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Sunday, November 8, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Tierramerica - Ecobrief
Ecobreves – CUBA: Windmills Improve Rural Life
Rural communities in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago will have water this month thanks to the installation of modern windmills to pump the vital liquid from the ground.
Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Not Much Garbage Recycled
Just 17 percent of the 20,000 tons of waste produced daily in Venezuela is recycled, according to studies by the environmental organization Vitalis.Ecobreves – CHILE: Majority Favors Smoking Restrictions
Ninety percent of the residents of the Chilean capital consulted in a survey said they favor the total ban on smoking in hospitals, schools and on public transportation.Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Fires Destroy 35,000 Hectares of Forest
Last month forest fires wiped out more than 35,000 hectares of forest in Honduras, Luis Eveline, of the Honduran forest development agency COHDEFOR, told Tierramérica.Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Bio-Insecticide Kills Dengue Mosquito
Brazil has at the ready a biological insecticide, Bt-horus, to fight dengue, a disease that threatens the population of two-thirds of the national territory.Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Airport Remodel in Maya Zone
A major effort is under way in Guatemala to boost visits to the country's Maya ruins. This includes renovation of the international airport in Santa Elena, in the northern department of Petén.Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Clean Energy in Patagonia
A small town in Argentina's southern Patagonia region has set up a laboratory for the production of clean fuel produced with clean energy.Ecobreves – BOLIVIA: Cochabamba Water Project Recognized
The project Water for All, being developed in the outskirts of the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba to provide potable water to the poorest population, could soon receive fresh financing after winning the SEED award on Apr. 22.Ecobreves – MEXICO: International Pressure Wins Environmentalist's Release
Pressure from environmental groups was key in winning the quick release of activist Araceli Domínguez, imprisoned for denouncing the deaths of dolphins in the Mexican resort of Cancún.Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Catfish Ban
The Colombian rural development institute, INCODER, is banning from May 1 to 30 the fishing, storage, sale and transport of the tiger shovelnose catfish (Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum) in the Magdalena River basin, which crosses national territory from north to south.Ecobreves – PERU: Thermoelectric Plant Threatens Resort
With the backing of non-governmental organizations and of most of the municipal leaders, neighborhood groups in Chilca, a small Peruvian city 64 km south of Lima, announced mobilizations against the planned construction of a thermoelectric plant just 500 meters from the town's limits.Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Massive Logging Deprives Capital of Water
The Honduran Environmental Prosecutor is investigating the state-run electrical energy company and a forestry company for the massive logging of the Guacerique River basin.Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Kyoto, Remedy for Waste
Big garbage dumps will no longer be a serious socio-environmental problem in Brazil, turning into an energy source instead, thanks to the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, say officials.Ecobreves – CUBA: Plans to Halt Coastal Erosion
A project backed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) aims to halt erosion along the southern strip of coastline of Havana province in Cuba.Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Certified Lumber for Sale Soon
Seven processed wood companies from various countries agreed to purchase certified lumber from the northern Guatemalan department of Petén to foment sustainable forest management.Ecobreves – CHILE: Tracking Glacier Melt
For the first time in Chile's history there will be a systematic process for monitoring an important glacier in the country's southern region, as a means to measure melting that could be associated with global warming.Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Emergency at Valencia Lake
Lake Valencia, covering 375 square km and the second largest in Venezuela, is in a state of emergency because of the contamination resulting from the sewage water reaching the lake via rivers, and the imminent increase in incoming water as rainy season expands those rivers.Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Aerodrome Construction Threatens Maya Ruins
The Association of Non-Governmental Organizations of Honduras (ASONOG) denounced to the Cultural Heritage and Environment prosecutors offices that the government's intention to build an aerodrome in Amarillo River valley, in the department of Copán, could harm the environment and Maya ruins and threaten the Maya-Chortí peoples who live there.Ecobreves – BRAZIL: More Lightning Due to Global Warming
The frequency of lightning will increase 30 percent over the next 25 years in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, quadrupling the losses to electrical utility infrastructure because of more blackouts, according to the national space research institute, ELAT.Ecobreves – CUBA: Forest Fires and Drought
The intense drought that has been thrashing Cuba increased the risk of forest fire, which last year burned 11,447 hectares of forest, with losses totaling 16 million dollars.Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Rescuing a Spectacled Bear in the Andes
A four-month-old spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatos) in the Sierra Nevada National Park, in the southwest Venezuelan Andes, was rescued earlier this month when a local resident found it and alerted the authorities.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Tierramérica is the main communications platform on sustainable development and the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is produced by IPS Noticias, the agency’s Spanish-language service, which created it jointly with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with later support from the World Bank. The weekly editions of Tierramérica are published in Spanish, Portuguese and English and are picked up and printed by dozens of media outlets in the region. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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