Environment

Renewable Energy Alliance Stretches From Germany to Central America

By Julio Godoy, Edgardo Ayala, and Danilo Valladares
A recent agreement between El Salvador and Germany, with the latter supporting two renewable energy projects that would increase installed capacity in the Central American country by 94.2 megawatts by 2013, points to a promising alliance for carbon-free energy.

Guyana Hits Paydirt on Low Carbon Development Path

By Desmond Brown
Imagine Guyana and Dominica without forests and rivers, or Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia without beaches.

Bioshields Best Defence Against Disasters

By Malini Shankar
In commemoration of the eighth anniversary of the Asian tsunami, Wednesday was a day of prayer and mourning across the Andaman Nicobar Islands – located at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea – and south India’s coastal Tamil Nadu state, two areas that suffered thousands of casualties on that fateful day.
Luis Aillapán and his wife Catalina Marileo faced criminal charges in 2002 for defending their land. - Marianela Jarroud/IPS

Indigenous Chileans Continue to Oppose Pinochet-Era Highway Project

By IPS Correspondents and - -
The Coastal Highway is meant to connect one end of Chile’s long, narrow territory to the other, running north to south as close to the Pacific Ocean as possible.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Environmental Delays Raise Electricity Costs, Says Gov’t

By IPS Correspondents and - -
The Chilean government claims that delays in the installation of power lines due to legal proceedings and obstacles to the issuing of environmental permits will keep electricity prices high until at least 2016.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Livestock Raising Adapted to Climate Change

By IPS Correspondents and - -
A change in forage crops and the search for new sources of water are among the climate change adaptation measures implemented as part of an initiative undertaken by eight cattle farming cooperatives in Camagüey, 534 km from the Cuban capital.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: More Research Needed on Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Only six percent of research on climate change and biodiversity conducted worldwide since 1990 addresses the impacts of these changes on biodiversity in Brazil, according to a literature review carried out by the Boticário Group Foundation.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: First Eco-Municipality

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Rómulo Gallegos, a municipality in the southwestern plains of Venezuela where cattle ranching is an economic mainstay, has become the first of the country’s 333 municipalities to adopt legislation on ecologically oriented land management.

Local Communities Stake Claim in Protecting Disaster-Prone Asia

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
From her half-built house, Ari Haryani takes a few steps to reach a freshly cemented path that snakes through the narrow, dusty walkways of this resettlement village. The path offers the 36-year-old a route to safety in case the nearby Mount Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano, erupts.

The ‘Flattening’ of Gaza

By Eva Bartlett
On Nov. 17, four days into Israel’s eight-day assault on the Gaza Strip, deputy Israeli Prime Minister Eli Yishai publicly called for the Israeli army to “blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all the infrastructure including roads and water”.

Fresh Air for the Rio Olympics

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Environmental authorities in this southeastern Brazilian city are installing more air quality control stations in the locations where competitions are to be held during the 2016 Olympic Games, so that air pollution will not hurt the athletes’ performance.

Forests, Fruit and Fish Could Save Coastal Communities

By Naimul Haq
Scientists predict that in the coming years, Bangladesh will be battered by even more climate disasters than it has already endured. Global warming has caused devastating damage in this lower Himalayan delta country of 150 million people, where seawater intrusion, increasingly intense cyclones, dried up rivers and extreme weather events have become the norm.

Q&A: Mutant Fruit Trees to Grow in Saline Soils in Cuba

By Ivet González
During some parts of the year, a layer of salt can be seen on the ground in eastern Cuba, which makes it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to farm. Since agronomist Orlando Coto saw this with his own eyes, he has been searching for salt-tolerant fruit trees.

Q&A: Fighting to Save Africa’s Richest Rainforest

By Monde Kingsley Nfor

Protests against a controversial palm oil plantation in the Korup National Park, Africa’s oldest and richest rainforest in terms of floral and faunal diversity, in Mundemba, southwest Cameroon will continue despite the arrests and intimidation of local environmental campaigners.

Funding Restored for U.S. Military Biofuels Programme

By Carey L. Biron
Reversing attempts to eliminate the U.S. military’s advanced biofuels programme, both houses of Congress on Tuesday approved major legislation that now presents no obstacles to broad-reaching Defence Department plans to mainstream and spread the use of alternative fuels throughout its operations.

Obama’s Victory a Boon for Clean Air, Water Acts

By Matthew Charles Cardinale
With Barack Obama’s re-election last month as U.S. president, key environmental protections escaped a likely Republican chopping block, and new regulations are expected when his second term begins in January.

Endangered Bird Falls Prey to Royal Hunting Games

By Zofeen Ebrahim
Every year, between November and January, the Indus Flyway bears witness to a migration of an endangered bird species – the houbara bustard – from Central Asia to the deserts of Pakistan.

Community Water Management Stuck in Legal Limbo*

By Emilio Godoy
Community-based water supply systems, which serve thousands of rural communities in Mexico, are seeking official recognition under the new federal legal framework currently under development.

Women Fight Climate Battles

By IPS Correspondents
From Zimbabwe to El Salvador, women in poor countries suffer the brunt of climate change, but also learn to recover from disasters, to adapt and even to find opportunities in the new weather conditions.

Farmers Need to Grow Climate Smart

By Busani Bafana
Farmers cannot wait much longer for negotiators to reach an agreement on including a work programme on agriculture in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. And until one is approved, “it will continue to be difficult for farmers to produce the food needed, and at the same time reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

In Dominica, Diminished Rivers Among Climate Change’s Effects

By Desmond Brown
Eighty-year-old Rupert Lawrence has been living in the Dominica capital, Roseau, for nearly 60 years. Like visitors to the island, he too is fascinated by the fact that the town square has a river running right through its centre.
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