CIAO DATE: 11/03

Environment and Development in Mexico: Recommendations for Reconciliation

Jan Gilbreath

The Center for Strategic and International Studies

June 2003

 

About the Book

"... the most readable, comprehensive, and well informed account of how a key developing country, Mexico, built and upgraded its environmental institutions and policies and the positive influences in this process of economic integration with the United States via NAFTA. There are plenty of lessons in this book for the environmental, trade, and development policy communities."-José M. Salazar-Xirinachs, Chief Trade Adviser, Organization of American States.

"This incisive, well-written account adds enormously to our understanding of the Mexican environmental policy process [and] the role of NAFTA and the United States in working to advance environmental programs..."-Howard J. Wiarda, Leonard J. Horwitz Professor of Iberian and Latin American Studies, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Senior Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

"...shows us that deepening trade relations can also strengthen cooperative international efforts aimed at natural resource protection and pollution prevention. The U.S. and Mexican governments have learned important environmental lessons from each other under NAFTA, and that newfound knowledge should be carried forward by both countries as we enter into deeper economic relations throughout the hemisphere."-Chris Dodd, U.S. Senator.

"... an insightful analysis of Mexico's democratic and environmental transition. We have many challenges, and much more work ahead, to strengthen our environmental institutions and do a better job of enforcement and compliance..."-Gustavo Alanis-Ortega, President, Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) (Mexican Environmental Law Center).

Throughout the 1990s the Mexican government substantially reinforced its environmental regulations and, with the help of other nations and international institutions, developed programs and techniques to address the nation's environmental challenges. But the policy gains of the 1990s have not been in effect long enough to compensate for environmental deterioration that occurred over decades of rapid industrialization. Mexico faces serious challenges in water supply and contamination, deforestation, and desertification. This book dispassionately examines the continuing natural resource problems that threaten to undermine Mexico's future economic development and offers recommendations for reversing those resource trends.

 

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

1. Mexico's Path

2. Mexico's Growth and its Impact on the Environment

3. Mexico's Self-Assessment

4. Deepening Economic and Environmental Linkages

5. The Influence of Globalization

6. Adopting Environmental Management Tools

7. Deterioration of Natural Resources and Remediation Efforts

8. From Mexico to the Americas

9. Policy Recommendations

Bibliography

Appendix: Research Interviews

Index

About the Author