Combatting Deforestation II: Agriculture and Forests
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007When I launched my series on deforestation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) many months ago, I said I’d try to address different facets of the question in separate posts. My first tackled the question of just how serious is deforestation across LAC. Today, a look at the interface between agriculture, poverty and deforestation. […]
Protecting the Mesoamerican Reef
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007Another one from the backlog queue! A few hurried notes to myself from the beginning of December, then lost in the holiday shuffle. But the recent posts on the WWF-Coca-Cola freshwater partnership and WWF’s agreements with agricultural producers in Honduras reminded me of this one still lurking in the queue. Hopefully better late than never. […]
Sustainable Agriculture as a Key to Protecting the Mesoamerican Reef
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007Synopsis in English: WWF has concluded an agreement with major Honduran producers of palm oil — specifically Palmas de San Alejo and AGROTOR, subsidiaries of the JAREMAR Group — to adopt specified good agricultural management practices in order to reduce the impact their production has on the nearby huge Mesoamerican Reef (MAR). The agreement has […]
What the WWF-Coke Freshwater Partnership Means for LAC
Wednesday, June 6th, 2007On the face of it, this is good news for a couple of reasons. First off, I applaud that a huge water user (176 billion liters worldwide in 2006) and consumer such as Coca-Cola has decided to increase their water use efficiency, recycle the water they use in manufacturing whenever and wherever possible, and to […]
The World’s Largest Rainforest Park
Friday, March 9th, 2007The North Amazon Mosiac of Protected Areas – Map by WWF Synopsis in English: On 28 February a French decree effectively created the world’s largest rainforest protected area in the northern Amazon. The decree created a 2-million hectare Parc Amazonien de Guyane (“Guyana Amazonian Park”) along the southern border of French Guiana, France’s “overseas department” […]
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 […]
A Sustainable Energy Plan for Brazil?
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006The Government’s Energy Vision Last Wednesday Brazil’s Energy Research Corporation (EPE) released the National Energy Plan 2030, the government’s blueprint for energy development for the next 24 years. The EPE is a subsidiary of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), charged with energy planning. The principal theme of the plan can be found in […]
“Up in Smoke” PostScript: Related Materials on Climate Change and LAC
Saturday, September 30th, 2006It’s been suggested to me to post some recommendations for follow-up reading and resources related to the review I did on the “Up in Smoke” report on probable impact of global climate change on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). I’m a bit hesitant to do so because I don’t consider myself to be an […]
A Sobering Look at Climate Change’s Probable Impact on the Region
Monday, September 11th, 2006A collection of 20 environment and development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)* calling themselves the Working Group on Climate Change and Development recently released a report trying to catalog current manifestations in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) of global climate change and look at probable future impacts thereof. Whether or not you wholly agree with their methodology, […]
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