Governments have strengthened environmental policies through institutional changes and legislation. The number of global and regional environmental agreements has increased sharply, bringing greater awareness of environmental issues. Encouraging as these signs are, not enough has been achieved. The changes that have been put in place have not significantly improved the environment or slowed the pace of degradation. While policies for environmental protection and management are moving in the right direction, the pace is slow and their impact isolated.
Environmental issues are still far from being integrated into mainstream thinking and policy-making.
The time for treating the environment as and add-on is long gone. Better integration of environmental thinking into decision-making about the economy, agriculture, urban management and all other sector is of the utmost importance. The Latin America and the Caribbean Environment Outlook report is the first step in responding to this request. The GEO Report for Latin America and the Caribbean - Environment Outlook 2000 is the first step in responding to this request. The United Nations Environment Programme will continue to provide leadership in the region for the preparation of integrated environmental assessment reports, regional assessment information systems, and the capacity-building necessary to support these activities within the framework of the GEO process and methodology.