Stories written by IPS

Fresh Leadership at IPS: Turning a New Leaf

By IPS
The newly-elected Board of IPS-Inter Press Service, chaired by former Austrian ambassador Dr Walther Lichem, has appointed a new Director-General by acclamation.

Baby steps for SADC trade

By IPS
The recent European financial crises exposed Africa’s high vulnerability to external factors. This has made a strong case for the importance of Intra-regional trade among SADC countries in order to help strengthen SADC and other African countries to external shocks. Sipho Stuurman speaks to Economist Evans Chinembiri from Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS).

Lion's claw (Leontochir ovallei), a flower native to the Atacama Desert and sold abroad. - Courtesy of INIA

Genetic Flight of Nature's Jewels from Chile

Nearly half of Chile's flora is found exclusively in this country and many possess unique chemical compounds. But for now there is no legal way to control their exploitation abroad.

Rockhopper penguin in Isla Pingüino Park, Argentina. - Courtesy of the Argentine Administration of National Parks

More Protection, but Not Enough, for Patagonian Sea

Argentina has widely expanded the protected area of the Patagonian Sea, but it is less than two percent of the nation's maritime waters.

Carlos Brito Credit: Courtesy AB InBev

Q&A: “The Beer Industry Is a Leader in Self-Regulation”

By IPS
Some two billion people around the world drink alcohol, a practice that has been around since time immemorial. Responsible drinking is only part of the picture; the WHO reports that the harmful use of alcohol affects tens of millions of people and kills two and a half million people every year, from causes ranging from illnesses to traffic accidents.

Alligators hunted illegally in the Mamirauá nature reserve. - Juarez Pezzuti

Laws No Help to Amazon Animals, or People

Strict laws prevent Brazil's Amazon river dwellers from making use of wildlife that is otherwise destroyed by natural causes anyway, say experts.

Rural worker Esteban Martínez, in Mexico's Sierra Gorda. - Daniela Pastrana/IPS

Conservation Can Be a Weapon Against Poverty

In the Sierra Gorda, in central Mexico, a new approach is being tested for protecting the environment in a way that also ends poverty.

Howler Monkey in the Capiro Calentura jungle. - Sonia Edith Parra/IPS

Natural Heritage of the Honduran Caribbean on a Tightrope

The great biodiversity of a protected area on the Honduran Caribbean coast is at risk, despite the efforts of a handful of residents and local institutions.

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

Q&A: South Is No Longer a Peripheral Actor

By IPS
There are broad prospects for developing countries to build on complementarities and leverage South-South Cooperation for development, according to Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, Ambassador of Qatar to the U.N.

Omotoso:

Q&A: South Must Harmonise To Take Advantage of Common Interests

By IPS
Fifty-five years after the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, Kwame Nkrumah's exhortation to the developing world to unite for socioeconomic transformation remains resonant.

A digital rendering of algae-ethanol production pools. - BioFields

Mexico Has Big Plans for Ethanol from Algae

A biological process in which blue-green algae produces ethanol will be the basis for fuel production by a Mexican company beginning next year.

The Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreilles tribes all share the Flathead Reservation in Montana. - Wildland Recreation Program Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation

Listen to the Earth, Say Indigenous Peoples

The idea of "wilderness" also encompasses its opposite: urbanized, exploited or altered lands. That is why it is beyond the traditional conceptions of the world's indigenous peoples.

Fashion Finds Its Green Style

Environmental awareness is dawning as a source of inspiration for a new generation of fashion designers.

Argentine geologist Jorge Codignotto. - Gabriela Cerioli/IPS

Climate Change Just One Factor in Coastal Erosion

To understand the link between global climate change and coastal erosion requires an integration of the otherwise reductionist specialization on the issue, says Argentine scientist Jorge Codignotto.

A coral reef on the Mexican coast. - Courtesy of the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas

Underwater Museum to Protect Mexico's Coral Reefs

In the ocean depths off the coast of southeastern Mexico, galleries of human sculptures are to be installed as an artistic attraction with environmental ends.

Electric car prototypes developed in Brazil. - Alexandre Marchetti, Courtesy of Itaipú Binacional

Car Revolution in the Making

Brazil could take advantage of the electric car boom to build up the industry at home, given the threats of climate change and petroleum crisis - and the death foretold of the combustion engine.

Geomembranes to collect and filter rainwater. - Emilio Godoy/IPS

The Goal: Not a Drop Wasted

A variety of new methods for making best use of rainwater are being tested in Mexico, which faces water shortages that will only grow worse in the coming decades.

An elevated house resistant to hurricanes and floods. - Verónica Díaz Favela/IPS

Houses Put to Flood and Hurricane Test

Over a span of eight years, a Mexican engineer visited areas thrashed by hurricanes. His goal was to design a home capable of withstanding nature's worst.

Beef cattle in a corral. - Germán Miranda/IPS

Releasing Clean Energy from Manure

Manure, Argentina's leading source of climate-changing emissions is beginning to be used as raw material for clean energy.

Women working in the Cuatro Alamos garden. - Daniela Estrada/IPS

The Environmental Fight Starts in Your Neighborhood

Chilean neighborhoods are making progress - on a human scale and at a human pace - towards environmentally sustainable communities.

Paolo di Croce - Miren Gutiérrez/IPS

A Slow Revolution at the Dinner Table

"The day we all decide to eat fresh and local, to eat less meat... we will have a revolution," says Paolo di Croce, secretary-general of Slow Food International.

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