Nicaragua will train soldiers to become environmental watchdogs as part of a project to deploy an “eco-battalion” in the country’s most remote and unregulated protected areas. More than two decades after the end of the contra war, which ravaged Nicaragua’s countryside, the military is using foreign aid to protect the country’s two biggest natural reserves, according to Gen. Orlando Talavera, the military’s director of civil affairs. The battalion will be sent to the Bosawás biosphere reserve along Nicaragua’s northern border with Honduras, and south to the Indio Maíz biological reserve, which borders Costa Rica. Says Talavera: “The military is the motor guaranteeing environmental laws are enforced.” The first “ecological battalion” in Central America will tap US$6 million in aid from Finland, Norway and...
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Following three highly publicized shark attacks, environmentalists in the Mexican Pacific resort of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo this month launched a public-education campaign to underscore the need for shark conservation. Headed by the Wild Coast and Iemanya Oceanica organizations, the campaign will employ broadcast spots, comic books and other media to counter negative images that flourished after shark attacks in April and May left two surfers dead and one injured off local beaches. The unusual incidents came at a bad time for the area’s tourism industry, which has been complaining about a dip in spending by U.S. visitors. In the immediate aftermath of the shark attacks, fishermen—with the support of local authorities—killed at least a dozen sharks before protests halted the slaughter. “Killing sharks...
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Panama’s Catholic Church has angered environmentalists over its plan to build a national headquarters on what is now 2.5 acres (1 ha) of tropical woods in the heart of Panama City. The church refuses to speak to the press on the matter, except to say that it has all the necessary government approvals. But a grouping of environmentalists and residents in the affected Clayton neighborhood has written twice to the Vatican and filed suit in Panama’s Supreme Court to try to stop the project. “This flies in the face of legislation intended to preserve important biological corridors and the water for the Panama Canal,” says Raisa Banfield, executive director of the non-governmental Environmental Advocacy Center, which sides with the opponents. The disputed area lies...
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Watershed protection, one of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s chief campaign promises to environmental advocates, has officially gotten underway with three pilot projects. The projects are being conducted on the Copiapó River in the north, the Rapel River in the country’s center and the Baker River in southern Patagonia. Ana Lya Uriarte, Chile’s environment minister, said recently that the pilot projects will seek to “analyze the behavior of the water, install a public-private planning model and involve in a sustainable way all activities around these resources.” Uriarte added that the Baker River, the proposed site for a controversial hydroelectric project, lies “in an area of our country with particularly special ecosystem characteristics, a large quantity of virgin zones, and important tourism development.” At the national...
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Mexico City’s rainy season is in full swing, testing the local government’s claim to have eliminated the latent risk of a catastrophic flood. The forecast follows completion of the first stage of a massive effort to inspect and repair the main artery of the capital’s underground drainage system. Hundreds of city-contracted workers spent the March-to-May dry season 650 feet (200 meters) below ground inside the 21-foot (6.5-meter) diameter Emisor Central tunnel, which runs for 30 miles (50 kms), taking sewage and stormwater runoff northwards out of the city. The tunnel, opened in 1975, was supposed to receive annual dry-season maintenance. This has been impossible for the last 14 years since deterioration of the rest of the city’s drainage system...
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