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Sunday, November 8, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Deforestation Spreading
- In Guatemala, an average of 73,148 hectares of forest disappears each year. The figures come from a Forest Cover Dynamics map created by the state-run National Forestry Institute (INB) and National Protected Areas Council and the private University del Valle.Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Fire Devastate Nature Reserve
Colombia's environmental authorities have declared an ecological disaster as a result of the fires in the central-western nature park of Los Nevados that destroyed some 5,000 of the park's 58,000 hectares.Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: First Map of Land Use
Technicians at Guatemala's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, along with the National Geographic Institute and other national entities, have drawn up the first Map of Vegetation Coverage and Land Use, for better planning of productive projects and to monitor deforestation.
Ecobreves – MEXICO: Collecting Funds to Protect Jaguar
The Mexican environmental group Naturalia launched a national fundraising effort last weekend to expand the 4,000-hectare protected area of the jaguar (Panthera onca) set aside in the northern state of Sonora in 2003.
Biodiversity Has No Use for Walls
Construction of a wall along the border would speed up the deterioration of the ecosystems on the Mexico-U.S. border, warn experts.Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Another Highway Threatens the Amazon
Brazil's Ministry of Environment proposes creating 10 conservation areas along the route of highway BR-319, which will connect the Amazon cities of Porto Velho and Manaos.
Transgenic Mosquitoes Enlisted in Fight Against Malaria
Results could emerge in a decade from research to eradicate this disease that poses a public health threat in 90 countries, home to 40 percent of the global populationEcobreves – ARGENTINA: A Warning on Dune Disappearance
Sixty percent of the sand dunes have been lost in the last 35 years because of increased human activity in the eastern Argentine city of Puerto Madryn, on the Atlantic coast, says the Patagonia Natural Foundation.Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Selective Garbage Collection Expands
- The number of Brazilian communities with systems of selective garbage collection has increased 38 percent, according to a new study by CEMPRE, a business organization that promotes recycling.
Al Gore Is Back and Greener Than Ever
The former U.S. vice-president has reinvented himself outside the arena of electoral politics. As a champion of the environment, he has plans to train 1,000 activists to help fight climate change.
A Roadmap Against Pollution
A judicial ruling that requires the clean-up of Argentina's Matanza-Riachuelo basin sets a precedent in environmental law for the region.Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Environmentalists Threatened
Vilmar Berna, an environmental journalist who won the United Nations Global 500 prize in 1999, lives under a death threat issued more than a month ago in Niteroi, a city neighboring Rio de Janeiro. He filed a complaint and requested police protection last week but the response has been slow in coming.Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Seeking Adoptive Parents for Turtles
A program to protect sea turtles of the southern Caribbean and the beaches of Venezuela began a new phase with the search for "adoptive parents" -- symbollically -- for each of the animals sighted by the Center for Researcha nd Conservation of Sea Turtles (CICTMAR).Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Forestry Certification on the Rise
Ten Honduran businesses are pioneers in forestry certification, a practice that is expected to gather strength by the end of the year, according to a program that has the government's backing.Ecobreves – CHILE: Paper Mill Fined
The company Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (CELCO), located in the 10th Chilean region of Los Lagos, will have to pay a fine of about 60,000 dollars for the foul odors emanating from its mill in 2004, ruled the Appeals Court, upholding a sentence of the health authorities in the city of Valdivia.Ecobreves – CUBA: Persistent Organic Pollutants Eliminated
Residents of a small community outside the city of Guantánamo, 929 km east of Havana, have turned a dump into an environmental center that has reduced emissions of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) into the atmosphere.Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Deadly Attacks Against Ecologists
At least 115 environmental activists, technicians and workers have been the subject of violence, kidnapping and even murder in the last 16 years in Guatemala, says a report by the Center for Environmental and Social Legal Action (CALAS).
A New Home for the Blue Whale
A new refuge is in the works for the world's largest mammal. Supporting the initiative to establish a protected marine area in southern Chile are two multimillionaires with investments in the region.
Ecobreves – LATIN AMERICA: Jeers for World Bank Transgenics Plan
Latin American environmentalists and social activists closed ranks against the World Bank, which proposes developing biosafety research in the region, through the cultivation of genetically modified maize, potato, yucca and cotton.
Biodiesel Comes in All Flavors
Brazil is diversifying the raw materials it is using for clean fuel. Waste from coffee production is just one promising option.Ecobreves – BRAZIL: New Way to Recycle Fluorescent Lights
Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo's Incubator of Technological Enterprise are developing a technology that promises to recover nearly 98 percent of the contaminating materials from used fluorescent lightbulbs.« 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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