CAF - development bank of Latin America - carried out in the town of Puerto Varas, Chile, theNational Meeting of Biodivercities: circular economy models to improve solid waste management, in partnership with the municipal administration and the Alexander von Humboldt Biodiversity Research Institute of Colombia. The event brought together more than 30 local authorities from the country who addressed, from a circular economy approach, the comprehensive management of solid waste and the role it can play in the protection of local biodiversity.

Also present were CAF's Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming, Christian Asinelli; the Minister Secretary General of the Presidency of Chile, Álvaro Elizalde Soto; the mayor of Puerto Varas, Tomás Gárate Silva, together with authorities representing the Humboldt Institute and CAF.

 

The Chilean minister @alvaroelizalde highlights that "this network of Biodivercities enables the exchange of good practices, helping us to understand that climate change is a universal challenge. However, facing this global challenge is only possible if each one of us… pic.twitter.com/dsJTCu1agA

— CAF (@AgendaCAF) June 30, 2023

The event in Puerto Varas joins the series of meetings that have already been held in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Paraguay, bringing together more than 140 local authorities from across the region, with the aim of promoting a model that effectively incorporates biodiversity into urban planning and management.

This event reflected the importance of contemplating the circular economy approach in the management of cities, focused on separating development and economic prosperity from the consumption of resources and the degradation of ecosystems and on creating opportunities for a new and better growth model. , that contributes to the conservation of biodiversity with positive impacts for society. Based on the use of clean energy and renewable materials and accelerated by digital innovation, the circular economy is a more resilient, distributed, diverse and inclusive economic model, in which waste is not generated because products, materials and nutrients are kept in use and circulate in the economy or are returned to the environment to support healthy ecosystems.

In urban contexts, the circular economy model can be applied in a concrete way in waste management and pollution reduction; the circulation of products and materials to reduce the degradation of ecosystems and regenerative production, which allows biodiversity to thrive. This is especially important if one considers that cities are responsible for the consumption of around 75% of natural resources and between 60 and 80% of the energy produced, in addition to generating 50% of waste and emitting between 60 and 80 % of Greenhouse Effect Gases (GHG) globally.

CAF, committed to Biodivercities

“At CAF we have a total commitment to cities and local governments. We want to understand the needs, dreams and expectations of those who are with citizens every day, because Latin America needs the service vocation of its mayors. We need to be connected, learn from each other and work in a network”, remarked Christian Asinelli. “80 percent of the region's inhabitants live and develop in cities. By 2050, it is expected that 245 million tons of solid waste per year will be generated in the urban areas of the continent. If we also consider that in a large part of the cities, tons of waste are generated that are destined for open-air dumps without any type of control or protection of the environment, it is clear that we need more ambitious agendas to improve the health of the region.” added.

We need to stay connected, learn from each other and network

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Christian Asinelli, Vice President of Strategic Programming at CAF.

For his part, Tomás Gárate, mayor of Puerto Varas, the host community of the meeting, pointed out that “it is a pride that from Puerto Varas we are thinking about the cities of the future, with this new network that articulates mayors from all over the country. But the construction of biodiversity cities challenges us to make long-term, often unpopular, structural decisions that go beyond a mayoral period, that focus on people and not on ourselves."

Also present at the meeting were Alicia Montalvo and Ángel Cárdenas, managers of CAF's Climate Action and Human Development, Water and Creative Economies; Santiago Aparicio, manager of the Migratory Bird Routes of the Americas Initiative; Wilson Ramírez, manager of the Nature-Based Solutions Center of the Knowledge Directorate of the Humboldt Institute; Pablo Badenier, former Minister of the Environment of Chile; Carolina Leitao, president of the Chilean Association of Municipalities; Francista Astaburuaga, director of the Center for Innovation in Cities of the Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD) and Patricio Vallespín, regional governor of Los Lagos.

At the end of the meeting, 21 mayors signed the Barranquilla Declaration and committed to promoting sustainable local development, in balance with nature, focused on the circular economy in the management of cities and urban planning.