Click Here to Plant a Tree

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.

Progress Towards Protecting La Tortuga Island

A legislative modification would help protect the uninhabited Venezuelan island of La Tortuga, which holds rare Caribbean ecosystems.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Demand for Dioxin Information

The EcoOceans Center, the Latin American Environmental Conflicts Observatory (OLCA) and the Citizen Consumers League have called on all Chileans to abstain from eating pork during the national holidays of Sep. 18-19.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Flower Covers Vital Reservoir

The "bora" (eichhornia crassipes), is a species of tropical water hyacinth that has spread like a green carpet over two-thirds of La Mariposa reservoir in Venezuela. The reservoir covers 54 hectares and has a capacity of 8 million liters, which supplies most of the Venezuelan capital.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: African Palm to Reforest the Amazon

An agreement between Brazil's ministries of Agriculture and Environment authorizes utilizing the African palm (Elaeis guineensis) and other exotic species for recuperating forests in the country's Amazon region.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: New Environmental Rules Announced

The Honduran government has announced new environmental regulations two years after the free trade agreement with the United States, known as CAFTA, entered into force.

Amazon Increasingly Oily

Oil and natural gas exploration permits are multiplying in the Amazon region, especially in its most remote and biodiverse corners, say researchers.

Mexican Peasants Seek Ways to Block Canadian-Run Mine

In the Western Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico, a very common conflict these days in Latin America is heating up: the booming mining industry versus local residents.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: São Paulo Sets Climate Change Goals

The city government of São Paulo, Brazil's most populous city, has set a goal to reduce municipal emissions of greenhouse gases by 30 percent, with a deadline of 2012 -- ahead of the federal government's target date.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Universities Commit to the Environment

The 20 universities in Honduras signed an environmental pledge on Aug. 18 that includes reforms in their programs and greater participation in managing threatening situations, research and policies.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Justice Orders Demolition of Embankment in Wetland Preserve

The Forestal Andina company received an order from the justice department of the northern Argentine province of Corrientes to demolish immediately the 27-kilometer embankment it built in the Esteros del Iberá ecological preserve.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: More Traffic Restrictions, Better Air Quality

The inclusion of Saturdays in the Mexican capital's program for limiting the circulation of certain cars to certain days has made a notable improvement in air quality.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Thousands of Children in Eco-Games

Some 15,000 children headed to 50 parks and zoos in Venezuela to start the 30th Ecological Games, which combine recreational activities with environmental education during two weeks of school vacation.

Bolivian Businesses Take On the Green Challenge

Sustainable development is put to the test in three productive experiences in Bolivia.

“Amazonas State Is in the Environmental Vanguard”

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.

Ecobreves – CUBA: New Biological Rodent Poison

Experts from Cuba's Plant Sciences Research Institute have created a new biological product for fighting rodents that attack crops, institute scientist Pedro Pablo Mora told Tierramérica.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Edible Oil Waste to Fuel Buses

Biodiesel distilled from edible oil waste from restaurants and households will fuel 18 buses in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, whose transportation system is an international model and award winner.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Preparing First Fisheries and Aquiculture Census

From September 2008 to April 2009, Chile will conduct its first national fisheries and aquiculture census. The results will be ready by the end of next year.

BIOFUELS AND FOOD SECURITY: CONFLICT OR COMPLEMENTARITY?

It makes no sense to single out biofuels as the scapegoat for high food costs without considering the effect of the spectacular rise in oil prices, writes Ignacy Sachs, honorary professor, School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Paris and visiting fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Sao Paulo. Sachs writes in this article that we ought to strive for greater moderation and efficiency in energy consumption and take all the necessary steps to assure the complementarity between food and biofuels production. It should be possible to greatly increase biofuels output without encroaching on land used for food production or resorting to deforestation. Sachs calls for using waste and marginal land to grow robust oilseed plants; transforming into biofuels (including biogas) agricultural, forest, and domestic residues and moving as quickly as possible to second generation cellulosic biofuels; intensifying research on biodiversity, in particular on oilseed-producing tropical trees and on the third generation of biofuels (algae).

CAUCASUS: THE POWDER KEG

The Caucasus is today a major theatre of the Cold War II, which involves the long-term encirclement of Russia-India-China in order to control Eurasia through the eastward expansion of NATO and the westward expansion of AMPO, the US-Japan security system, writes Johan Galtung, a Professor of Peace Studies and founder of TRANSCEND, a peace and development network, and author of \"50 Years: 100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,\" TRANSCEND University Press, 2008. In this article, Galtung writes that the US is pressing for Georgian membership in NATO, thereby coming even closer to the Russian heartland. This idea was rejected at the latest NATO meeting this spring, but not in principle. The Red Army functioned as the lid on the cauldron of the Soviet Union, and when it was removed, it boiled over. Georgia is the same. With the lid gone, Abkhasia and South Ossetia (and the Muslim Ajar) seceded. The most viable option may be a Caucasian Community, comprised of the four entities. Peace in the Caucasus implies disinviting the big powers and engaging in integrative Caucasian policies. The present policies lead away from peace. A Georgian government trying to gain popular support by reclaiming \"lost\" territories, hoping for some kind of US support, has already aggravated the situation - possibly leading to a major confrontation. Some statesmanship, please.

INDIA: AS THE ECONOMY GROWS, SO DOES HUNGER

Blaming high food prices on rising demand in fast-developing countries like China and India deflects scrutiny from structural causes - like the liberalisation of agricultural markets - and suggests incorrectly that market-friendly reforms have uplifted the poor and underprivileged, writes Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, a policy think tank working to increase public participation and to promote fair debate on critical social, economic, and environmental issues. In this analysis, the author writes that a closer examination of India disproves the latter assertion. In India the total number of the poor and vulnerable increased from 732 million to 836 million between 1993/1994 and 2004/2005. In an effort to move towards market-driven production of agricultural goods, India is shifting from coarse grains to high-value commodities for export and systematically pulling away from the long-respected post-Independence statute requiring self-reliance in agriculture. Consequently, there has been a considerable decline in the rate of growth of production, productivity, and the quantity of land planted and irrigated for the major crops. India\'s hunger and poverty amidst plenty is emblematic of hunger worldwide, which is the result of decades of neglect of agriculture in poor countries and ill-advised policies from the international financial institutions. Promoting agricultural development in poor nations would bolster their food self-sufficiency and help alleviate poverty.