Roberto Araquistain, vice minister of the Environment of Nicaragua (MARENA), said that the delegations attending the meeting will focus on three types of projects: forestry and water, urban and rural clean up, and the integral management of watersheds.

According to Araquistain there are already projects that will be backed with financing from the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

In the case of Nicaragua, he asserted that the government is determined to obtain funds to carry out clean-up projects in the Lake of Nicaragua, or o Cocibolca.

The ALBA is an initiative of the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, as answer of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples to face the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The project stresses fraternity among sister nations, solidarity, mutually beneficial trade and social development.

(PL)