OAS programs turn a green leaf.

• Position: Organization of American States

The Organization of American States is ideally suited to addressing the complexities of environmental issues with thirty-five member states working together through a variety of political and multidisciplinary technical branches.

National laws, international treaties, economic policies, cultural values, basic needs, understanding and knowledge all impact on what is done or not done. For example, the survival of migratory ducks, who fly from the Antarctic to the Arctic twice a year and whose populations have dropped dangerously in the past decade, is affected by forces as diverse as farming practices in Peru, development and uses of beaches in Delaware, and Canadian wetlands policies. The Tucuman Amazon parrot, common ten years ago, is now endangered due to forestry practices in many countries, the needs of villagers for farm land and lumber, the fad for exotic birds in the United States, and the taste for feather art in Europe.

For over twenty years the OAS has conducted projects dealing with environmental issues. The Department of Scientific Affairs has trained thousands of scientists and established an inter-American network of scientific institutions concerned with both theoretical and applied research. The Department of Educational Affairs has brought together the universities of the many Amazon countries to develop joint research and curricula in the fields of nature and the environment. On another level, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs have worked with government ministries and other institutions to develop policies and enact laws related to the environment.

Culture: Cause and Effect

Environment cannot be separated from culture. As the complexities of environmental issues become daily more apparent, other departments of the OAS have initiated their own particular programs. One of these is the Regional Program of Cultural Development (PRDC).

Religion, aesthetics, rituals, food preferences and attitudes towards what constitutes the "good life" (thus influencing consumption) develop within and in reaction to a physical environment. History has demonstrated that these attitudes change and evolve with the migration of people and the settlement of new territories. Social and cultural values, molded by the encounter of European settlers with indigenous civilizations, helped determine what plants and animals were brought to the New World or sent back to the Old, as well as how the land was used and what lands or products were...