The International Conference of Military Engineers and the Environment (CSL Issue Paper, Volume 4-10, July 2010)

Building trust and cooperation between the military and civilian sectors in the nations of South America is an essential step in their continuing evaluation as democracies. To that end, the United States Army Southern Command Engineers and the Chilean Army Engineers co-sponsored an event entitled "The International Conference of Military Engineers and the Environment," 3-7 August 2009, in Santiago, Chile. The conference was opened by General Oscar Izurieta Ferrer, Commander in Chief of the Army, Chile, and Mr. Thomas Schoenbeck, Director, Enterprise Support, United States Army Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). It was hosted by Brigadier General Sergio Varela Solar, Commander of Army Engineers, Chile, and Colonel Norberto Cintron, Command Engineer, USSOUTHCOM. The event was the USSOUTHCOM Command Engineer's annual engineering and environment conference within the USSOUTHCOM Area of Influence. It follows last year's conference held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was also the third in a series of USSOUTHCOM Engineer and Environment conferences in South America, with previous conferences having been held in Asuncion, Paraguay, and Montevideo, Uruguay. The principle topics of the 2009 conference were as follows: military engineer involvement in national infrastructure development, environmental security considerations for military engineers, water quality, role of military engineers in natural disaster response and recovery, humanitarian demining, and engineer unit participation in peacekeeping operations.
Summary of "The International Conference of Military Engineers and the Environment," held on 3-7 August 2009 in Santiago, Chile.