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Loading ...CVRD Chooses to Lead by Example
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007One of Brazil’s biggest home-grown multinationals and employers, the Doce River Valley Company (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce – CVRD) has decided to take its efforts on sustainable development and social responsibility to the next level: it is refusing to supply iron ore to clients that are not complying with Brazilian environmental and labor standards. […]
Exchanging Refrigerators and Air Conditioners to Combat Climate Change
Monday, July 9th, 2007The Environment Secretariat (SEA) of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) recently signed an agreement with a power company (Ampla) to initiate a program of the exchanging old refrigerators and air conditioners for new ones among the state’s poor families. A similar agreement is to be signed with Light, another power provider in […]
The Basics II, Foundations: Is a Constitutional Provision on the Environment Necessary?
Thursday, June 28th, 2007I had in the backlog queue a “Basics” piece on the importance of setting a solid environmental governance foundation through adoption of properly crafted and targeted laws, but held off publishing it for Temas administrative reasons I will not go into here. In the meantime, however, the Dominican Republic (DR) has come forward with ideas […]
Making Post-Consumer Recovery of Pesticide Packaging Work
Monday, May 28th, 2007The recent decision by Colombia to impose extended producer responsibility (EPR) for post-consumer pesticide packaging reminded me of a draft sitting in the infamous backlog queue since January. It looks at the Brazilian system for dealing with such packaging, which seems to be operating very well, in spite of predictions to the contrary by skeptics […]
Consumer Protection in LAC II-B – Consumer Legislation in LAC Nations
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007To make up for missing World Consumer Rights Day (March 15), I promised to give you a five-part overview of consumer protection in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In Part I, I looked at how consumer agencies and consumer NGOs in the region celebrated the Day. In Part II-A, I provided an overview of […]
Setting the Eco-Benchmark for Cattle Raising / Meat Processing in the Amazon
Thursday, March 15th, 2007My question: if this project is really to set environmental benchmarks for this sector in Brazil, why does the IFC only speak about deforestation? Granted, it is a critical issue in the Amazonian context, but what about reduction/minimization/reuse/recycling of the substantial wastes such operations entail, or steps taken to reduce the methane (a potent greenhouse […]
More LAC Wind and Solar Maps
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007A few months back I did a post on what wind and solar power potential maps for the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries could be found on the internet, and promised updates on others as I found them. Well, it might take me awhile to do so, but I usually do come through […]
New Environmental Caucus in Brazilian Congress
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007A Sign of the Times? On Valentine’s Day in Brasilia a large group of Federal Deputies, with top officials from the Environment Ministry (including Minister Marina Silva), the President of the Chamber of Deputies Arlindo Chinaglia [Workers’ Party (PT) – São Paulo (SP)], and representatives of several key environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by their side, […]
LAC News Bits and Pieces – Deforestation
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007In recent weeks there have been several positive stories on the deforestation front in South America. Rather than recast the news, permit me to simply point to reliable sources on the items raised here. I am not at all reluctant to link and to give credit where I think it’s due. Brazil Gets Bold About […]
IDB/MIF to Support Sustainable Wood Use in the Brazilian Amazon / BID/FMI ajudará uso sustentável da madeira na Amazônia brasileira
Wednesday, December 20th, 2006From the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB): SEBRAE will receive US$2.1 million for sustainable development of wood and furniture supply chain in Brazil’s Amazon Region MIF support will bring together public and private stakeholders to identify new technological solutions for sustainable economic use of wood in Amazonas and Pará The Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund […]