Government Accountability
Lozano: Environment Institutions Need to be Accountable
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Synopsis in English: Last month Colombia's Environment Minister, Juan Lozano Ramírez, signed a Standard Internal Control Model (MECI) agreement between his Ministry (MAVDT) and the Comptroller General to signal his intention to have the Ministry utilize internal controls and audits to ensure proper handling of the resources under its purview. He took the occasion to […]
Chile Reforms Its EIA System
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007Synopsis in English: Last week in a joint press conference featuring the Chilean Ministers of Environment, Treasury, Economy, Energy and Mining presented a package of measures intended to make the national Environment Impact Assessment System (Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental – SEIA) more “efficient” and “agile.” The measures were mostly drafted by the National […]
Digitizing Environmental Enforcement
Saturday, August 4th, 2007Minas Gerais is moving to accomplish something no other Brazilian state — or probably any Latin American/ Caribbean (LAC) nation, for that matter — has yet done: digitize its environmental inspection and enforcement. Currently Minas is winding up a pilot project in which its 21 waste and sanitation inspectors do much of their work utilizing […]
Sao Paulo’s Green Cities Program Launched / Lançamento do Projeto Município Verde de São Paulo
Saturday, July 21st, 2007Synopsis in English: São Paulo State’s governor, José Serra, and Environment Secretary, Xico Graziano, recently announced the formal launch of the “Green City” project promised as part of the Governor’s package of 21 strategic environmental measures. By early July, 393 of SP’s 645 cities had already signed onto the program’s protocol of 10 commitments, covering […]
Another Historic Court Judgment Against Officials Not Doing Their Job
Saturday, June 2nd, 2007Yesterday (31 May), it seems, was a banner day for court judgments taking LAC executive branch officials to task for not doing their job in enforcing environment laws. First the Brazilian case finding that federal environment officials must share in the environmental damage reparation costs and compensation for coal mining pollution they did not address […]
Court to Exec Branch: If You Don’t Enforce, You’re Also Liable for Environmental Damage
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Synopsis in English: The Second Turma (not sure how to best translate this into English — Chamber, perhaps?) of Brazil’s Superior Court (Superior Tribunal de Justiça – STJ) has just issued a ruling which, on the face of it (I’m in the process of consulting my Brazilian environmental lawyer friends just to make sure I […]
Will Lima Breathe Easier?
Saturday, October 14th, 2006Lima Is Not for Asthmatics A recent post in Ecoperu warned that walking through Lima’s city center could prove hazardous to your health due to contaminants in the air that exceed international standards. I was a bit taken aback by this statement. It’s been over three years since I last walked Lima’s center, so maybe […]