Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: University Forest Expropriated

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CARACAS, Aug 30 2010 (IPS) - Venezuela's National Lands Institute confiscated the land of the Central San Nicolás University's field research station, some 1,400 hectares dedicated to agricultural studies. The institute then settled 51 rural families there. Of the total area, 350 hectares are Andean foothill forest situated 500 kilometers southwest of Caracas.

“The decision hurts 2,000 students, more than 200 agricultural, forestry and biodiversity research projects conducted by 25 institutions, and threatens the only original tropophilous forest in western Venezuela, habitat to endangered species like the jaguar and the bespectacled bear, the only South American ursine species,” Xiomara Abreu, head of the agronomy school's research stations, told Tierramérica.