Environment is so much a asset of countries like a human rightin addition to a responsibility towards the future generations. The heat waves in the month of June were atypical in the world. The first 11 days of June were the hottest on record, according to the European Weather Service. Climate change of Copernicus. The Earth’s average temperature is now 1.1 degrees Celsius higher than at the end of the 19th century. The consequences for the humanity and the biodiversity they can be fatal.
The vulnerability to climate change it is different in each region; however, there are States that face a greater risk, such as the Island States. In 1992, within the framework of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro38 Member States of the UN and 20 non-UN members/Associate Members of Regional Commissions in the Small Island Developing States group. It should be remembered that last March, the UN adopted a resolution to request the international Court of Justice an advisory opinion on the legal consequences that States must face for their actions or omissions that cause significant harm to the climate systemand this resolution was spearheaded by Vanatuan Island State of the South Pacific.
To diagnose and address the consequences of climate changethere are global initiatives such as the joint global audit of the
INTOSAI (IDI)/WGEA Development Initiative for climate change adaptation actions). The Island States participate fundamentally in these works. In our region, at the initiative of OLACEFS between 2014 and 2015, COMTEMA carried out the first edition of the Coordinated Audit on Protected Areas in Latin America, with the participation of SAIs from 12 countries. 1,120 protected areas were assessed from the point of view of the degree of implementation and governance of these areas and compliance with Aichi Target 11. An innovative tool, Indimapa, was used to evaluate protected areas and monitor progress, as well as communicate the results in a visual, georeferenced and easy-to-understand way.
This exercise was repeated during the 2018-2021 term of COMTEMA, which allowed the methodology to be expanded to other countries, whose objective was to evaluate the contribution of the national policies of protected areas of the countries involved to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs) related to biodiversity (SDGs 14 and 15). The coordinated audit consisted of three fundamental stages: training stage, through three virtual courses offered by CCC; execution stage, with which the data collection is strengthened through surveys, documentary research and consultations with information systems and databases and reinforcing methodological support to the teams for the application of audit; and finally the consolidation and results stage.
The audit coordinated has an executive summary, summary sheet and Indimaps in the languages Spanish English and Portuguese, available in open sources on the net. These two previous experiences have allowed that, within the framework of OLACEFS actions, a coordinated audit can be carried out in protected areas of Portuguese-speaking countries. The exchange of ideas and experiences, as well as good practices that can be adopted from other auditing exercises, are key to improving our processes. In this sense the Superior Audit of the Federation works to contribute to better environmental governance with the support of OLACEFS.
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