World Bank: Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Services Severely Undervalued
Monday, April 6th, 2009From the World Bank: Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Services Severely Undervalued New World Bank Review Calls for Action to Protect the Marine Environment Properly valuing coastal and marine ecosystem services is critical to sustainable development, according to the World Bank publication “Environment Matters 2008” launched today. Titled: “Valuing Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Services”, the review […]
FAO: Agriculture Should be in New Climate Agreement / El nuevo acuerdo sobre el cambio climático debe incluir la agricultura
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009From the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): Climate change talks should include farmers Agriculture in developing countries could play crucial role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions FAO has urged policy makers to include agriculture in negotiations for a new climate change treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol. “Agricultural land is able to store […]
UNEP/CARICOM: Drastic Climate Change Consequences for Insular Caribbean / PNUMA/CARICOM: drásticas consecuencias por cambio climático en el Caribe Insular
Saturday, December 27th, 2008Although this report (English only) was finished in October, it was formally unveiled at the global climate change talks in Poland in November, but did not get much media play because of all the other actions, initiatives, reports and declarations made in Poznan at the same time. But it deserves much more attention and hopefully […]
Update: The Economic Value of Mexican Mangroves
Sunday, August 17th, 2008When last May I blogged about the importance of Mexico’s inventory of its mangroves, I declared that mangroves matter. One of the reasons I cited was that they usually serve as nurseries and homes for many fish, shrimp, crabs, mollusks and other marine life (in the Dominican Republic, for example, many of the endangered manatees […]
Climate Change Adaptation: Andean Glacier Retreat
Saturday, June 7th, 2008From the World Bank: WB Announces Adaptation Program for Glacier Retreat In The Andes The World Bank announced today a new program to address the impact of tropical glacier retreat in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. The program, supported by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), will grant US$7.49 million to implement a set of adaptation actions […]
Maps, Maps and More Maps
Monday, June 2nd, 2008In a prior post on the Temas library of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) legal texts for download, I promised to highlight other changes and additions to the updated site. The biggest addition to the site has been the Temas Tools Section, a collection of references and tools that help in understanding, shaping and managing […]
Mexico Takes Stock of its Wetlands
Saturday, May 31st, 2008Mangroves matter. Why? Among other reasons: Their dense root systems keep sediment from rivers and off the land from going out to sea. This helps stabilize the coastline and provides some protection from hurricanes and tropical storms. [Studies have shown storm damage is usually greater in coastal areas where mangroves have been cleared.] It also […]
GEF Funds Binational Ecosystem Management Project / Donación del GEF para la gestión de un ecosistema binacional
Friday, September 28th, 2007From the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB): IDB announces $3.5 million grant for binational ecosystem management on border between Costa Rica and Panama Resources from the Global Environmental Facility for project in the Sixaola river basin A $3.5 million grant from the Global Environmental Facility will help finance a project to improve environmental management in the […]
Impact of Sea Level Rise on LAC
Monday, May 14th, 2007While the reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have stolen the headlines and thunder, the World Bank quietly released an important working paper examining how the expected rise in sea level (SLR) caused by global climate change might affect the 84 coastal developing countries among its membership. Twenty-five of these are […]
PAC’ing Brazil III: Energy, Petrochemicals and Biofuels
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007In Part I, I provided an overview of what the Program for Accelerated Growth (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento – PAC) proposed by President Lula is and why it matters to the issues I discuss in The Temas Blog. I also discussed its most direct impact on environment policy, the proposed changes in environmental licensing. […]
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