The report draws on presentations and discussions held during the LAC sessions of the International Conference "Water in the Green Economy in Practice: Towards Rio+20," held from 3-5 October 2011, in Zaragoza, Spain.
Launched during the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), this report is intended as a best practices guide. It contains four sections and two annexes. Section I discusses mainstreaming water into a green economy in agriculture, industry, cities and watersheds. Section II examines the challenges, approaches and lessons learned on water and green economy in LAC. Section III presents case studies from Barbados, Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala. Section IV presents "the expert's perspective," answers to a series of questions put to three regional water experts.
Annex 1 offers "tools for changes," a brief review of economic incentives, green jobs, water cost recovery and financing, investments in the protection and improvement of biodiversity, promotion of water technologies. Annex 2 lists the issues presented for discussion at the Zaragoza Conference.