Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Manual for Giving Power to Civil Society

Environmental organizations in Argentina will draft a manual of best practices for how civil society can play a role in the pacts agreed at international summits, Cecilia Iglesias, president of the Environmental Network Civil Association, told Tierramérica.

Why Is the Ozone Hole Growing?

The hole in the atmosphere's ozone layer over southern Chile and Argentina is expected to reach its maximum size this week. Scientists consulted by Tierramérica analyze the ongoing causes of this phenomenon.

When the Jungle Plays Host to Tourists

Indigenous communities are managing more and more tourism projects in Bolivia. Thousands of visitors arrive each year at the jungle lodges like Chalalán, in Madidi National Park.

Ecobreves – LATIN AMERICA: 'Green' Volunteers Mobilize

Thousands of people in Latin America will take part in clean-up and repair campaigns for parks, streets and beaches Sep. 16-18.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Limits on Drag Net Fishing

The regulations for drag net fishing for merluza (Merlucius hubbsi), which take effect in Chile on Sep. 15 to protect the smaller fish of this species, are a positive step but insufficient, says the environmental group Oceana.

Ecobreves – CUBA: A Network to Benefit Beaches

The coastal management office of the Cuban resort city of Varadero is promoting a Latin American network for the exchange of information on positive experiences in protecting the region's beaches.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Hemispheric Eco-Forum

Involving national leaders, politicians, diplomats and civil society leaders in the search for solutions is the aim of the "Greenmeeting of the Americas", which has its fifth edition Sep 20-22 in Belo Horizonte, capital of the southern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Nickel Mining Returns

A Guatemalan subsidiary of the Canadian Skye Resources will pick up on nickel mining in the northeast of this Central American country.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Reforestation in Northern Venezuela

Venezuela initiated a program for the recovery in eight years of up to 400,000 hectares of forest in the areas to the north of the Orinoco River, with the planting of 92 million trees, announced Environment Minister Jacqueline Faría.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Iron's Decontaminant Properties Explored

A team of scientists from the chemistry institute at the University of Sao Paulo is researching cheaper and more efficient ways to make use of the decontaminating property of iron.

POVERTY AND GENDER INEQUALITY

The 2005 World Summit confronts us with a challenge: world leaders must either find the will to work together to make the vision of the Millennium Declaration a reality for people everywhere, or millions of people will be left to live in deprivation and fear, writes Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). In this analysis, Heyzer writes that UNIFEM focuses a spotlight on the links between poverty and gender inequality and the role of employment in reducing or perpetuating both. In the developing world, with the exception of North Africa, women are not only concentrated in informal employment, but also in the more precarious forms of informal employment, where earnings are meagre and highly unreliable. Not achieving these goals is unthinkable. Widening gaps between rich and poor, and between women and men, can only contribute to greater insecurity and violence in the world. Above all else, economic priorities must be re-ordered to focus on employment rather than simply growth, looking at the needs of women as workers, not only as citizens or members of a vulnerable group.

UN WORLD SUMMIT 2005: WHAT IS AT STAKE

Over the last few weeks, the focus of the world\'s media has turned towards negotiations within the United Nations on the outcome document for the September World Summit. While detailed negotiations on 39-page bureaucratic documents don\'t usually make for great headlines, the battles raging between Member States have caught the attention of the international press. This is because Member States have been arguing about the most minimal of collective commitments, even simple restatements of past promises. Most worrying has been the possibility that Member States dilute their commitment to the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), writes Eveline Herfkens, Secretary General\'s Executive Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals Campaign. The first five years since the adoption of the Goals show why we cannot rest on our laurels. While there has some progress, it is limited and patchy and it has been slow. If current trends continue there will be large gaps between targets and outcomes by 2015. The human costs of the failure to meet the Goals would be staggering. Focusing on just one indicator, according to the 2005 Human Development Report, based on current trends we are likely to miss the target for reducing child mortality, meaning an additional 41 million of avoidable child deaths between now and 2015. Perhaps most crucially and this is an area where quite frankly there has been very little progress developed countries need to reform trade and agricultural policies. Even if rich countries prefer to make formal commitments in the context of WTO negotiations, they need to fully engage now to ensure that the Doha round of negotiations will indeed be a development round as promised. They need to be proactive in pushing the negotiations forward, for example by setting dates for the elimination of agricultural subsidies that distort the markets that poor countries depend upon, and by committing to full duty- and quota-free access for all low-income countries to allow them to sell their products on rich country consumer markets.

