Ecoamericas

October 2018

Trade

Experts see few green gains in rewrite of Nafta

As the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) has reshaped the region’s economy over the past quarter century, environmental safeguards implemented in conjunction with the ......

Species conservation

All eyes on monarch’s Mexican wintering grounds

Favorable weather along the monarch butterfly’s migratory route and in its U.S. and Canadian summer habitat have spurred one of the imperiled insect’s largest summer ......

Human Rights

China’s rights record in region denounced in U.N.

Sergio Nahuelquir is spokesperson of Fem Mapu, one of 14 Mapuche and Tehuelche indigenous communities in Argentina’s southern province of Santa Cruz. On Oct. 11 ......

Mexico

Project restores bison—and grasslands—in Mexico

A decade ago the American bison, an icon of the North American frontier, had almost entirely disappeared from Mexico. Relentless hunting and habitat loss over ......

Brazil

Metal companies to make green payouts in Brazil

Under pressure from state and federal authorities, major steel, iron ore and aluminum producers operating in Brazil have pledged to spend a total of US$617.5 ......

Around the Region

Green-policy doubts abound in wake of Bolsonaro victory

Environmentalists are bracing for the worst following the Oct. 28 election of Jair Bolsonaro, at times a withering off-the-cuff critic of environmental regulation and land ......

Centerpiece (Free Read)

Region moves to rein in single-use plastic

Early last year the United Nations came as close as a peacekeeping organization can to declaring war. The enemy: ocean plastic. “It is past time ......

Q&A

UN’s Jordi Pon describes region’s waste-management challenges

Jordi Pon is chemical and waste program coordinator at the Panama-based Latin America and Caribbean regional office of UN Environment, the environmental-protection arm of the ......

Region moves to rein in single-use plastic

Green groups increasingly spotlight producers of the plastic choking the world’s oceans. (Photo courtesy of Greenpeace)

Early last year the United Nations came as close as a peacekeeping organization can to declaring war. The enemy: ocean plastic. “It is past time that we tackle the plastic problem that blights our oceans,” Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment, the U.N.’s environmental-protection arm, said at the Feb. 23, 2017 launch of the initiative, called the Clean Seas Campaign. “Plastic pollution is surfing onto Indonesian beaches, settling onto the ocean floor at the North Pole and rising through the food chain onto our dinner tables. We’ve stood by too long as the problem has gotten worse. It must stop.” As Solheim acknowledged, the campaign was late in coming. Since the early 2000s, countries, nongovernmental organizations and international environmental bodies have called for... Read more →

Region moves to rein in single-use plastic

Green groups increasingly spotlight producers of the plastic choking the world’s oceans. (Photo courtesy of Greenpeace)