declaration made a call for the post-2015 international framework to include ecosystem conservation for disaster risk reduction. This reflects Wetlands International’s inputs that ask for increased attention to the need for integrated water and wetland management to reduce disaster risk in the post-2015 international Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Read our press release (in Spanish).