Ciudades para la vida: experiencias exitosas y propuestas para la acción (Cities for Living: Innovative Experiences and Proposals for Action)

THIS BOOK PRESENTS an overview of urban environmental issues in Peru and Bolivia. It contains three main sections. The first includes overviews of urban environmental problems in Peru and Bolivia and of the institutional framework within which the different actors are supposed to tackle these problems. The second section contains seven detailed case studies, two from Bolivia and five from Peru. These were selected by an independent bi-national jury as being “best practices” in urban environmental management, and were intensively analyzed and documented in preparation for the Habitat II conference (Istanbul 1996). This section presents the results of this analysis and elaborates on the key factors of success that can be found in all case studies.

Three case studies directly tackle issues of urban environmental management. The paper on Inter-institutional Consultation and Environmental Improvement in San Marcos, Cajamarca describes how the cholera epidemic that hit Peru in 1992 finally motivated local government, NGOs, community-based organizations, donors and central government agencies to join efforts to improve environmental and living conditions in the city and the surrounding rural area. This process resulted in a strong inter-institutional cooperation, bringing seven mayors from different political backgrounds together, encouraging the preparation of coherent provincial development plans, and assigning responsibilities and funds to execute plans. The paper also reports on the concrete results achieved, especially in water and sanitation, and how gender issues were included in the activities. The paper on Consultation in Urban Environmental Management in Ilo describes how continuity in local leadership, innovative planning methods and strong popular participation led to impressive improvements in the environmental and living conditions in a small industrial city on the southern coast of Peru, which is heavily polluted due to mining and fishing industries. This paper also describes how these industries were convinced or forced to diminish their environmental impact. A paper on the defense and conservation of a natural area, Pantanos de Villa, in Lima's metropolitan area describes how a natural swamp area within Lima was saved from further urban invasions. The park is now the most important natural area in Lima and is visited by thousands of people each year.

Other papers focus on more sectoral issues: the functioning of micro-enterprises on solid waste management in Lima; the functioning of a revolving fund for water tanks and latrines in Southern Lima; allotments managed by women in El Alto, Bolivia; and workshops for community leaders on urban life and the urban environment in La Paz, Bolivia. From these case studies, lessons are drawn about how to improve urban environmental management in both countries, and to stimulate the replication of these best practices.

The book's final section contains a set of concrete proposals, a national action plan to improve environmental management in each country and an outline of a capacity-building strategy to train people to take up these tasks. At the end of the book a directory can be found of over 200 addresses of experts and institutions working in the field of urban environmental management.