International Cooperation in the Environmental Sector

Resources provided by international cooperation are of great importance for Colombia because the Planes Nacionales de Desarrollo (National Development Plans-PND for its initials in Spanish) for the years 2010-2014 and 2014-2018 defined international positioning as a strategic pillar for the accomplishment of goals. In this sense, international cooperation has been essential for the Gestión Integral de la biodiversidad y los servicios ecosistémicos (Integrated Management of Biodiversity and Ecosystemic Services - GIBSE for its initials in Spanish). The Official Development Assistance (ODA) is the major source of resources that have been destined in such topics. Although international cooperation has played an important role in achieving sustainable growth and integrating social and regional development, Colombia was recently classified by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank as a country of medium-high rent, making the acquirement of financial resources from international cooperation more difficult. Albeit this situation, Colombia continues to be an important receptor of resources from the ODA due to factors of inequity, environmental degradation², and the armed conflict³, among others.

In Colombia, international cooperation does not represent more than 0.4% of the total of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, international cooperation in environmental topics equals about 0.5% of the GDP⁴, making international cooperation a structural element in strengthening the management of the environmental sector. It is worth noting that in many cases resources from international cooperation have represented more than 25 % of the budget of the environmental sector⁵, making evident the interest of international cooperation in supporting environmental subjects and the need to increase budget for these areas.

On the other hand, the instructions of the PND in terms of environmental topics have evolved from having a marked perspective of extractivism to adopting a greater affinity with the paradigm of sustainable development. This implies that strategic environmental evaluations to plan and organize productive activities associated with growth turn into essential tools for decision making and land use planning. This new focus entails ambitious goals that need more budget than what is currently invested by the State in the environmental sector and also seek for less dependence on investments of international cooperation. Therefore the challenge is to coherently and strategically plan investments in zones where socio-environmental problems are urgent and where private investments and incentives are limited ⁶.