 In
recent years a world consensus has been reached on the need for sustainable development.
Such a changed perspective on development implies new demands, one of which is the
production of information that will play a critical role in providing a firm bases for
decision making and monitoring development. To respond to this demand, International
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
made a collaborative agreement in 1995 to prepare indicators for monitoring development
and the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean. These indicators would serve as
tools to support decision making and planning. The project Environmental
and Sustainability Indicators: Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean resulted
from this collaborative agreement. In 1998 this collaborative effort was strengthened with
the expertise of the World Bank
Environmental Economics and Indicators unit. With this new input from the World Bank the
indicators methodology developed for Latin America and the Caribbean was applied and
improved in Central America, the results can be seen in the project Rural
Sustainability Indicators: Outlook for Central America.
Indicators
Indicators are important for the sustainable use and management
of environmental resources. They give valuable information about the present status of the
resources being measured, the rate and direction of change, highlighting priority issues
and guiding policy formulation.
Indicators can serve as important tools in the communication of scientific and
technical information. They can also facilitate access to this information for different
groups of users and, in so doing, transform information into action. As such, they can
play an active role in improving policymaking processes. However, indicator initiatives
require a degree of "infrastructure" if they are to result in the kinds of
changes sought by users.
The development of user-friendly tools and the utilization of common indicator
frameworks facilitate not only the transformation of data into relevant information, but
also the formulation of strategies for policymaking and planning.
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