Ecobreves – CUBA: Saving the Beach Where Columbus Stepped

Cuban scientists were able to halt coastal erosion in parts of Bariay Key, in the eastern province of Holguín, whose sands were the first that Christopher Columbus stepped on when he reached the island more than 500 years ago.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Fisherfolk Take Water in Own Hands

On the arid Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná, 288 residents of La Sabaneta fishing community decided to take the matter of potable water into their own hands, organizing a cooperative that will install several kilometers of water pipeline.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: 'March for Life' a Success

More than 30,000 people took part in the ''March for Life'' across Honduras, arriving in the capital from all parts of the country on Jun. 30 to demand measures to protect the environment, defying a ban by the government.

Low Scores for Technological Development

Latin America's development looks gloomy if countries fail to increase investment in science and technology, an area where the region spends an average of just 0.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Ecobreves – PERU:: Regulating Hospital Waste Management

Peru will begin special processing of dangerous waste coming from hospitals, the treatment of which had not been included in the national Solid Waste Act of 2000.

Climate Change Worse for the South

Crop yields will decline, temperate zones will disappear and the number of people suffering hunger will increase, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The developing South will bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change, expert Prabhu Pingali told Tierramérica.

'Narco' Land for Agrarian Reform

More than 100,000 hectares of land seized from drug traffickers in Colombia will be used for sustainable farming initiatives. Thousands of families displaced by the decades of civil war violence stand to benefit.

Andean Coffee Growers to Protect Biodiversity

Coffee farmers in the Venezuelan Andes are to receive loans for developing projects that halt deforestation and protect endangered species.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Gas from Garbage

An environmental group in Argentina has designed a tank known as a ''biodigestor'', which produces gas for fuel from organic waste, to benefit remote communities of farmers and fisherfolk.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Preventing Fires

The Colombian government is drafting a plan to curb environmental losses from forest fires, using equipment worth 86,500 dollars donated by the United States to the Ministry of Housing, Environment and Territorial Development.

THE NEXT STEP TOWARDS A NUCLEAR FREE WORLD

Since the discovery of Iraq\'s clandestine nuclear weapons programme in the early 1990s, the IAEA has sought creative methods to strengthen the nuclear safeguards regime; these methods have in many ways proved successful, writes Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In this analysis, the author writes that \"our recent experiences in Iraq, Iran, and Libya have confirmed how effective IAEA verification can be, even under difficult conditions, provided that we are given adequate authority, aided by all available information, backed by a credible compliance mechanism, and supported by international consensus\". A key aspect of IAEA authority is the so-called \'\'additional protocol\'\', the supplement to a safeguards agreement with the IAEA that gives it broader rights of access to information and inspection sites. For the regime to be credible, the additional protocol should be accepted as the verification standard, but only 56 of the 184 non-nuclear-weapon states party to the NPT have ratified the protocol. Developing countries can play their part to enhance the credibility of the NPT regime and solidify their position on the \'\'moral high ground\'\' by bringing this additional protocol into force.

GLOBAL COMPACT SHOULD SPIN OFF FROM UN

The UN Global Compact brought together over 400 leaders of corporations, labour unions, and civil society at its June 24th Summit, writes Hazel Henderson, author of numerous books on global sustainability and financial reform and is founder and president of Ethical Marketplace, a global media company. In this article, Henderson writes that what is now a global network of 1,500 signatory companies began in 2000 as a challenge in a speech by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to corporate leaders to adopt nine principles of good corporate citizenship -- regarding human rights, labour standards, and the environment. The Compact, initially a system of voluntary \'\'engagement\'\' with little monitoring or accountability, became a mutual peer-pressure association at the Summit. However, civil society organisations led by the Earth Rights Foundation asserted that the Global Compact is a distraction from the real task of the UN and governments, which is to establish effective inter-governmental frameworks for corporate accountability. They urge that the Compact be disbanded. The wisest course would be to spin off the Compact as an independent organisation, Henderson concludes.

CONFESSIONS OF THE TORTURER

The information obtained through torture is not credible, or barely so, for the simple reason that pain transforms anyone into an author of fiction; the powers that use torture, on the other hand, reveal their true identity through this grim practice: in the chambers of torment, the commanders take off their masks, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and author of \'\'The Open Veins of Latin America\'\' and \'\'Memories of Fire\'\'. In this analysis, Galeano writes that the occupying forces preach democracy and freedom but practice crime and torture. The rest is pure theatre: the ceremonies, proclamations, speeches, promises, the transfer of sovereignty. Torture generates information that is of minimal usefulness and questionable veracity. Yet it has been and continues to be used because it is efficient in punishing heresy, causing humiliation, and sowing fear. The monks of the Inquisition knew this very well, and so does the top military brass of today\'s imperial adventures. Power does not use torture to protect the population but to terrorize it. Will it be as efficient as power thinks it is? Galeano asks.

