Around the Region

Growing land disputes between farm and forest communities on one hand and agribusiness, mining, and hydropower interests on the other have seemingly made Latin America the most dangerous region of the world for environmental defenders.

Between 2002 through 2011, 591 land-rights and environmental activists in Latin America were murdered, accounting for 83% of such killings worldwide, according to a recent report by Global Witness, a London-based human rights and environment group.

Federal prosecutors’ offices in six Brazilian Amazon states have sued the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (Incra), the government agency in charge of settling landless peasants, claiming improperly executed land reform is a major cause of Amazon deforestation.

The center-right government of Chilean President Sebastian Piñera is proposing to implement “green taxes” on companies producing or importing products that have a short useful life but require long periods to break down, or cannot break down, in waste dumps. Among such products, says Chile’s Environmental Ministry, are tires, oils and lubricants, batteries, light bulbs, metals, glass, tetra packaging products and plastic bags.

After failing for years to keep their promises to reduce the amount of trash Argentina’s capital sends to landfills in nearby Buenos Aires province, Buenos Aires municipal authorities have received a stern warning.

Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires province, has given the city 30 days to meet the targets set in the Zero Trash Law, a measure municipal officials approved in 2004 and have ignored ever since.