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Loading ...Progress Towards the Health MDGs in LAC / Progreso hacia los ODM relacionado con la salud en ALC
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Recently 14 United Nations (UN) agencies* released a report (English, Spanish) reviewing the status of efforts of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations toward meeting the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The report addresses the following health-specific MDGs: reducing the under-five mortality rate by 2/3 between 1990 and 2015; reducing the maternal mortality ratio by […]
First Destination for UNEP’s Green Passport Program: Brazil
Monday, October 13th, 2008The international community is about to launch a “Green Passport” program to promote “sustainable holidays,” and guess where the concept is being field tested first: a small colonial era town in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state, Paraty. The Green Passport is a project of the International Task Force on Sustainable Tourism Development (ITF-STD) created […]
A New Tool to Combat Soil Degradation and Climate Change
Saturday, August 9th, 2008Last month I posted about the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) disturbing report about soil degradation and what it says regarding Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). A couple of weeks later the FAO and several partner organizations — the European Commission, the private Dutch foundation World Soil Information (ISRIC), the private Austria-based […]
Improving Environment, Water & Sanitation Management in São Luís
Friday, July 18th, 2008From the World Bank: Brazil: Improved Living Conditions and Employment Generation for over 40,000 Poor Urban Families in São Luís Project to promote city competitiveness and upgrade housing and sanitation in one of the Brazil’s poorest states The World Bank approved yesterday a loan of US$ 35.6 million for the São Luis Enhancing Municipal Governance […]
Past as Prologue for Caribbean Reefs?
Friday, June 13th, 2008Earlier this year the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published a report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) assessing the state of the Caribbean’s coral reefs after their toughest year in recent history, 2005. The IOC is the lead international entity assessing and reporting […]
An Innovative Watershed Management Model in Guatemala / Modelo innovador para la gestión de cuencas en Guatemala
Saturday, September 15th, 2007From WWF-Central America: CARE and WWF launch an innovative business model for conserving water and promoting poverty reduction in Guatemala Communities and the municipality unite to execute a pilot project for the equitable compensation of hydrological services in the Sierra de las Minas zone of Guatemala Five communities of the municipality of Teculután with more […]
Mexico to Take US to the Hague Over Border Wall…Because of Environmental Impact???
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007The Environment Secretariat (SEMARNAT) of Mexico has announced that it may take the United States to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague over the wall the US is trying to build along the border with Mexico. The rationale behind their case: alleged environmental damage to the desert ecosystem in Sonora and Baja […]
Bottled Water and the Macizo Colombiano
Thursday, June 28th, 2007Are water bottlers seeking to become the champions of conservation and protecting freshwater sources? You have to wonder. At about the same time earlier this month that WWF was publicizing its freshwater protection partnership with Coca-Cola, owner of the Dasani brand of bottled water, Colombia’s Environment Minister, Juan Lozano Ramírez, was announcing an alliance with […]
LAC Wins Two of Five UNDP Equator Awards
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007Five tropical communities were honored yesterday at United Nations Headquarters in New York with the Equator Prize — and two of the five were from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The Prize, awarded biennially by the Equator Initiative led by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), recognizes “extraordinary work to diminish poverty through the conservation […]
Hearts and Minds in LAC
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006Did LAC Residents Celebrate World Heart Day? September 24 was World Heart Day. Did you do anything to note its passage? Did you ever know it existed? I didn’t. Oh, I guess intellectually I knew that one had to exist — after all, there is a “world something day” for almost everything nowadays. What probably […]