United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last month picked former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos as one of three special envoys on climate change issues. But the announcement has caused a furor among Chilean green groups, which criticize Lagos’ environmental record as president and have taken to the media to express their opposition to his UN appointment. Within days of the May 1 announcement, 17 Chilean environmental and citizen groups, including Ecoceanos, Latin American Observatory for Environmental Conflicts and the Chilean Ecological Network, sent a letter to the UN Secretary General asking that Lagos be removed. The letter, which in intervening weeks has been signed by dozens of other Chilean and international organizations, states in part that during a six-year term that ended last...
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Two years ago the U.S.-based Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation gave nearly US$8 million to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) of Arlington, Virginia, to promote protection of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. The funds were used partly to hire and equip 67 new employees—including 53 new park guards—and to create a 22-mile (35-km) biological corridor linking Corcovado National Park, on the western edge of the Osa Peninsula, to Piedras Blancas National Park, on the east side of the Golfo Dulce. So far, the results have been encouraging. Researchers from the National University of Costa Rica have measured an increase in the population of white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) population since TNC’s work got underway. Conservationists hope that jaguar (Felis onca) numbers...
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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, through his Clinton Foundation, has launched an effort to improve the energy efficiency and environmental impact of buildings in megalopolises including Mexico City and São Paulo. The initiative, announced last month at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York, is intended to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses and ozone-depleting chemicals and boost indoor-air quality in a total of 15 cities around the world. Global banking institutions including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, UBS, and ABN Amro have pledged US$1 billion in financing to cities that need assistance upgrading buildings. Meanwhile, the foundation says it is linking municipal authorities carrying out such projects with pro-bono technical assistance provided by such organizations as the American Society...
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Ventures begun by women in the Galápagos and in Guatemala are among five worldwide recipients of the Equator Prize, awarded biennially by the United Nations Development Program to recognize projects that make sustainable use of biodiversity to fight poverty. On Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands, the six-member Pescado Azul Women’s Association of Isabela received the award for commercializing smoked tuna. In Guatemala, Alimentos Nutri-Naturales, a business venture owned and run by 56 women, harvests and processes Maya nut—once a staple in pre-Columbian times. The other winners announced last month were the Madagascan village of Andavadoaka, which has taken steps to protect the local octopus population; a development organization in Bangladesh; and a Kenya-based group promoting conservation in East Africa. On the Galápagos...
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