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Loading ...Peru Proposes Bill on Environmental Services
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009A bill on payment for environmental services has been presented by Peru’s Environment Ministry (Minam) to the Congress that Minister Antonio Brack argues is “innovative.” The three short paragraphs of the General Environment Law‘s Article 94 says that the State will “establish mechanisms for valuing, paying for and maintaining the provisions of such services” and […]
The State of LAC’s Forests
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has just released State of the World’s Forests 2009 (English, Spanish), the latest update of its annual overview of forest resources worldwide. While it does not shed significant new light or offer new data on forest cover and the state of deforestation in Latin America and the Caribbean […]
Economic Growth Model is Rapidly Transforming/Degrading the Amazon
Thursday, February 19th, 2009From the UN Environment Programme (UNEP): A Strong Impact is Made on the Amazonia by its Economic Growth Model However, responses by the governments of Amazonian countries indicate that efforts are under way on concrete action to deal with their environmental challenges. The population is increasing, reaching a level of 33.5 million inhabitants in 2007. […]
Peru Opens Public Consultations on Draft National Environment Policy / Peru pone en consulta pública borrador de política nacional del ambiente
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009Peru’s Environment Ministry (Minam) is circulating for public comment its proposal for a National Environment Policy. Interested parties can submit comments and suggestions through a web-based form. Minam will also be holding consultative workshops on the draft Policy in Lima and four regions. The draft Policy is clear and concise, with a set of overarching […]
Could Ecosystem Service Payments Save the Amazon?
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009From WWF: Amazon could prosper thanks to emission payments, be lost without Global payments for ecological services rendered by the Amazon such as the carbon retaining in its forests could go a long way to preserving them, a new study has found. Keeping the Amazon forests standing: a matter of values, carried by the Copernicus […]
Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Drops
Friday, January 23rd, 2009Brazil’s Environment Minister, Carlos Minc, just announced at a press conference that the pace of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell 82% in the last five months of 2008 compared to a similar period in 2007. Minc attributes the drop to two factors: policies put into place by the federal government and regional authorities, and […]
Outlook for “Green Jobs” / Prognóstico para “empleos verdes”
Monday, December 15th, 2008While the idea of creating a “green economy” with “green jobs” has been around quite a while, it really started to gain serious consideration as the climate change debate heated up, and recently moved front-and-center during the US presidential elections and the debates about how best to respond to the global financial crisis (here, here, […]
Aid for Biodiversity in Espírito Santo / Doação para Biodiversidade no Espírito Santo
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008From the World Bank: Brazil: Global Environment Facility Approves US$ 4 Million Grant for Biodiversity in Espírito Santo The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors yesterday approved a US$ 4 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to the Government of the State of Espírito Santo for the Biodiversity and Watershed Conservation and Restoration […]
Mexico Uses Environmental Service Payments to Protect Millions of Hectares
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008Synopsis in English: Since 2003 Mexico has put 3.22 billion pesos into environmental services payments (pago por servicios ambientales – PSA). What is a PSA, you might ask. PSA is an environmental policy concept that is quite the rage in recent years, pushed by such institutions as the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), United […]
Does Payment for Watershed Services Work in LAC?
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008An innovative and increasingly popular policy option in the deforestation and water resources management fields in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the so-called payment for environment services (PES) approach. But as these IIED reports show, as it has been applied so far to watershed management does not always bring the hoped-for environmental benefits. […]