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Klaus Fischer, ISWA, University of Stuttgart
The first International Workshop with Latin American, Asian and European partner was held in Valparaiso, Chile in March 2008. The core of the meeting was the international workshop, which brought together participants from 3 continents and from different institutions, including participants from public administration, universities, and international working companies and institutions.
The internal meeting was attended by all Latin American and European partners and one partner from Thailand who was delegated from the other Asian partners. They evaluated the current issues in length and defined further directions and needs in the following topics:
- Existing situation in legislation and environmental education in partner countries
- Existing situation of solid waste management in partner countries, cultural aspect, social aspects and barriers
- Build up and expansion of WasteNet networks
- Development of WasteNet website and e-newsletter
- Political strategy for a sustainable future in Waste management
- Proposals for a future RTD strategy
Results of the workshop:
The workshop showed examples of first attempts towards sustainable solid waste management in some of the participating countries. The connection between solid waste and other environmental areas was also seen closer. One very important aspect was the discussion about the contribution of solid waste as a source of renewable energy. Despite some differences between individual partner countries, the evaluation of solid waste legislation has shown a gap of implementation and control of environmental laws and regulations. In some countries the governmental contribution to environment is very small, only few persons in the ministries are responsible for environmental affairs.The knowledge of environmental issues is poor. Related subjects are little present in schools, universities and media. Only few scientists and engineers are available in environmental subjects. Vocational training in environmental topics has to be improved.The discussions about strategy and methodology for a further environmental policy and development are not finished at this state of the project. Some ideas are growing, such as twinning projects between EU and Environmental ministries, where comparable projects in other fields (e.g. road construction) were found.Another suggestion is the founding of centres for technical assistance. Those centres should be nodes for a net of environmental institutions in every Latin American country; in urban and rural areas. They also can act as an independent and neutral information source for all people.The workshop showed the problems of legislation and administration in the partner countries. As a result, proposals for future EU strategies were derived, which will be discussed during the next months with each partner.
(Klaus Fischer, co-ordinator)
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