UNEP AND UNDP TO PREPARE ACTION PLAN FOR CENTRAL AMERICA IN WAKE OF HURRICANE MITCH
Press Release
DEV/2195
UNEP/35
UNEP AND UNDP TO PREPARE ACTION PLAN FOR CENTRAL AMERICA IN WAKE OF HURRICANE MITCH
19981016 BUENOS AIRES, 13 November (UNEP/UNDP) -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) agreed today to work together to develop an action plan for recovery and rehabilitation in Central American countries hard hit by Hurricane Mitch. James Gustave Speth, Administrator of UNDP, and Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, said that they were committed to helping reverse the immense devastation and destruction caused by the disaster.Speaking from the United Nations Climate Change Conference here in Buenos Aires, Mr. Toepfer said that "we must send a signal that people are the centre of our concern". He said the terrible devastation wrought by Mitch was the latest example of vulnerability to climatic events, and that a small team from UNEP, working closely with other United Nations agencies, including the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was already in the region.
Fernando Zumbado, Director of UNDP's Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, said that this was an important joint initiative that would stimulate much-needed recovery and longer-term rehabilitation in the region. He said he would visit Honduras next week to personally assess the damage there, and to meet with Central American leaders.
At the request of environment ministers from the Latin America and Caribbean region, the two organizations agreed to collaborate in preparing the following:
-- an assessment of environmental damages;
-- a short-term emergency strategy and financial package for addressing environmental health problems;
-- an environmental master plan that would focus on land use management planning, integrated basin and coastal zone management, early warning systems and preparedness for environmental emergencies, and more efficient energy technologies.
The UNDP was also requested by environment ministers from the region to reinforce its efforts to coordinate international aid, and to help ensure that both immediate emergency and longer-term development needs are addressed.
The joint UNEP/UNDP initiative was a response to a request from environment ministers attending UNEP's High-Level Committee of Ministers and Officials, which met in Buenos Aires on 10 November.
For more information contact: UNEP, Robert Bisset in Buenos Aires on mobile: 15-4166147, or 254-2-623084 in Nairobi, e-mail: rbisset@rocketmail.com; UNDP, Sid Kane, 54-1-804-4383 in Buenos Aires, or 212-906-5324 in New York; e-mail:sid.kane@undp.org
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