BICECA is working to protect the biological and cultural diversity of the Andes-Amazon by monitoring projects in South America.
The BICECA Project: A Response by Civil Society to Regional Integration
The BICECA Project brings support to civil society organizations and communities for the advocacy process on policies and projects in the Andes-Amazon in order to promote sustainable development through conservation and rights protection.
What is BICECA?
Building Informed Civic Engagement for Conservation in the Andes-Amazon (BICECA) is a civil society initiative made possible through a generous grant from the Moore Foundation. BICECA supports civil society organizations to analyze and influence economic integration projects and policies in the Andes-Amazon in order to help protect the biological and cultural diversity of the region. BICECA’s goal is to promote informed engagement and effective conservation advocacy through linking civil society initiatives in the local, regional, and international arenas. Timely, relevant information on IIRSA and International Financial Institution projects is essential for civil society to prevent and mitigate negative environmental and social impacts. The main components of the proposed project aim to:
- Increase awareness and improve access to information on projects and policies affecting the Andes-Amazon
- Strengthen the knowledge and analytical base on the multiple ecological and social impacts of these operations
- Facilitate policy advocacy to influence the design and implementation of problematic IFI investments
Key Aspects of the BICECA Project
- The creation and strengthening of a system of regional organizations that exchange information about IIRSA and other projects and policies
- The collection and dissemination of information about the involved players in the problem projects: national governments, the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank (WB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Andean Finance Corporation (CAF in Spanish), the South American governments and other beneficiaries of the initiative-transnational companies and private banks based in the United States and Europe
- The creation of this web-portal with a database of information on all the projects for the use of the public
- The dissemination of information about projects to Andean and Amazonian communities
- Capacity building in the form of popular informational materials and local workshops on the IFIs and projects
- Monitoring of projects on the ground through a system of regional researchers.
- The production of case studies
- The use of safeguards, case studies, independent experts and other tools to promote the conservation and an alternative, sustainable, participative and local development of the Andes-Amazon region
The Organization of BICECA
The BICECA project is administered by the manager of the Latin America program at Bank Information Center and a coordinator in Washington DC. The Bank Information Center (BIC) partners with civil society actors in developing and transition countries to influence the World Bank, regional development banks like the IDB and other international financial institutions (IFIs) to promote social and economic justice and ecological sustainability. BIC is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that advocates for the protection of rights, informed participation, transparency, and public accountability in the governance and operations of the World Bank, regional development banks, and the IMF. For more information about BIC, see www.bicusa.org.
The BICECA Program currently operates with a coordinator and various researchers at partner organizations. The project coordinator Vince McElhinny examines the impact of the IFIs in the Andes-Amazon region. The researchers that work in this region are Enrique Laats with Crosscultural Bridges and Miguel Suarez with CEADESC in Bolivia, Margarita Florez and Mayra Tenjo with ILSA in Colombia, Cesar Gamboa with DAR in Peru, Walter Rivera with Ecolex in Ecuador, Gonzalo Roza with CEDAH in Argentina, Roberto Smeraldi with Amigos da Terra-Amazonia Brasilera in Brazil. In general, BIC’s BICECA project in Washington facilitates the collection, analysis, organization, and dissemination of information on the role of the IFIs in the Andes-Amazon.
BIC collaborates directly with its partners in South America as well as other NGOs in the North to build capacity and organize to better address problem projects, their proponents, and social and environmental impacts. If you would like more information or are interested in working on these issues, please contact please contact the project coordinator, Vince McElhinny, at vmcelhinny@bicusa.org.
There is also a BICECA informational list-serve that you can subscribe to. Through this list you will receive timely news updates the problem projects, the BICECA project, as well as all of BICECA’s electronic publications on problem projects and the International Financial Institutions that support them. This is a closed informative list serve which is regulated by the BICECA team at Bank Information Center. The volume of electronic exchanges is limited to select information about the initiative. Among our publications you will find BICECA’s monthly and quarterly Bulletin, Thematic Reports and our Annual Report. The list is in Spanish. To subscribe, send an email to: or return to the main page www.bicusa.org.