Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Reforesting the Capital's “Lungs”

Fruit and timber trees -- 300,000 of them -- have been planted over the past two years on Juan A. Laínez hill, once one of the Honduran capital's main green spaces, and environmental "lungs".

WHEN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY BARS THE WAY

It was in 1883 that Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus wrote the famous lines below the Statue of Liberty in New York: \'\'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free\'\', writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a ten languages. In this article, the author asks, What would this Mother of Exiles say today? The human flux, stronger than ever, is greeted with intolerance, selectivity, and, worst of all, xenophobia. As nationalism grows increasingly hard-core and furious, hypocritical governments are trying to regulate or even block outright a solution that would be so essentially human that no law or wall could ever completely stop. Today no one is speaking the words of Emma Lazarus, or engraving them on plaques. To the contrary, some even think that this much lauded Jew shouldn\'t have stooped so low. Who today cares for the tired and poor and huddles masses from other shores? What rich and powerful country is asking for the tempest-tossed to be delivered to its shores? The golden doors stand in darkness and no one will light them, and yet, even so, the poor and downtrodden still find a crack to squeeze through towards a better life.

FREE TRADE? COMMODITY PRICES RISE AS POOR FARMER INCOME FALLS

(By Ali Mchumo, John R. Kaputin, Supachai Panitchpakdi, and Kemal Dervis) - It\'s the kind of unfair situation that makes poorer nations wonder where the payoff is with free trade: demand for coffee, tea, cocoa, cotton, and sugar -- which is what many such countries have to offer the world -- has risen, prices paid in the supermarket have risen, yet the share paid to the farmers who grow these basic agricultural commodities has fallen, writes Ali Mchumo, Managing Director of the Common Fund for Commodities; John R. Kaputin, Secretary General of the ACP Group of States, Brussels ; Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General of UNCTAD, Geneva ; and Kemal Dervis, Administrator at the UNDP. In this article the authors ask, where is the profit accumulating and why isn\'t globalisation \"working\" in this case to reduce poverty in poor or developing nations? Such countries are often lectured. The complexities of the \"value chain\" between crop and supermarket shelf do not work to the advantage of low-income, smallholder farmers. The process may be global, but it\'s not fair. The higher end, where food and natural textiles are \"differentiated\" -- processed in ways that appeal, packaged attractively, branded, and advertised -- is where most of the money accumulates. The original industrial revolution was fuelled by surplus income from farming. The poorer regions of today\'s world deserve the same chance Western Europe and the United States had a century and a half ago. Something is \"off\" about the prevailing situation. It must be fixed. Otherwise the looming scenario offered by a Zambian farmer-trade unionist may become a reality: \"If you will not pay us reasonable prices for our exports, we will export ourselves.\"

Brazilian Ethanol Divides Agro-Industry

The "green tsunami" must be stopped, say leaders in Brazil's agribusiness sector, worried by the advance of sugarcane plantations to feed the demand for fuel alcohol.

Argentina Creates Its First Marine Park

The marine and coastal park of Argentina's southern Patagonia will protect biological and economic wealth, but will not completely ban its exploitation.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Electrochemical Gold Purification

Mexican researchers began operating a prototype electrochemical reactor that separates gold and silver from other minerals, without producing toxic residues.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Lawsuit Against Eucalyptus

Seven environmental organizations from the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul are demanding that federal justice authorities only authorize eucalyptus plantations if they comply with environmental impact studies.

Ecobreves – CENTRAL AMERICA: Honduras and Guatemala to Protect Shared Ecosystems

The governments of Honduras and Guatemala signed a cooperation agreement on Aug. 27 to protect the natural resources the two countries share along their Caribbean coastlines.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Whales in the Schools

A plan for children to develop "a comprehensive appreciation of whales and their environment" will begin in late September in five schools of the southern Argentine province of Chubut.

Careful with the Toys

The scandal of toxic China-made toys has cast doubt over the health safety of products for children around the world, and in Latin America in particular.

