Tierramerica

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Protecting a Thorny Forest

By IPS Correspondents and - -
A small forest populated with thorny plants was declared a protected area by the local Cabañas government in eastern Guatemala. The move is aimed at protecting endangered species.

Ecobreves – COSTA RICA: Sustainable Tourism Gets a Boost

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Twenty initiatives for rural tourism in Talamanca, in Costa Rica's southeastern highlands, this year are becoming pilot projects for sustainable tourism in Central America.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Cloning Cacao

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Biotechnology and specialized agronomy practices are contributing to the recovery of the cacao crop in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, which until 1989 was the world leader in this raw material for chocolate.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Gold Mining Begins

By IPS Correspondents and - -
The Montana Exploradora mining company, a subsidiary of the Canadian Glamis Gold, will begin extracting gold in late January in the eastern Guatemalan department of San Marcos, despite the opposition of environmentalists.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Peasants Protect Natural Resources

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Some 271 families of the Rio Platano biosphere and the Tawahka Asagni reserve, along the northeastern Honduran Atlantic coast, are leading projects to preserve one of the main stretches of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Ecobreves – NICARAGUA: Fishing Law Comes Out of the Freezer

By IPS Correspondents and - -
A law to regulate the use and conservation of Nicaragua's fishing resources, frozen 10 years ago in the nation's Congress, could be approved once the lawmakers convene this year, now that political consensus has been achieved in the parliamentary commission on the environment.

Environment Ministers Carve Out a Space

By Humberto Márquez and - -
Little by little, the environmental ministries in Latin America are expanding their influence in the public sphere. Since 1998, they have been part of a regional forum that has helped unite them as a single voice in global environmental politics.

Ecobreves – COSTA RICA: Promoting Biodiesel

By IPS Correspondents and - -
The Costa Rican Center for Cleaner Production will this year present a proposal for the wide-scale production and use of biodiesel, fuel created in part from natural oil sources, such as the African palm.

Venezuela's Vargas Disaster Hard to Forget

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Four years after the worst natural catastrophe in Venezuela, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, the state of Vargas is still recovering, and even has the same number of inhabitants as it did in December 1999, before disaster struck.

Ecobreves – PERU: Water Treatment for Lake Titicaca

By IPS Correspondents and - -
The city government of Puno, in southern Peru, is to build a wastewater treatment plant in order to fight the serious contamination problem afflicting Lake Titicaca.
- Fabricio Van Den Broeck.

Future of FTAA Not What It Was

By Ignacio Avalos Gutiérrez and - -
What came out of the first draft of the hemisphere-wide trade treat was a skeleton "that gradually will be fleshed out".

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Little Known Law on Waste Is Enacted

By IPS Correspondents and - -
On Jan. 1 a law on solid waste took effect in the Mexican capital, requiring residents to separate organic matter from other materials. Mexico produces nearly 12,000 tons of garbage each day.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Reforesting River Basins

By IPS Correspondents and - -
With an investment of 6.6 million dollars over the next five years, the Colombian public works agency EPM will reforest 5,000 hectares of forests in the watershed areas of the northwestern department of Antioquia.
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A Mixed Decade for NAFTA Environment Accord

By Diego Cevallos and - -
NAFTA's parallel "green" agreement, the only one of its kind, marks its tenth anniversary with the same limited budget it had when it was created and has processed 42 denunciations.

Biodiesel Trains on the Right Track

By Mario Osava and - -
Some 580 trains in Brazil will be run on fuel that contains soybean oil, which is a renewable energy source and produces less pollution than fossil fuels.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Onions as Psoriasis Treatment

By IPS Correspondents and - -
A salve based on onion extract, manufactured in the eastern Cuban province of Guantánamo, is proving an effective substitute for steroids in treating psoriasis, a non-contagious skin disease that causes inflammation and dryness
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The Threat of Not-So-Free Trade

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Few in Central America are celebrating the end of the ninth round of free trade treaty negotiations with the United States. Peasant farmers warn of the loss of thousands of rural jobs and an increase in poverty, which already affects more than half of the region's population.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: The Battle Over Used Tires

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Importers of used tires for retreading have won the latest battle in Brazil. A Supreme Court ruling on Dec. 12 authorized imports for the BS Colway firm, despite efforts by the Brazilian Environment Institute to ban the deal.

Ten Years of NAFTA

By IPS Correspondents and - -
Amidst both enthusiastic applause and loud condemnation, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) reaches its 10th anniversary on Jan. 1, 2004. Relegated to the back seat, environment and labor rights have been only accessory issues in that trajectory.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Hydroelectric Firm Helps Animals

By IPS Correspondents and - -
The state-run electric company Edelca, which builds and operates several hydroelectic dams in southeast Venezuela, turned in 95 rattlesnakes (Crotalus terrificus) to laboratories of the Central University to produce a snakebite serum.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Noisy Power Plant Shut Down

By IPS Correspondents and - -
The Environment Ministry of Guatemala ordered the closing of the U.S.-based Duke Energy plant due to noise pollution, which was affecting the residents of several communities along the country's southern coast.
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