Metalclad Corp. has decided to discontinue its business in Mexico after failing twice to open much-needed toxic waste-disposal sites in the country. Mexico, which only has one functioning disposal site for toxic industrial waste, wants investment in more such facilities. But since Metalclad entered the Mexican market in 1991, the Newport, California company has seen one of its projects denied a municipal permit and a second dogged by public opposition. In an annual report issued this month, Metalclad says it will retain a disposal site in the state of San Luis Potosí pending resolution of a $90-million damage claim it filed against Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The 1997 claim, now before the International Centre for the Settlement of...
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In the northern coastal village of Salitral, Peru, scientists are helping local residents stop malaria at its source. Their unorthodox method: throwing coconuts in ponds and puddles where the disease-carrying Anopheles mosquito breeds. Actually, it’s not as simple as that. A scientific team from Lima’s Alexander Von Humboldt Tropical Medicine Institute is training residents to use coconuts as natural incubators for a bacterium that emits a toxin lethal to mosquito larvae. Trainees cut holes in the coconuts, insert cotton swabs doused in the bacterium (Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis H-14, or Bti), seal the holes with wax, allow a couple days for fermentation, then break open the shells and toss the fruit into the water. Researchers have found that in a typical pond, two...
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Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori announced April 12 that bids will be accepted next month from companies interested in developing the massive Camisea natural-gas fields. The auction marks Peru’s second attempt to tap the reserves, which underlie pristine rainforest in the lower Urubamba Valley and are believed to contain 11 trillion cubic feet of gas—among the Americas’ biggest deposits. The companies that originally held the concession, Royal Dutch-Shell and Mobil, abruptly pulled out of the project last July when Shell, the managing partner, failed to agree with the Peruvian government on tariffs and distribution. As part of the project, Shell had launched unusually ambitious environmental-protection and social-development efforts in cooperation with indigenous communities and Peruvian authorities. (See “Can shelved Shell project...
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Honduran conservationist Jorge Varela this month was named one of seven winners of the 1999 Goldman Prize, recognized for his work to prevent shrimp farming from destroying mangrove ecosystems in the Gulf of Fonseca. Every year, the Goldman Environmental Foundation of San Francisco, California, awards the prize to outstanding grassroots environmental advocates in each of the six continental regions. Other winners this year include two Australian aborigines, and citizens of Cameroon, Burma, Canada and Slovakia. The Goldman Environmental Foundation was established a decade ago by Richard Goldman, chairman of a San Francisco insurance brokerage firm, and his wife (since deceased), Rhoda Goldman, a descendant of clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss. Each Goldman Prize winner receives a no-strings-attached award of $125,000. Nominations are submitted anonymously...
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Brazilian Environment Minister José Sarney this month lifted a tree-cutting ban in place in the Amazon since February, saying the measure had prompted landowners and loggers to agree on new guidelines to slow deforestation. Brazil imposed the ban in February after satellite data revealed that cutting and burning last year had deforested an area more than half the size of Maryland, or 6,500 square miles (16,800 sq km)—an estimated 27% more than in 1997. Some environmentalists welcome the new agreement, noting it calls for tighter restrictions on land clearing by small farmers, among other steps. They also assert that in any event, the government ban had been widely ignored. In his announcement, Sarney said fresh funds are being made available for more inspectors...
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Mobil Corp. is supporting a project by Peru’s ProNaturaleza and The Nature Conservancy of the United States to carry out a wide-ranging resource-management project in central Peru. The Central Selva Climate Action Project is intended mainly to preserve the area’s diverse plants and animals, which include spectacled bears, jaguars and 400 bird species. It also calls for community development strategies and creating long-term funding for nearby Yanachaga-Chemillen National Park. In addition, scientists will examine ways to promote forest management that ensures the heavily wooded area will keep serving as a carbon sink. The $523,000 grant Mobil will give ProNaturaleza for the work is one of three donations the company plans this year to assist projects that help slow the accumulation of...
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