Brazil's 'Quilombos' Resist Exclusion

The historic melting-pots of Afro-Brazilian culture, "quilombos" persist, but they are marked by neglect.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Amazon Deforestation Affects Everyone

Deforestation produces more harm than social or economic benefits in the Amazon region, concludes a report published by the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: A Bank for Depositing Garbage

A "garbage bank" will premiere this year in Santa Teresa del Tuy, a bedroom community southeast of Caracas where some 300,000 people live, and who generate 100 tons of solid waste each day, the project's main promoter, ecologist Oswaldo Alvarado, told Tierramérica.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Pink Flamingos Return to Nest

Active nests of pink flamingoes (Phoenicopterus ruber ruber), which saw a sharp decline during the Cuban droughts of 2004 and 2005, underwent a boom last year when the rainfall returned to normal levels.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Permaculture Is Coming

Permaculture, which promotes human habitat that follows the patterns of nature, will arrive in Chile with a meeting to take place in the capital in September.

KILLING ME SOFTLY: THE UNCERTAIN EFFECTS OF UNTESTED CHEMICALS

\"Better living through chemistry.\" That was the tag-line used by Dow Chemical in the 1950s at the outset of an era when industrial chemicals were introduced on a massive scale into consumer goods, agriculture, and virtually every other sector of modern life, writes Mark Sommer, host of the award-winning, internationally syndicated radio programme, \"A World of Possibilities\". Sommer writes in this article that the phrase has become hauntingly ironic as, tens of thousands of chemicals later, environmental health researchers discover more and more evidence of negative long-term impacts from some of what we had long thought to be a purely benign technology. In the advanced industrial world all of us are unavoidably immersed in a brew of synthetic chemicals most of whose ingredients have never been tested for their long-term impacts on human health. The costs of testing such a vast reservoir of synthetic chemicals would be huge and one way or another those costs would be passed on to consumers. But the costs of continuing to ignore the impacts would undoubtedly be far greater. Given the choice, would you rather find out now and act accordingly or risk being surprised at a later date by maladies that could have been avoided?

A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA

Imagine a new variety of drought and pest-resistant rice for Africa with double the yield of traditional rice, a growing season 30-50 days shorter than other varieties, a higher protein content, and it even tastes good. This is not a futuristic scenario but NERICA, the New Rice for Africa, which combines the high yield of Asian rice with the hardiness of African rice, writes Kanayo Nwanze, Vice President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and former Director-General of the Africa Rice Centre [WARDA]. In this article, the author writes that NERICA is a reality in the fields of 30,000 farmers in 20 countries. Yields have increased dramatically, families are taking advantage of the shorter growing season to plant an extra crop of vegetables or legumes, and women report that the wider leaf of the NERICA plant casts a shadow that inhibits weed growth. Rice was a crucial building block of the Asian green revolution. The high-yielding varieties that helped people overcome hunger marked the beginning of the end of Asia\'s chronic poverty and allowed its first steps toward industrialisation. Without a doubt, developments such as NERICA are exactly what is needed to move the African Green Revolution forward.

Sad Tale of Argentina's Tercero River

Argentina's polluted rivers are not limited to Buenos Aires. The transparent waters that feed the Tercero River, in central Argentina, become a dark stew in just 300 kilometers.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Wanted: Logging Assassins

A Mexican peasant farming family, whose loved one was murdered by loggers in May, lives under death threats and the authorities are doing little about it, say activists.

Ecobreves – LATIN AMERICA: Debate on Climate Change Risk and Adaptation

Coordinating efforts to confront the usual threats from the weather and finding ways to adapt to climate change were among the purposes of a Latin American workshop organized in the Uruguayan capital by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Atuel River Case Before the Supreme Court

Entrepreneurs, trade unionists, farmers, environmentalists, politicians and students in the central Argentine province of La Pampa have denounced before the Supreme Court the abusive usage of the Atuel River in neighboring Mendoza province.