| On December 12th - 13th, donors and partners of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) will meet in Paris at the World Bank office to renew their commitment to making the MBC the natural platform for regional development. Seven Ministers of Environment from Central America and representatives from European Governments, civil society groups, private sector, and international organizations will be discussing the new business plan of the MBC.
The MBC was highlighted in the recent Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development as a success story in making sustainable development happen on the ground. Since 1997, the MBC has been protecting the environment in Mesoamerica -- an area extending from Southern Mexico to Panama representing the world’s wealthiest bio-diversity -- establishing a regional system of protected natural areas, buffer zones, and connectors.
The MBC has managed to put one fifth of this territory under special environmental protection. From twenty-five protected natural areas, they have moved to six hundred in less than ten years. In some countries the deforestation rates were arrested or even reversed.
World Bank Director of Environment Kristalina Georgieva and Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica and current President of the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD), invite press to attend a luncheon press briefing at 12:00 noon in the World Bank's Paris office (66, avenue d'Iena) on December 12th for an in-depth look at how the MBC is making sustainable development happen in a tangible way.
For more information, please contact Nicolette Bowyer (nbowyer@worldbank.org), Sergio Jellinek (sjellinek@worldbank.org), or Kristyn Ebro (kebro@worldbank.org).
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