Alliance for the Sustainable Development of the American Gran Chaco

(Asuncion, March 25, 2014).-  Today, a technical cooperation agreement was signed between CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, and the NGOs  Moises Bertoni from  Paraguay; Nativa from Bolivia; and ProYungas from Argentina, aiming to coordinate and strengthen actions to improve the use of the natural resources of the region of Pilcomayo in the American Gran Chaco, one of the least favored regions of the countries that have this peculiar and exclusive ecosystem.

The signing ceremony included the presence of CAF's Director Representative in Paraguay, Fernando Infante; the Executive Director and General Manager of the Moises Bertoni Foundation from Paraguay, Yan Speranza and Daniel Jacquet, respectively; and the Executive Director of Nativa, from Bolivia, Ivan Arnold.

This alliance is intended to provide more visibility to the strategic value of the Gran Chaco as a region which provides important and diverse resources (forestry, food, hydrocarbons, culture, and biodiversity), leading to improved public policies for that region.

The immediate background of this intervention is the Program for the Sustainable Management of Forests in the Gran Chaco Cross-Border ecosystem  of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Other actors involved in the project are the French Fund for the Global Environment (FFEM, for its acronym in French), Redes Chaco, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Technical Assistance (ATI, for its acronym in Spanish), and Regional Technical Assistance (ATR, for its acronym in Spanish), among others.

Fernando Infante, CAF's Director Representative in Paraguay, stated "we expect to be able to work at different scales, considering planning and territorial integration, but also providing specific solutions to the basic needs of a rural population that is submerged in a geographic marginalization with very few adequate options for development".   

Ana Mercedes Botero, Director of CAF's Social Innovation Initiative, stated that "through this agreement, another step is taken to build an innovating alliance with actors and sectors in different levels, which will allow to manage an increasing bag of resources, aimed at building an alternative model for local conservation and economic development which influences public policies with a three-nation vision".

Yan Speranza, Director of the Mosies Bertoni Foundation, stated "we are very happy to include a very relevant actor in all of Latin America, such as CAF, to this three-nation initiative, as we are sure that it adds value to this ambitious initiative which intends to continue in time, seeking to create social, economic, and environmental value in this huge territory of the Gran Chaco, in the framework of a truly cross-border administration.