Argentine Environment Secretary Romina Picolotti was ousted from office this month after becoming the subject of a corruption investigation and drawing criticism from green groups for failing to challenge government pro-mining policies and ensure cleanup of a notoriously polluted river. Picolotti, an environmental attorney, was appointed in 2006. At the time, she was representing environmental groups in the Argentine city of Gualeguaychú that were opposed to the construction across the Uruguay River of a vast Uruguayan pulp mill. Her appointment, by then-President Néstor Kirchner, was seen by some as an effort to placate Gualeguaychú residents, whose protest actions—including an ongoing blockage of vehicular traffic on a nearby international bridge leading to Uruguay—created diplomatic tension between the Argentine and Uruguayan governments. The...
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A nomadic Indian tribe living in isolation in the dense scrub forests of Paraguay’s Gran Chaco won a reprieve last month when Paraguay’s Environment Secretariat (Seam) revoked a Brazilian company’s permit to clear land in the area. The 300 members of the Totobiegosode tribe have for centuries been working small plots, gathering fruit and honey, hunting and fishing in the northern province of Alto Paraguay with virtually no ties to the outside world. Indian-rights activists say they are the last so-called “uncontacted” people in South America outside the Amazon River basin. But the Totobiegosodes’ existence was increasingly threatened by Brazilian and Paraguayan ranchers clearing ever-larger expanses of land. This year alone, the tribe has lost nearly 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of its...
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The Chilean government announced late last month that it was making available US$450 million to help the salmon industry overcome the crippling effects of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus. Officials say over half of the money will be used to help the industry invest in new methods of production and better control of the virus, which spreads rapidly in packed fish pens and has caused devastating losses to Chilean salmon-farming companies. In particular, the Chilean Economic Development Agency (Corfo) will provide bank loans to finance sanitary improvements on salmon farms, including new water recirculation and waste-treatment facilities. Further, funds will be invested in an ambitious research agenda aimed in part at ways to boost salmon growth and disease resistance. The industry association...
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The court-appointed investigator in the Ecuadorian rainforest-pollution trial of Chevron has revised his estimate of the maximum damages in the case dramatically, boosting it by US$11 billion. Richard Cabrera reported last month to the tribunal handling the matter, Nueva Loja Superior Court, that damages stemming from the rainforest drilling at issue in the case exceeded US$27 billion. His initial estimate, made in April, was $16 billion. The long-running Chevron case focuses on oilfield operations run by a Texaco subsidiary in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1972 to 1992. Rainforest Indians, who claim ongoing contamination from pits containing toxic drilling waste, are charging Chevron with responsibility by virtue of the oil company’s 2001 acquisition of Texaco. Cabrera submitted his new estimate in...
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