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Loading ...A Regional Waste Exchange for Central America
Monday, August 3rd, 2009For years I’ve advocated establishing and heavily promoting subregional (or in the case of huge and diverse market of Brazil, at least a national) waste exchanges as one way to promote more reuse and recycling and to minimize wastage. It certainly makes more sense than national waste exchanges, particularly in the case of a collection […]
World No Tobacco Day 09: CARICOM Agrees to Ban Smoking in Public Spaces
Saturday, May 30th, 2009From the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat: CARICOM HEALTH MINISTERS AGREE TO CURB SMOKING IN PUBLIC SPACES The Caucus of Ministers of Health have endorsed a recommendation for the banning of smoking on public spaces as a public good and regional goal, as the Region intensifies its efforts to tackle Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), under the Port […]
Mesoamerica Shows the Way to DDT-Free Malaria Control
Thursday, May 7th, 2009The World Health Organization (WHO) has confidently announced that they can still roll back malaria worldwide while phasing out the use of the hazardous pesticide Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT) through the use of pesticide-free Integrated Vector Management (IVM) techniques. Why is WHO so confident it can be done? Because they have already successfully tested the proposition through […]
A Map of Malnutrition Among Central American & Dominican School Children
Thursday, February 19th, 2009The Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP) has just released an updated version of their map of malnutrition among primary school children indicated at the level of the 1,430 municipalities in INCAP’s eight member countries (Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama). The new update (click on the image […]
DR & Central America Agree on Common Health, Pharma Policies/Programs
Saturday, January 31st, 2009It doesn’t get much attention outside this corner of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), but the annual Meeting of the Health Sector of Central America and the Dominican Republic (Reunión del Sector Salud de Centro América y República Dominicana – RESSCAD) is quietly doing important work to change health policy among its seven member […]
Belize’s Tourism Plan – Sustainable?
Friday, January 30th, 2009The Belize Government has announced a $13.5 million program that they say will “promote and practice responsible tourism” and which they label as a “sustainable tourism plan.” Perhaps buried in the the plan itself (not yet available online) are the details of what actually qualifies this as sustainable or responsible tourism, since the official release […]
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 […]
What a Shame
Thursday, January 15th, 2009Just two months ago a study was released putting a dollar value on the preservation of Belize’s reefs. Now comes a report that a cargo ship wandered (reportedly while on autopilot) onto a barrier reef 32 miles from Belize City in an area near Caye Glory. Experts say that the grounding may have permanently destroyed […]
Putting a Value on Belize’s Reefs and Mangroves
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008In a recent post I applauded efforts to estimate the true economic value of the mangroves along the coast of Mexico’s Baja California. Last month the World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a report that estimates the economic value of Belize’s coral reefs and mangroves that I similarly applaud — in […]
A Poor Report Card for the Mesoamerican Reef
Monday, December 22nd, 2008A “report card” on the health of the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) was released recently, and it was not pretty. Not the type of report card a student would want to take home to his/her parents. The MAR follows the Caribbean coastline of Mexico and Central America for over 1,000 kilometers, and as such is the […]