Tierramerica
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Ecotourism Summit

Ecotourism, or ecological tourism, is a phenomenon of modern times that combines the passion for travel with concern for protecting the environment. It has become an important economic activity, to the point that it has prompted a global summit devoted to the issue.

Ecobreves – REGIONAL: Water for the Americas

Experts, business leaders and environment ministers from throughout the Americas are to meet Oct 8-11 in Mexico to draw up and adopt strategies for distributing and conserving the region's freshwater supplies.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: High Plains in Danger

The ecosystem of the Andean high plains is in danger because the poverty of its residents forces them to engage in unsustainable farming practices, warned experts at the World Plains Congress, held May 13-18 in the southwest Colombian city of Paipa.

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The Return of Nuclear Power

Faced with the volatility of the world petroleum market, the wealthiest countries, with the United States in the lead, are turning their gaze to nuclear energy.

Whaling Puts Japan on the Defensive Yet Again

The annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission once more is provoking debate about the whale meat trade, while hunting of these cetaceans has been sharply restricted by a moratorium since 1986.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Turtles Returned Home

Biologists from Venezuela's Environment Ministry released 16,000 young Arrau turtles into the waters of the Orinoco River as part of a conservation program.

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Deserts

Deserts evoke images of uninhabited arid lands in which the phenomenon of life seems to be a complicated undertaking. But the truth is that they are ecosystems with their own flora and fauna and cover more than a fifth of the Earth's land surface.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Plague Threatens Forests

A plague of 'chinches harinosas' (mealybug, or Maconellicoccus hirsutus), encouraged by drought and warm temperatures, has endangered the fruit, ornamental and ligneous trees in the Cuban capital.

Ecobreves – COSTA RICA: A Ban on Open-Pit Mining

The new government of Costa Rica will ban open-pit mining, announced the recently appointed Environment Minister, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez.

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New Park Shows Off the Wonders of the Sea

The natural wealth of Cocos Island was made famous by the late French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, and is now one of the main attractions of a new Costa Rican sea park.

Ecobreves – PERU: Tourists Spoil Nature

Environmental activists and volunteers collected more than 17,000 plastic bottles left by tourists during the last Southern Hemisphere summer at Peru's Paracas Nature Reserve, a 335,000-hectare sanctuary on the Pacific coast.

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The Alpaca

The alpaca, whose official name is 'Lama Pacos', entered into the lives of humans some 5,000 years ago, when Andean civilizations began to domesticate this member of the camel family. Today, the alpaca, also related to the llama, is the basis of a global industry.

Ecobreves – MÉXICO: Marine Vaquita Endangered

Environmental organizations are working to prevent the extinction of the marine 'vaquita', a mammal similar to the dolphin and unique to Mexico. The population has dwindled to fewer than 600.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: In Search of Clean Energy

Two Colombian companies have presented clean energy generating projects to the World Bank, which has invited companies from Japan and the Netherlands to finance clean development mechanisms in the countries of the developing South.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Recycling Educates and Pays

The environmental education project of Brazil’s Friends of the Environment, which is based on recycling efforts, improved the grades of 380 children last year in five rural schools of the Itabuna municipality, in the northeastern state of Bahia, and created new sources of income for their families.

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Machu Picchu – On the Verge of Collapse?

The unceasing footsteps of thousands of tourists over the ruins produce an effect similar to a small-scale earthquake, says an expert.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Sanctuary for Iguanas

Some 320 iguanas, a threatened species in Venezuela, now are protected in a refuge in the central industrial city of Valencia, the work of an environmentalist couple with the backing of a private company.

New Ammunition to Fight Abuse of Animals

Thousands of animals in the Mexican capital suffer torture, abandonment or laboratory testing. There is a new law to protect them, but activists say it is not enough.

Ecobreves – REGIONAL: Civil Society Has the Word

The World Development Report 2003, published by the World Bank, will include an environmental development and conservation proposal drawn up by indigenous and ethnic leaders, academics and civil society representatives from throughout Latin America who gathered last week in Costa Rica.

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Tornados

First comes the calm, and then the fury is unleashed. In the center of it all could be a tornado, a natural storm formation that spins at incredible speed and always - like in the movies - seems unstoppable as it approaches.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: 'Green' Exports Grow

The demand for Colombian organic products expanded last year 20 percent, says a report from the Foreign Trade Ministry.

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