Guatemala’s national cabinet soon will grow to include an environment ministry if all goes according to the plan of President Alfonso Portillo Cabrera. Announced in August, the president’s proposal to create the ministry is now pending in Congress. While some are skeptical that legislative action is imminent, government officials are confident the measure will be enacted before the end of the year. Establishing an environment ministry would bring about a long-sought elevation of environmental issues to ministry-level consideration, supporters say. It also would end the duplication of efforts caused by the government’s current patchwork of environmental institutions. “A ministry would enjoy more authority to be able to establish policy and exercise control,” says Edmundo Vásquez Paz, director of the Institute for Environmental Law... [Log in to read more]