Creation of the forum CB27 - Foundation Office Brazil
Event Reports
During the third national meeting of the CB27 (Capitais Brasileiras 27), the heads of the municipal departments for environment of the capitals of the Brazilian federal states have signed a founding charter in order to officially establish the CB27 forum. Current challenges on the subjects of climate change and solid waste management were discussed within a seminar on the following day.
From 9 to 10 of October, the heads of the municipal departments for environment of the capitals of the Brazilian federal states gathered in Salvador for a meeting of the CB27 network. The purpose of the meeting was the creation of a separate legal personality for the network. Délio Malheiros, deputy mayor and head of the department for environment of Belo Horizonte, has been elected as the first coordinator of the network. Nelson Moreira Franco, head of the subsection on climate change within the department for environment of the city of Rio de Janeiro, has been appointed as the managing director of the CB27. The newly established legal entity serves as a platform to foster the exchange of experiences on best practices among the member cities.
On October 9, the Department of Sustainability of the city of Salvador (SECIS), received the representatives of the CB27 group. Next to holding the first election of the representatives of the forum, the day featured an intensive exchange among the respective heads of the departments for environment. Amongst others, common challenges, such as dealing with public tenders, have been discussed. In this context, the department heads reported on the difficulties to divide responsibilities between the local and regional authorities. Whilst the municipalities are legally entitled to execute the tenders which provide the municipalities with access to substantial financial resources the responsibility might however fall to the regional government if the municipalities are not equipped adequately with trained staff and other resources. The construction of waste management or public transport is for example associated with extremely high expenditures. Often the cities cannot bear these costs on their own given a lack of sufficient financial resources.
The first day has been concluded with the signing of the Declaration of Salvador. It stipulates that the CB27 will cooperate in the future as a forum striving for the integration of the capital cities and for increasing their weight as actors in the area of environmental policy.
The second day focused on the issues of climate change and waste management. The seminar has been opened by Ivanilson Gomes, Head of the Department of Sustainability in Salvador. In the presence of Célia Sacramento, Deputy Mayor of Salvador, Carlos Alberto Muniz, Head of the Department for Environment of Rio de Janeiro, Congressman José Luiz França Penna and Felix Dane, Director of the Brazilian Office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, specific questions on these subjects have been presented and discussed.
The full text of the Charta of Salvador is available here (only in Portuguese).
