Stories written by Mario Osava
Mario Osava has been an IPS correspondent since 1978, first from Portugal, then from Brazil starting in 1980. He has covered events and processes all throughout Brazil and has recently been engaged in covering major infrastructural projects that reflect opportunities for development and South American integration. | Twitter |

ENVIRONMENT: Crisis Could Ease Pressure, But Not for Long

By Mario Osava
The global economic recession or slowdown that will result from the financial crisis that broke out in the United States could bring some benefits for the environment in the short-term - such as a reduction in power consumption and in the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest -, but the overall effect may turn out to be negative in the long run.

BRAZIL: Hunger Beats a Steady Retreat

By Mario Osava
Brazil is winning its battle against hunger thanks to a comprehensive package of food security legislation, institutions and new concepts, in addition to programmes geared towards stimulating more balanced economic growth.

ECONOMY: What Role Can the IMF Play Today?

By Mario Osava
Having failed, to date, to play an active role in the current global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may become a symbol of the end of an era and the need for a different system, more suitable to today’s new world order.

ECONOMY-SOUTH AMERICA: Day-to-Day Impact of Crisis Not Yet Felt

By Mario Osava
The financial crisis that originated in the United States demonstrates, more clearly than any previous such event, the distance between capital markets and ordinary citizens, especially in developing countries.

LATAM-CARIBBEAN: Everyone Is Invited to the Summit

By Mario Osava
For the first time ever, the heads of state and government of Latin America and the Caribbean will gather for a summit meeting Dec. 16 and 17 in Salvador, the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, in a new attempt to further regional integration, at present fragmented in several subregional blocs.

BRAZIL: Reform of Global Financial System Needed, Says Minister

By Mario Osava
A new international financial architecture, based on different rules, is a reform that has long been demanded by different sectors and is now "inevitable" in the face of the "universal and systemic crisis" originating in the United States, says Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega.

BRAZIL: Urban Violence Hot Issue in Local Elections

By Mario Osava
Crime and violence will be key issues in the October local elections in Brazil's largest cities, especially Rio de Janeiro, although public security is the responsibility of state governments rather than the municipalities.
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BRAZIL: Amazon Art Institute Helps Recover Indigenous Roots

By Mario Osava
Dhiani Pa'saro came to Manaus, the bustling city of 1.7 million people in the heart of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, eight years ago, after wandering from one village or town to another. At the time he planned to become a dentist, but at 33 he is now a renowned artist.

DEVELOPMENT: IBSA Summit – Will South-South Cooperation Regain Clout?

By Mario Osava
The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum will hold its third annual summit on Oct. 15 in New Delhi, India, the first such meeting after this trilateral body of countries of the developing South met with a serious setback at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations.

BRAZIL: Militarised Election Campaign

By Mario Osava
Rio de Janeiro will be the most fiercely contested city in Brazil’s upcoming local elections, with an average of 25 candidates for every seat on its municipal councils, and dozens of poor neighbourhoods being militarised in order to prevent violence and allow candidates to campaign safely.

ECONOMY-BRAZIL: Relative Calm Despite Plunge in Shares

By Mario Osava
In spite of the plunging value of shares on the Sao Paulo stock exchange this week due to the financial crisis in the United States, the Brazilian economy is relatively calm, although worse effects are expected in the years to come.

BRAZIL: Parties Fielding Too Few Women in Local Elections

By Mario Osava
There are still too few women on the lists of candidates for Brazil’s municipal elections in October - another example of the distance between political parties and society which has led to the loss of credibility of political institutions.
Banana crops on the banks of the Ribeira River, in the middle of Brazil's Mata Atlântica forest. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Click Here to Plant a Tree

By Mario Osava
It has become fashionable in Latin America to pursue initiatives towards "zero carbon", neutralising the climate-changing greenhouse gases produced by industry, commercial aviation and even the football World Cup - and along with it, atoning for the environmental sins of polluters.

PARAGUAY-BRAZIL: Lugo to Seek New Terms for Itaipu Dam

By Mario Osava
Paraguay’s new government wants to increase ninefold the revenues the country takes in from the sale of its share of the energy generated by the Itaipú hydroelectric dam, which it runs jointly with Brazil.
Banana crops on the banks of the Ribeira River, in the middle of Brazil's Mata Atlântica forest. - Mario Osava/IPS

Click Here to Plant a Tree

By Mario Osava and - -
The wave of ideas for mitigating the impacts of carbon emissions of consumers has its commercial side, but the bottom line is that it mobilizes people to join the fight against climate change.

BRAZIL: Start of Landmark Case Bodes Well for Indigenous People

By Mario Osava
A Brazilian Supreme Court hearing on a landmark case got off on a positive footing for the indigenous people who live in the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation in northern Brazil.

BRAZIL: The Complications of Coming into Sudden (Oil) Wealth

By Mario Osava
Brazil's social and economic future may depend, according to experts, on the way it ultimately handles the sudden oil wealth discovered deep under the Atlantic ocean off the country's southeastern coast.
Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

BRAZIL: Producing Guitars and Luthiers in the Rainforest

By Mario Osava
Cuban instrument-maker or luthier Raúl Lage came for six months, but has already spent seven and a half years in Manaus, the city in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. "The project is really fantastic," he says, explaining why he plans to renew his work contract again in September.
D'Ávila Ferreira, environment secretary for the Brazilian state of Amazonas. - Courtesy of SDS

“Amazonas State Is in the Environmental Vanguard”

By Mario Osava and - -
No public policy can be made without listening to the traditional peoples. It is they who preserve the environment, Nadia D'Ávila Ferreira, the top environmental official for Amazonas state, Brazil, says in this Tierramérica interview.
Jericoá rapids in the Volta Grande zone of the Xingú River. Credit: Courtesy of International Rivers

BRAZIL: Small Hydroelectric Dams Not So Green

By Mario Osava
The combined impacts of numerous small hydroelectric dams in one river basin can be at least as harmful as one large dam, warn experts, environmental activists and indigenous groups, who face a flood of new projects along the rivers of the western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
Jericoá rapids in the Volta Grande zone of the Xingú River. - Courtesy of Monti Aguirre, International Rivers

Small Hydroelectric Dams Not So Green

By Mario Osava and - -
An attractive business with a reputation of being eco-friendly, small hydroelectric dams do pose some dangers to the environment, especially if there are many in the same river basin.
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