WTO: DEVELOPMENT AT STAKE

The WTO talks underway in Geneva, aimed at reviving negotiations on lowering global trade barriers, are yet another demonstration of the crisis of inequity and hypocrisy that has afflicted the organisation from the very beginning, writes Anuradha Mittal, founder and director of the Oakland Institute, a non-partisan research, analysis, and advocacy group. In this article, the author writes that the draft agreement set before the 147 members on July 16 openly discriminates against developing nations by adopting a non-committal approach to the Special and Differential treatment needs, sensitive products, and special safe guard mechanisms, all of which it leaves to a \'\'post- framework stage\'\'. At the same time, the draft overlooks African countries\' demands that the Cotton Initiative be treated on a stand-alone, fast-track basis, instead adopting the US demand to consider this issue under the broader agriculture negotiations. The truth is that in the draft July package, the organisation is acting like a Robin Hood in reverse: trying to rob the world\'s poor to enrich American and European corporations. The WTO will remain deadlocked as long as it continues to fail the development needs of the poor.

WTO DOHA ROUND AT CRUCIAL JUNCTURE

The Doha Development Agenda of the WTO is at a crucial juncture: by the end of July we need to secure a framework package for agriculture and industrial products and an accord which better defines how we address cotton subsidies and the so-called Singapore Issues (investment, competition, transparency in government procurement, and trade facilitation), writes Supachai Panitchpakdi, Director-general of the World Trade Organisation. In this article, the author writes that if governments and their constituents lose faith in the ability of the Doha Development Agenda to deliver results we will see a growing imbalance between multilateral and bilateral deal-making. This could shake the foundations of non-discrimination and transparency upon which the multilateral trading system is built. Common ground must be found, and quickly. International business and the global trade machine will certainly not wait for us to move. Discriminatory market access arrangements will become commonplace and the law of the jungle will prevail. The losers every time will be the poorer, developing countries.

A WORRYING SITUATION FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF SOUTH EAST ASIA.

In mid-July the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will vote on whether to suspend for three years the Transnational Radical Party\'s (TRP) consultative status within the Council in response to a request by the Vietnamese Delegation to the UN, writes Emma Bonino deputy in the European Parliament and a leader of the Transnational Radical Party. In this article, Bonino writes that suspension would send a very unfortunate message regarding human rights in the area, particularly for the indigenous people of South East Asia. Vietnam believes that the TRP has abused its relationship with the UN by accrediting Kok Ksor, whom they allege to be a terrorist with a separatist agenda. Kok Ksor is a member of the Montagnards, the ethnic minority asylum seekers from Vietnam\'s Central Highlands, and is the President of the Montagnard Foundation Inc. (MFI), a non-profit organization registered in the US and dedicated to the preservation of Montagnard life and culture. MFI is not on any national or international list of terrorist organizations recognized by the EU, the US or the UN. Suspension the consultative status of the TRP will not only ban it from the UN system, but will also silence dozens of voices that, over the last several years, have been allowed to present their concerns before many UN bodies, starting with the Commission on Human Rights.

Mistreated for the Three-Ring Show

Circus animals suffer mistreatment in Italy. Activists are demanding a ban, but the circus owners refuse.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Herds of Turtles

Turtle ranching, in some cases for meat exports, is on the rise in the northwestern Brazilian state of Amazonas, where there are 69 entrepreneurs working with the green light from the Brazilian Institute for Environment (IBAMA), a government agency.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Forest Monitoring Network

The Chilean forestry research institute, INFOR, announced on Jun. 21 that it is creating an environmental monitoring network for the country's forests, thanks to two projects that demanded state investment of one million dollars.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Drought Forces Survival Strategies

The persistent drought that has hit most of Cuba's rural areas has forced farmers and ranchers to seek alternatives for the survival of their animals, which are suffering shortages of water and adequate pastures.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: River Threatens Capital

A 20-meter gap opened in the cement channel that guides the Guaire River through the Venezuelan capital, and its waters, polluted by the sewage from slum neighborhoods has come into contact with the wall that sustains the canal and the main highway through Caracas.