New articles approved by Venezuela’s National Constitutional Assembly this month offer unprecedented recognition of indigenous and environmental rights. Ratification of the new Constitution, drafted at the behest of President Hugo Chávez, is expected in a public referendum next month. Proposed articles 122 through 129 of the indigenous-rights chapter require consultation with Indian communities over use of their natural resources and give them the right to set priorities for development of their recognized ancestral lands. Proposed articles 130 through 132 of the environmental-rights chapter provide for the security and health of all citizens, promising state protection of the environment. The articles also authorize territorial zoning based on the principles of sustainable development and require toxic waste be prevented from entering the country. Much debate...
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Mexican officials this month were preparing to publish long-awaited regulations governing environmental impact statements and the environmental licensing process. The regulations, being readied by the National Ecology Institute (INE), will put into effect reforms enacted three years ago to update Mexico’s General Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection Law. Among other things, they re-categorize environmental impact statements and address who does and does not have to file them. They also detail the timetable and requirements for environmental licensing—stipulating, for instance, when authorities may request additional information on development projects and how much time project proponents have to respond. Consistent with the 1996 reforms to the environmental protection law, the new rules seek to streamline the environmental permitting process to avoid discouraging investment. According...
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Brazil’s on-again, off-again Tocantins-Araguaia Waterway project is off again following a Mato Grosso federal judge’s decision to suspend public hearings on its environmental impact statement. Judge Augusto Bearsi’s order late last month came in response to allegations that the findings of scientists were deliberately suppressed in the impact statement. Another federal judge in Maranhão state had suspended the hearings on Sept. 20. But the Transport Ministry, which is in charge of the $120 million project, obtained a court ruling on Sept. 29 allowing the hearings and the licensing process to proceed. Then Judge Bearsi weighed in, acting on a complaint filed on behalf of Xavante Indians by the Socio-Environmental Institute, a São Paulo-based NGO. Bearsi ruled that the environmental impact...
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Domestic and foreign-owned companies in Venezuela that invest in clean technology will be given a 10% income-tax break, says Environment and Renewable Natural Resources Minister, Jesús Arnaldo Pérez. Announcing the measure Oct. 20, Pérez said trade liberalization must go hand in hand with improvements in environmental technology. Companies that undertake environmental-protection efforts also will be eligible for speedier government permitting, he added. The business community has received the news with mixed emotions. Some executives fear it’s a sign stiffer government environmental-performance standards are on the way. Boosting investment in pollution-control is difficult given the depressed state of the country’s economy, they assert. Foreign companies weighing investment in Venezuela will have to compare the new tax break’s benefits with incentives offered...
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Argentina has earmarked $3 million annually over the next five years to conduct environmental-science projects with the European Union, aiming to become the first Latin nation to take part in an E.U. technology-sharing program. The E.U.’s Research Council was slated to make a final decision Dec. 2 on Argentine participation in the initiative, called the Fifth Framework Programme of Research, Technological Development and Demonstration. The program marks an effort by the European Union to promote international cooperation in four areas: quality of life and natural-resource administration; information technology; competitive and stable growth; energy, environment and sustainable development. After two years of study and negotiations about Argentina’s participation in the program, Europe this year invited Argentina to conduct two competitions to identify...
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A major gathering of business and government leaders in Miami, Florida, includes workshops on environmental topics ranging from clean energy to disaster reconstruction. The 23rd Miami Conference on the Caribbean and Latin America, scheduled for Dec. 7-10, was expected to attract 1,500 government and business leaders from 50 countries. Sponsored by the nonprofit Caribbean/Latin American Action of Washington, D.C., the conference is meant to promote world and regional trade liberalization, says former U.S. Ambassador Donald Planty, the group’s executive director. The U.S. Department of Commerce was co-sponsoring workshops on public-private cooperation in natural-disaster recovery and prevention projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Other sessions cover clean energy, food safety and biotechnology. Among those expected to attend were Venezuelan President Hugo...
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