Tierramerica - Ecobrief

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Endangered Grasslands

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Around 75 percent of Argentina's topsoil has been depleted by desertification and damaging farming and grazing methods, warns the Secretariat on the Environment and Natural Resources.

Ecobreves – PERU: Mining Companies to Pay for Environmental Damage

By - - and IPS Correspondents
The mining companies operating in Peru must invest more than one billion dollars up to 2006 to mitigate the environmental damages caused by their activities, said the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Ecobreves – MEXICO:: Unpredictable Climate

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Weather reports in Mexico are based on technology that dates back 15 years, which makes reliable forecasts, which are essential to farmers, impossible. The country's meteorological stations have only one person to collect the data, which ends up in card catalogues after passing through outdated telegraph and mail systems, said researcher Norma Sánchez at the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico.

Ecobreves – PANAMA: Marine Laboratory Under Construction

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Construction will be completed this year on the marine laboratory of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) on the Panamanian archipelago of Bocas del Toro, in the Caribbean sea.

Ecobreves – EL SALVADOR: Expanding the Number of Protected Areas

By - - and IPS Correspondents
The Environment Ministry of El Salvador will declare the "San Benito" zone located in the El Imposible national park, one of the country's most valuable mountainous tropical forest regions, a protected area.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Amazonian Surveillance Begins

By - - and IPS Correspondents
The Surveillance System of the Amazon (SIVAM) is slated to start operating – at least in part - July 25, when the project’s main center in the northwestern Brazilian city of Manaos is to be inaugurated.

Ecobreves – COSTA RICA: Investment in Water Services

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Costa Rica must invest 1.6 billion dollars to modernize its potable water and sanitation services, according to a recent study by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

Ecobreves – CUBA: Accord with Guatemala

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Cuba and Guatemala will now be able to develop joint projects for natural resources management and protection under a new environmental agreement signed by the two governments.

Ecobreves – CHILE: 120 Million Trees

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Each year, 120 million trees are planted in Chile, a reforestation pace that surpasses the rate of logging, say government officials.

Ecobreves – CENTRAL AMERICA:: Green Troops

By - - and IPS Correspondents
In the countries of Central America, 170,000 police and military troops will receive training to protect natural resources and nature preserves in the region.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Justice Halts Forest Exploitation

By - - and IPS Correspondents
The Guatemalan Constitutional Court put a 15-day halt on the transfer of a portion of the protected Sierra de las Minas to a logging company.

Ecobreves – REGIONAL: Sustainable Cities

By - - and IPS Correspondents
In 2015 the world will have 23 mega-cities with more than 10 million inhabitants each, and 19 will be in developing countries, said experts at the "Reinventing the City" forum, held in Montreal Jun 27 under the auspices of the Secretariat of Environmental Management for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEMA).

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: More and More Bicycles

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Bicycle use in the Argentine capital rose 51 percent in the last year as a result of the country's profound economic crisis, according to a study by the Association of Bicycle Riders.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: War against Red Tide

By - - and IPS Correspondents
- The Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico is ready to study the micro-algae that cause "red tide", an unpredictable phenomenon that causes fish kills and can make people ill who consume seafood coming from affected areas.

Ecobreves – PERU: Climate in the Past

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Scientists at the University of Piura, a northwestern department of Peru, are studying the climate conditions of the past using the rings in the cross sections of trees found in the regions arid forests.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL Forest Grows in Dump

By - - and IPS Correspondents
A forest is growing in the midst of a 300,000-square meter plot that until 1995 accumulated 16 million tons of garbage in the Santo Amaro district in the southern part of the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.

Ecobreves – CHILE: No to Radioactive Waste

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Greenpeace-Chile and other environmental organizations demonstrated outside the Japanese embassy in Santiago against the upcoming passage through Chilean waters of a Japanese ship carrying radioactive fuel to Great Britain.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Natural Insecticide

By - - and IPS Correspondents
- Farmers in the central Cuban province of Ciego de Avila have begun massive cultivation of the Nim tree (Azadirachta indica) to take advantage of its qualities as a pesticide.

Ecobreves – LATIN AMERICA: Certification for Sustainable Tourism

By - - and IPS Correspondents
A system for a regionally recognized certification of sustainable tourism was proposed at the Summit of Tourism and Environment Officials of Ibero-America and the Caribbean, which met in late May in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Medicine from Mangos

By - - and IPS Correspondents
The Cuban pharmaceutical industry will begin sales this year of a natural product to reduce stress, while research continues on the therapeutical capacities of dozens of the island's native plants.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Demand for Amazonian Fruit

By - - and IPS Correspondents
Companies from Brazil and abroad are ordering hundreds of tons of the nutritious camú-camú fruit, but the country's production is limited, reports the National Institute of Amazonian Research.
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