Third Border Green Infrastructure Forum opens in Coahuila

Since 2014, the two institutions have been advancing a green infrastructure initiative designed to break paradigms in border cities and promote public policies involving green infrastructure elements that may be included in urban development plans. They have also made efforts to dispel myths and show governments, organizations, and the community at large, that the creation of green infrastructure does not represent high costs and in many places it is even self-sustaining. This initiative is part of the BECC/NADB institutional capacity building and public participation program, in which public awareness has significant weight. Both institutions are also working to incorporate this initiative to urban planning in Mexican municipalities.

On behalf of the President of the Autonomous University of Coahuila, Asset Management and Services General Coordinator Paulo Sergio Villarreal said at the forum’s opening ceremony on September 21^st that “green infrastructure, in addition to being important, is a topic of great interest and as such, the University has been addressing it both from an academic standpoint and through research efforts in order to identify alternatives for potential solutions to address the needs currently faced by the community.”    

The opening ceremony was attended by BECC and NADB officials, including BECC General Manager Maria Elena Giner and Senior Project Closure Specialist Fernando Barrera, in addition to SEMARNAT Delegate in Coahuila, Raul Fernando Tamez-Robledo, among other personalities.

Maria Elena Giner considers the green infrastructure initiative advanced by the BECC and NADB an “emerging issue” that will assist with planning for climate change. She said the government of Coahuila is “the only state government working with us on these emerging issues."

She acknowledged that the government of Coahuila, through its Secretary of the Environment, Eglantina Canales, is an agent of change, a champion for “passionately promoting green infrastructure,” who has already implementing some projects and is the reason why the Forum was held in this state.

“Green infrastructure has been something very innovative for me, and has opened my eyes to the possibility of transforming the border area,” she said. “The border does not have to be unvegetated. Nature, green areas, and linear parks are not a right exclusive to the wealthy; they are a right of the entire community. A shift of paradigms, a change in the way we design and conceive our infrastructure for parking lots, roadways and medians is how we will make an impact on stormwater management and on the quality of life and the environment.”

On behalf of the Governor of Coahuila, Secretary Eglantina Canales thanked the General Manager and acknowledged “the great effort made by the BECC and the North American Development Bank to provide us with an opportunity to listen to brilliant speakers who will communicate their knowledge and concerns, but will also propose solutions, and we will have an opportunity to interact” with panelists. She said Arteaga was selected as the venue for this Forum “because it is a wonderful municipality, it's a designated Pueblo Magico with forests of fir, pine and oyamel, and has the most delicious apples grown in Mexico.”

To view forum presentations, please use the following link: http://www.becc.org/page/border-green-infrastructure-forum-iii-materials

For video (Spanish only) of the event, please use the following link: http://www.becc.org/news/videos/third-border-green-infrastructure-forum-opens-in-coahuila-spanish-only#.WBJbnOErKgQ