Brazil Plans to Ban or Restrict 12 Pesticides
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009Brazilian health officials are concerned. In 2008 Brazil became the largest consumer of pesticides in the world, surpassing the US with a market of more than US$7 billion. Yet many of the pesticides now manufactured in, or imported into, Brazil and widely used there have been banned or severely restricted for health and environmental reasons [...]
Comisión argentina comienza trabaajo sobre los agroquímicos
Thursday, February 5th, 2009Desde la Secretaria de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable (SAyDS):
Comenzó a funcionar comisión para prevenir intoxicación por agroquímicos
Presidida por la Ministra de Salud de la Nación, Graciela Ocaña, y con la presencia del Secretario de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable, Homero Bibiloni, sesionó hoy por primera vez la Comisión Nacional de Investigación para la prevención, asistencia y [...]
Bolivia Bans Dozens of Pesticides, Activists Call for Rest of LAC to Follow
Monday, February 2nd, 2009At the close of the meeting of the Latin American section of the Pesticide Action Network (known by its Spanish acronym RAP-AL) in La Paz last week, host country Bolivia announced that it was banning all pesticides with active ingredients classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as extremely (Class 1a) or highly (Class 1b) [...]
Colombia Finally Joins the POPs Convention / Por fin Colombia es Estado Parte del Convenio sobre los COPs
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009On 20 January Colombia finally joined the ranks of Contracting Parties (CPs) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Stockholm Convention commits CPs to eliminate, severely restrict and/or minimize the production, use and trade of 12 POPs — nine pesticides (including DDT), three byproducts of industrial processes and of combustion (dioxins, furans [...]
A Unique GEO for MEROSUR
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008Last month a GEO for the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR or MERCOSUL) was finally unveiled with much fanfare by representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the meeting of MERCOSUR Environment Ministers.
What’s a GEO? It’s probably the best known type of comprehensive environmental diagnosis available. “GEO” was the acronym for “Global Environment [...]
Unique Customs Cooperation Pact on Multilateral Environmental Agreements
Monday, December 29th, 2008Earlier this month Ministers from Central America and the Dominican Republic responsible for the environment, agriculture, health, defense and customs signed an Inter-Institutional Cooperation Convention for the Control of Imports, Exports and Transit Related to Multilateral Environment Agreements. The accord is supposedly the first of its kind in the world (I would be interested to [...]
Update: Colombian Eco-Authorities Now Have Sharp Teeth?
Friday, August 8th, 2008Last year I did a post about Colombia’s Environment Minister, Juan Lozano Ramírez, calling upon that country’s Senate to finally give environmental authorities “teeth” — a true, tough environmental sanctions regime. Proposals for such a law had been before the national legislature for years (Lozano says it’s been decades).
A few weeks ago the [...]
Paraná Seeks to Cut Pesticide Use
Monday, August 4th, 2008Synopsis in English: Starting with the next major planting this month, Paraná plans to substantially increase its Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program with the goal of reducing pesticide use in plantings by its farmers 30% over the next four to five years. The new Program push is motivated in large part about foreign market [...]
A Solid Waste Plan for Costa Rica
Friday, July 18th, 2008Recently Costa Rica was presented its long-awaited Solid Waste Plan (PRESOL) by the entities belonging to the Inter-Institutional Platform of the Competitiveness and Environment Program (CYMA): the Health Ministry (MinSalud), the Planning Ministry (Mideplan), the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the Institute for Municipal Development and Advice (Instituto de Fomento y Asesoria Municipal - [...]
State of the North American Environment
Saturday, June 21st, 2008The North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has just released a “state of the environment” (SOE) report entitled The North American Mosiac (English, Spanish, French). The CEC is the main vehicle for environmental cooperation between Canada, Mexico and the US, and as I stated in a prior post, like it or not, Mexico [...]
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