Second National Environmental Action Plan

the Government elaborated the Second National Environmental Action Plan (PANA II), which has a 10-year horizon (2004-2014). The Plan's general objective is to provide the country with a strategy that promotes a rational use of natural resources and a sustainable management of economic activities. PANA II intends to respond to Cape-Verde's topographic and agro-ecological diversity, which is reflected in the different environmental concerns and opportunities in each municipality.

The document identifies as priority environmental problems:

i) the limited availability of water suitable for home consumption and economic

development activities;

ii) the loss of marine and terrestrial biodiversity;

iii) the poorly developed basic sanitation infrastructure that considerably affects

public health and tourist development.

PANA II incorporates the development orientations adopted at International Meeting on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002.

By means of a transversal, participatory and decentralised process, involving public and private sectors, municipalities, Non-Governmental Organisations and other civil society groups, four priority interventions were identified:

i) Sustainable management of water resources:

ii) Basic sanitation,

iii) Biodiversity and

iv) Spatial planning.