Vampire bats have attacked thousands of people and caused 14 deaths in the past two months in the northern Brazilian state of Pará as a result of deforestation, Brazilian authorities say. Health officials claim the risk of a rabies epidemic has subsided since vaccines were rushed to the inhabitants of the small town of Augusto Correa, 159 miles (99 kms) from the state capital of Belém. The Brazilian Health Ministry’s epidemiology department reports 2,500 people in the region have been bitten by Demodus rotundus, one of three species of bat that feed off blood. Authorities say the bat attacks stem from uncontrolled deforestation in the region, which is on the eastern fringe of the Amazon rainforest. “Humans are becoming the bat’s source of food due...
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Two distinguished Colombian scientists claim they have a chemical-free way to cut illegal coca production. Alberto Gómez, director of Colombia’s National Network of Botanical Gardens, and Gonzalo Andrade, professor of entomology at Bogotá’s National University, propose breeding vast quantities of a moth (Eloria noyesi) that in its larval stage feasts on coca. They say that if the moth’s eggs are dropped from planes onto Colombia’s coca fields, the Eloria noyesi caterpillars would seriously damage the crops, which currently account for 80% of the world’s cocaine. The proposal, made in a letter the scientists sent last month to Colombia’s Interior and Justice Ministry, is being taken seriously by the Colombian government. Officials from the National Plan of Alternative Development, an agency that helps coordinate drug...
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Controversy over Guatemala’s first modern-day gold mine deepened last month, when communities near the project site held a referendum and voted overwhelmingly against mining in the area. The referendum was held June 18 by community leaders from the municipality of Sipacapa, in northwestern Guatemala, where a small portion of Glamis Gold’s Marlin gold and silver mining project lies. Some 75 international and national observers were present. The bulk of the mining concession is in neighboring San Miguel Ixtahuacán municipality, where residents appear divided on the project but no referendum has been held. Of the 13 villages that form Sipacapa municipality, 11 voted against mining, one voted in favor and one abstained. Those voting against mining demanded Glamis’s permit be revoked. Some 2,500 citizens took...
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Pluspetrol Norte, a Peruvian subsidiary of Argentina-based Pluspetrol, has been fined nearly US$4 million for environmental damage done in two northern Amazon oil-concession areas near Peru’s border with Ecuador. The fines stem from a probe by Peru’s Energy Investment Oversight Organism (Osinerg). The agency found levels of pollutants, particularly salts and barium, exceeding maximum allowable limits in parts of Block 1AB and Block 8 along the Corrientes River, an area that includes about 30 Achuar indigenous communities. Such contamination is caused by the discharge of produced water, the hot, briny water that comes to the surface with oil. Osinerg says the company changed pollution-monitoring locations from those agreed on in its environmental plans. In May, Osinerg fined Pluspetrol Norte US$1.9...
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