On 18 March, the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia organized the "Principle 10 Forum: An intersectoral dialogue" with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the event, it presented the developments of the process on the implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration in Latin America and the Caribbean at the national level to the environmental sector and civil society.
During the first session, Dr. Marcos Orellana delivered an in-depth presentation on access rights, environmental democracy and sustainable development. In addition, Dr. Gloria Amparo Rodriguez, underscored that participation in environmental management was a challenge in the new millennium. Finally, Natalia Gómez of the civil society organization “Ambiente y Sociedad”, focused on the perspectives of public participation in the Principle 10 regional negotiation process.
The second session of the event concentrated on the governmental perspective and the capacity of the institutions to assume the challenge that the full implementation of Principle 10 represents. Representatives of the Ministry of the Environment and its different directorates as well as representatives of the different components of the national environmental information system (SINA), the state attorney for environmental matters and the Public Prosecutor's Office explained the tools that Colombia has and areas of improvement to fully comply with this principle.
