sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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consequence of the increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in productive
processes, or in a transition towards a more environmentally friendly economy.
3. Information technologies and knowledge societies
Over the last few <strong>years</strong>, Latin American and Caribbean countries have increased their ICT use in various
fields. Access to these tools is positive for environmental administration and management, since they
improve processes for generating, managing, integrating and exchanging information as a basis for
decision-making in different spheres.
Such progress raises new social and ethical responsibilities for scientists, technologists and
decision-makers, to ensure that the technologies in question are applied in strengthening efforts to achieve
<strong>sustainable</strong> <strong>development</strong> targets. According to chapter 34 of Agenda 21, achieving these targets requires
available scientific knowledge and environmentally sensitive technologies to be applied to eradicate
poverty and maintain economic <strong>development</strong>, while at the same time addressing social priorities and
protecting the environment.
In the environmental domain, ICTs have major potential on issues such as knowledge of
ecosystems and natural resources, monitoring of land-surface changes, land management, prevention and
management of disaster risk, or planning for infrastructure.
The natural disasters that have occurred in the region in recent <strong>years</strong> have resulted in the
formation of organizations that use spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) and innovations in remote sensing
technologies, to generate and distribute data regionally, nationally and locally —with a clear focus on
prevention or mitigation of the effects of natural phenomena, events caused by human action, or global
changes. These include the Central American Geographic Information Project, the Regional Programme
for the Reduction of Vulnerability and Environmental Degradation (PREVDA), and the Central American
Probabilistic Risk Assessment project, along with the Andean countries’ project Support for Disaster
Prevention in the Andean Community (PREDECAN), among others. Paving the way for other similar
initiatives requires better access to ICTs together with specialized professional and technical personnel.
As the public sector increases its use of ICTs, the supply of information and services improves. In
the case of the environment, this helps to increase the production of public information on the environment
and improve access to that information, which encourages greater citizen participation in controlling the
implementation of public policies, and greater exchange between governments (UNEP, <strong>20</strong>10a).
The <strong>development</strong> of ICTs and their role in the sociocultural aspects of globalization gave birth to
the concept of the information society. Then, over the last few <strong>years</strong>, the idea was overtaken by the
concept of knowledge societies, which encompass other social, ethical and political dimensions, because
they refer to a society that thrives on its diversities and capacities, while recognizing the importance of the
plurality of knowledge. Use of the word “societies” in the plural means that the concept rejects the idea of
a unique “ready-to-use” model that takes insufficient account of cultural and linguistic diversity.