Review of Current Disaster Reduction Trends in the Americas

From 1990 to 1999, absolute poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean grew from 200 million to 225 million people. The highest-income 20 percent of households makes 20 time as much as the lowest 20 percent, making the region the world leader in income inequality. The region has the highest level of biodiversity in the world. However these global resources are under serious pressure. Each year, 6 million hectares of tropical forest are lost. In addition, new studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underscore the likelihood in the 21st century of greater and more frequent hydrometeorological disasters as a result of climate change. Scenarios include more coastal flooding and damage to infrastructure as a result of higher sea levels; an increase in atmospheric and sea temperatures leading to greater droughts, extreme heat waves and forest fires; more intense tropical storms and rainfall leading to more floods, landslides and avalanches, as well as intensification of all the phenomena related to El Niño and La Niña events.

At the same time, there is a growing recognition of the social and economic benefits associated to disaster risk reduction activities throughout the Americas, which is shown in new policies, allocation of budgetary opportunities for such activities and conceptual developments.

As a contribution to the Hemispheric Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, ISDR Secretariat prepared a document entitled “Review of the Current Disaster Reduction Trends in the Americas”. The document describes activities, accomplishments as well as future trends and challenges related to risk reduction in the region. The document is available both in English and Spanish at the following addresss: www.eird.org