A controversial plan to build huge salt works at San Ignacio Lagoon on Mexico’s Baja peninsula is drawing more scrutiny, this time from the UN World Heritage Committee. Meeting last month in Kyoto, Japan, the panel decided to study the $110-million project’s potential impact on whales and other wildlife in and around the lagoon, which is part of the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve—a UN World Heritage site. The partners in the project, Mexico’s Trade and Industrial Development Secretariat and the Japanese trading company Mitsubishi, want to tap strong global demand for salt in the manufacture of products ranging from water softeners and soy sauce to glass and plastic. Their joint venture, Exportadora de Sal, S.A., or ESSA, already is the world’s largest salt manufacturer...
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Mexico’s Environment, Natural Resources and Fishing Secretariat, or Semarnap, will have 5% less to spend this year than it did last year under Mexico’s 1999 federal budget, considered one of the country’s most austere in modern times. According to Aaron Gallego, technical secretary of the Chamber of Deputies Ecology and Environment Commission, the cut will leave Semarnap with a budget of $14 million. The reduction, approved in the final working hours of Congress’ December session, could weaken industrial inspection and environmental enforcement, as well as protection for nature reserves, says Gustavo Alanís, director of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law. (Mexico isn’t the only Latin country facing environmental budget cuts. See story on Brazil—page 4.) The Mexican Ecological Green Party—whose Deputy, Jorge Alejandro...
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The Amazon rainforest has long been thought to offset global warming by soaking up carbon dioxide, but scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, believe dry weather can reverse this effect. A team from the laboratory’s Ecosystems Center says studies conducted over a 14-year period demonstrate that undisturbed parts of the Amazon forest actually add carbon to the atmosphere when El Niño weather patterns bring hot, dry spells to the region. This is in marked contrast to other years, when dense tropical forest acts as a carbon sink, absorbing the carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. The new findings could have important implications for efforts to combat climate change because they indicate soil moisture might be crucial to carbon storage...
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A tri-national effort by Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina to consolidate protected areas in the Selva Misionera region of the diminishing Atlantic Forest got a boost when Alto Paraná, an Argentine forest products company, recently contributed 8,450 acres (3,420 hectares) to the effort. The land, donated to the environmental NGO Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina, will become the Urugua-í Wildlife Reserve. It is home to jaguars and numerous other animals in need of protection, including ocelots, tapirs, merganser ducks and howler monkeys. Creation of the reserve will help stem the fragmentation of the forest, which has shrunken dramatically in the face of centuries of agricultural and urban development. Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina says it still needs infrastructure and funding support to implement a conservation program...
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Panama’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Policy is undertaking an $88-million project to preserve natural resources while promoting economic development in the country’s largest and poorest province. Under the project, a new land-use management plan would be implemented for Darien Province, which covers 22% of Panama’s territory and has a fragile ecosystems and inadequate infrastructure. The plan is intended to promote reforestation, settle land-use conflicts, bolster local administration of resources, encourage economic diversification and improve passenger and freight transportation. Organizers hope the effort will serve as a model for future development by involving residents, environmentalists, government agencies, churches, and other civil society organizations in decision-making. The project also is to be carried out in close coordination with international agencies such as...
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Experiments under way in Latin America to combat climate change may prove useful to both developing and industrialized countries, according to the organizer of an upcoming panel discussion on the topic. The session is being hosted in Washington Feb. 16 by the nonprofit Forum for Environmental Law, Science, Engineering and Finance, FELSEF. Panelists at the luncheon meeting, which is open to the public, will include Christiana Figueres, co-executive director of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas; Luis Niño, spokesman for the Venezuelan delegation of the Organization of American States; Don Goldberg, representative of the Center for International Environmental Law; and Esteban Brene, environmental specialist with the World Bank. Among other things, they will address the role of business and multilateral institutions in...
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In very different ways, three new books shed light on the challenges Mexico faces in the area of development and the environment. Author Keith Pezzoli lived for months in Mexico City squatter settlements to research his “Human Settlements and Planning for Ecological Sustainability: The Case of Mexico City.” In his book, Pezzoli scrutinizes the sprawling megalopolis of Mexico City, whose $63.6 billion GDP is equal to that of Argentina. He explores questions of sustainability, calling for alternatives to management-by-crisis in urban development. A bilingual book, “Wealth, Poverty and Sustainable Development” offers alternative development strategies for social groups that have not benefited from globalization. Author David Barkin says these marginalized groups comprise as much as 35% of Mexicans. He considers three basic principles—autonomy...
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