| Montreal, 14/10/1999 – Grants to 25 community-based environmental projects
across North America were announced today by the Montreal-based Commission for
Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The grants, provided by the CEC's North American
Fund for Environmental Cooperation (NAFEC), total some US$1 million.
Chosen from over 300 applications, the projects were selected on the basis of their
potential to reinforce the four program priorities of the CEC (environment, economy and
trade; conservation of biodiversity; pollutants and health; and law and policy). Two NGOs,
Equiterre (Montreal) and Conservation International (Mexico), for example,
will receive CEC support for their community-based work in developing the environmentally
sound shade coffee industry, a subject also being pursued by the CEC as part of its work
in trade and environment (see CEC press release, "CEC Study sheds new light on
Consumer Appetite for Shade Coffee," or http://www.cec.org).
"These grassroots projects are crucial," says the CEC's Executive
Director Janine Ferretti. "They do real things on the ground that bring local people
into the discussion. We've got to be able to make these links between policy and the
people affected. That's how you do sustainability."
A project in Oaxaca, Mexico, and another in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British
Columbia will bring communities together to develop plans for ecologically responsible
management of local forests. "These are just two examples of projects that really add
value to our program in the conservation of biodiversity," says Ferretti,
"because conservation is ultimately about local people deciding to protect the
resources that sustain them and finding solutions to conflicts that arise among different
stakeholders."
Click here for more information on the 25 projects receiving NAFEC grants today, including
contacts.
NAFEC has been in operation since 1996, and made its 100th grant in May of
this year. Today's announcement brings the total funding provided to NGOs through
NAFEC to nearly US$5 million. Many of the recipients are able to use the NAFEC grant to
leverage additional funds from other sources.
The CEC was established under the NAFTA environmental side accord, the North American
Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), to address environmental issues in North
America from a continental perspective, with a particular focus on those arising in the
context of liberalized trade.
For additional information, contact Charles Dickson at the CEC
at (514) 350-4308, or e-mail at cdickson@ccemtl.org | 
