Date: October 16–18, 1998

Location: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama

Description: One of LASPAU's shared objectives in the environmental and ecological scholarship programs sponsored by the Fulbright Program and the Ford Foundation has been to develop a network of environmental professionals in the Americas and to add value to the work they do through advanced education opportunities. Toward these goals we were fortunate to have been awarded grants from the Fulbright Program and the Ford Foundation to hold a special enhancement seminar on environmental economics for 22 participants. This seminar explored recent developments in valuation of environment assets, the policy forces behind units of carbon absorption being traded as commodities, and advances in understanding of economic effects of environmental investments. A number of advancements in this field merit new understandings that were discussed in this seminar.

The specific objectives of the workshop were to:

• Understand carbon markets and the sale of environmental services on the world market.
• Gain experience in valuation of environmental assets.
• Explore environmental benefit/cost analysis as a fundamental aspect of decision-making.
• Examine policy tools including the economics of trade and environment and issues of sustainable tourism.

Sponsors: The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State and the Ford Foundation

Host Institution: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Principal Facilitators: Theodore Panayotou (Staff, Harvard Institute for International Development), Ned Strong (Staff, LASPAU), and Sebastian Royo (Staff, LASPAU)