THE LIES OF WAR

Wars give noble reasons for why they occur: international security, national dignity, democracy, freedom, order, the mandate of Civilisation, or the will of God. Not one has the honesty to confess: I kill to steal, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist and author of \'\'The Open Veins of Latin America\'\' and \'\'Memories of Fire\'\'. In this article, Galeano writes that the denial of the evidence, a practice unjustly attributed to drunks, is in fact the most notorious characteristic of the president of the planet, who thank God doesn\'t drink a drop. He continues to sustain, day after day, that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with oil. A certain Lawrence of Arabia wrote from Iraq in 1920: \'\'The people of England have been led to Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be difficult to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information.\'\' I know that history never repeats itself, but sometimes I wonder. And the obsession with Chavez? Does oil have nothing to do with this frenetic campaign to kill in the name of democracy the dictator who won nine clean elections? And the continuous alarms raised about the nuclear threat from Iran, are they unrelated to the fact that the country has among the largest natural gas reserves in the world?

WOMEN, HEALTH, AND DEVELOPMENT

From September 14-16, world leaders will meet in New York to discuss the Millennium Development Goals, writes Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. In this article, Obaid points out that the most successful developing countries in terms of economic growth, less poverty, longer lives, and healthier people were those with slower population growth. And that was achieved not by government directive but by helping ordinary men and women make their own decisions about how many children to have, and when. Now, reproductive health problems account for a third of the burden of disease among women of reproductive age (15-44) worldwide. In Africa, the figure is two thirds. Healthy people make better workers, better workers make stronger economies, and stronger economies allow people to live better and make good choices. Poor women have known this for a long time. To strengthen the Millennium Goals, the Millennium Project team has recommended a new target: universal access to reproductive health by 2015 to be achieved through the primary health care system. At this Summit, leaders will have an unprecedented chance to change women\'s lives, to end poverty, not just in their lifetimes, but in the next few years. And the women of the world will find out if their well-being is a priority or not.

Mexico Speeds Up CFC Elimination

The Mexican company Quimobásicos stopped producing CFCs, thus reducing output of this ozone-depleting gas worldwide by 12 percent.

The Contaminated “Blue Lake”

Fecal coliforms, organic material, phosphorous and nitrogen pollute Lake Ypacaraí, the main attraction for travelers in Paraguay outside the big cities. The results of a study of the lake by a Japanese aid agency are soon to be released.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: New Air Pollution Controls

The Argentine capital now has two air quality monitoring stations that will for the first time allow officials to track the city's pollution levels and design policies to fight emissions of the so-called greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Trees Planted in New Transport System

Approximately 60,000 trees will be planted along the Integrated Mass Transit System being built in the western Colombian city of Cali to compensate for the trees that have to be removed to make way for the new routes.

Ecobreves – PERU: Mining Law Includes Satellite Monitoring

A law passed recently in Peru states that mining companies will have to submit to rigorous standards for minimizing environmental harm and must present financial backing to ensure that once their operations end they will not leave behind contaminants.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Uncertainty Despite Decline in Deforestation

The deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon saw a sharp reduction this year, but the future is uncertain, and there is no assurance that this positive trend will continue, say environmentalists and researchers.

Infertility Linked to Environmental Factors

The sperm count is on the decline among the male inhabitants of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city. Experts associate the problem with air pollution, chemical substances in food, and the stress of urban life.