Unable to reconcile environmental conservation with human population growth, Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands have landed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) List of World Heritage in Danger. The classification, made June 26, means Unesco has formally concluded that the natural characteristics underlying the naming of the Galápagos as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1978 are threatened and require corrective action. Unesco’s World Heritage Committee, meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand, also added Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park to its endangered list, citing poaching and plans for a hydroelectric dam. In the case of the Galápagos, the panel pointed to invasive species as well as growing tourism and immigration. (See “Influx of humans testing Galápagos limits”—EcoAméricas, June ’07.) The Unesco action regarding...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
A gathering of non-governmental groups in Quito, Ecuador, last month underscored how biofuels production, the objective of some green advocates, has begun drawing organized environmental scrutiny. Some 250 attendees representing dozens of Latin American, Asian and African organizations drafted strategies aimed at pressuring international agencies and national governments currently promoting biofuels production as an environmentally sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. The meeting highlighted questions about the justification and impacts of biofuels. Participants agreed to take joint action to influence biofuels policies of the United Nations, World Bank, development agencies and governments. “We will debunk the biofuels myths,” says participant Anuradha Mittal, executive director of The Oakland Institute, a think tank headquartered in Oakland, California. “Biofuel is pushed primarily by developed countries such as the...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
The Chilean wood pulp company Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (Celco) is stirring environmental controversy again. This time a Celco pulp mill on the Mataquito River in the Maule Region of central Chile is the cause, having been responsible for two toxic spills last month that killed hundreds of thousands of fish, birds, livestock and plants. The top three executives of the Licancel plant, which opened in 1994, have since been fired. Chile’s State Defense Council has initiated lawsuits. And the company has temporarily closed the plant, located about 125 miles (200 kms) south of Santiago. Celco, one of the world’s largest pulp producers with US$600 million in exports last year, reported on June 18 that it was responsible for the contamination. The admission comes...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
After a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel ruled June 12 on the dispute between the European Union and Brazil over Brazil’s import ban on retreaded tires, both sides declared victory. Though the WTO panel supported the EU’s view that the ban violated the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), it recognized the measure’s health and environmental rationale. The EU set the WTO battle in motion two years ago, when it filed a complaint portraying Brazil’s 2000 ban on retread imports as an unfair restraint on trade. Though the import ban also covered used-tire imports, the EU focused its case on retread imports. Brazil argued that since retreads have a shorter lifespan than new tires, widespread use of them boosts the number of discarded...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
