CEC announces two new Advisory Panel members to review San Pedro Study
Montreal, 2/27/1998 -The Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)—created by a side accord to NAFTA—today announced the names of two additional individuals who have agreed to serve on a tri-national advisory panel to review an upcoming study on the Upper San Pedro River.
Jack Ladd, a lifelong resident of Southern Arizona, has spent the last 45 years operating a family run ranch and is currently a Supervisor for the Hereford Natural Resource Conservation District. Robert Halliday, a professional engineer with over 30 years of experience in transboundary water management, is the former Director of Canada’s National Hydrology Research Institute and currently serves on the International Red River Basin Task Force at the International Joint Commission.
Last month, the CEC Secretariat announced the names of the first ten panel members—a mix of local policymakers, citizen group and private-sector representatives. Jack Pfister, who recently served on Arizona Governor Jane Hull’s transition team and is a Distinguished Research Fellow at Arizona State University, is the chair of the Advisory Panel.
The panel, after reviewing input from the public, will meet in Tucson, Arizona on May 24-26 to consider issues raised in the study being conducted by an interdisciplinary team of experts. The study examines the hydrological and ecological features of the Upper San Pedro watershed, as well as the current legal and institutional frameworks with an impact on conservation efforts in the area.
The Advisory Panel will produce a brief report based on the expert study. This report will include recommendations of the panel members on the conservation of the Upper San Pedro River, which extends from Sonora, Mexico into Arizona. The recommendations, along with the results of expert study and the conclusion of the public input process, will be reviewed by the three NAFTA environment ministers (or their cabinet-level equivalents) as part of a final report being prepared by the CEC Secretariat under Article 13 of the environmental side accord to NAFTA, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).
No additional members will be named to the Advisory Panel.
About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.