A Mexican light bulb replacement project has received independent verification of greenhouse gas reductions. The audit found that as a result of the project, power plants operated by Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission avoided pumping 171,168 tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air from 1995 through 1998. The agency persuaded residents in Guadalajara and Monterrey—Mexico’s second- and third-largest cities, respectively—to replace their incandescent light bulbs with compact flourescent bulbs, which are 75% more efficient and last 10 times longer. Energy savings were verified by an auditing team comprising two consultancies, Det Norske Veritas (DNV) of Norway and ICF Consulting of the United States, and the Center for Climate & Environmental Research (CICERO), a research center associated with the University of...
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Efforts to link low-income producers of organic, shade-grown coffee in Latin America with java connoisseurs worldwide appear to be paying off. Starbucks Coffee this month became the most recent specialty foods company to stock coffee grown without pesticides, under natural forest canopy. Studies show shade coffee plantations support far more wildlife than conventional, open plantations. Starbucks is getting shade-grown coffee from southern Mexico’s El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, a cloud forest where the Seattle, Washington company is sponsoring technical and training programs for growers through the nonprofit group Conservation International. Other distributors cooperating with Conservation International’s Conservation Coffee initiative in the reserve are Rapunzel Pure Organics, a Kinderhook, New York, distributor of organic foods, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of Waterbury, Vermont, a...
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When Brazil’s Environmental Crimes Law was enacted last year, environmentalists, regulators and business leaders described it as unprecedented. It closed loopholes, enumerated enforcement powers and established tough penalties. But the law’s much commented-on teeth (see “Brazil Overhauls its Environmental Laws”—EcoAméricas, Nov. ’98) have yet to bite. That’s because the government has not approved complementary rules needed for full implementation. On Aug. 12, five nonprofits petitioned the government to speed adoption of the rules—the Socio-Environmental Institute, Friends of the Earth, Amazon Investigation Institute (IPAM), Federation of Organizations for Education and Social Assistance (FASE) and the World Wildlife Fund. The Environment Ministry crafted such rules last year and sent them to the president’s office, but they have yet to be adopted. Last month...
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Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and Ecuadorean President Jamil Mahuad this month signed agreements to build road and bridge projects spanning their once-volatile 1,060-mile (1,700-km) border. At the same time, Mahuad announced that the two governments hope to conclude an agreement by the end of the year to establish cross-border oil pipeline links. The projects are the outgrowth of a peace treaty Fujimori and Mahuad signed last October, ending a long-festering border dispute that on more than one occasion erupted in military clashes. The treaty promises services and investment for the long-neglected border region and its 4 million inhabitants, as well as joint environmental protection for unspoiled Andean terrain. (See “Peace spawns plans for embattled border”—EcoAméricas, April ‘99.) In...
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An international partnership of power companies this month announced a $5.4-million investment in wildlife management and community development on 20,000 acres (8,275 hectares) of Atlantic Forest in Brazil’s Paraná state. The Texas-based Central and South West Corp. (CSW), a public-utility holding company, has joined Grupo Rede, a private electricity group in Brazil, to fund the programs, the companies announced on August 16. The programs, run by The Nature Conservancy and the Brazilian conservation group Sociedade de Pesquisa em Vida Selvagem (SPVS), would help ensure carbon sequestration in the 775,000-acre (320,645-hectare) Guaraqueçaba Environmental Protection Area. This is the third such program engineered by The Nature Conservancy through its Climate Action Project. Over the past several years, the project has attracted $20...
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With a ban on jack mackerel fishing set to expire Aug. 31, an ad hoc panel of researchers, politicians and union leaders has come out against proposals to adopt a quota system to preserve fish stocks. The Democratic Parties’ Fishing Negotiation Commission concluded, after researching the effects of fishing quotas in other countries, that annual quotas might be counterproductive. The fishing industry, led by Japanese and Spanish investors, says quotas are preferable to bans. According to National Fishing Society Executive Director Cristián Jara, bans encourage high-volume fishing when they’re not in effect. The commission report counters that pending legislation to create quotas would hand control of fishing rights to businesses. The commission contends current regulations could protect fish populations adequately if they were accompanied...
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The World Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department plans to distribute a summary of a public electronic discussion held July 6 to Aug. 15 about the bank’s performance in promoting environmental protection in development. Another such discussion is slated to begin in November. Among the points raised in the recent exchange, which involved members of the World Bank staff, environmental groups, businesses and other organizations, was that environmental requirements ought to be part of the bank’s policies and projects, not add-ons or remedial actions. Another was that as part of its work, the bank should consult regularly with local communities, trade unions and environmental NGOs in developing countries. Comments will be included in the OED’s ongoing evaluation of the World Bank’s environmental record...
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