The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved an $82.5 million credit to boost protection of the Brazilian Pantanal, one of the world’s largest wetlands. To be matched with local funds, the $165 million conservation effort is to be carried out by the Brazilian Environment Ministry and the country’s Environment and Natural Resources Institute (Ibama). It calls for research, monitoring, planning, public works and other work to improve water quality, regulate fishing, promote sustainable aquaculture and increase the area of protected watershed from the current 1.2 million acres (500,000 hectares) to 4.9 million acres (2 million hectares). “This was a difficult, pioneering and complex project that does credit to our institution,” IDB President Enrique Iglesias said, noting public support for conservation helped make the project...
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Chile hopes to develop a model bilateral agreement on environmental issues as part of a core free-trade accord with the United States rather than as a side agreement, according to Chilean officials. But Chile will oppose the use of trade sanctions in response to environmental non-compliance, says a trade official, who declined to be quoted by name. “Sanctions are not a good way to achieve what you actually want, which is to put enforcement pressure on local agencies,” the official said. “We think a system of fines is much more effective.” In a move that surprised its South American neighbors, Chile this month began negotiating a bilateral free-trade pact with the United States. The two nations hope to sign a deal as...
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As 2000 draws to a close, Brazil’s state-owned oil company is smarting from nearly $150 million in fines stemming from a string of high-profile oil spills. What it will wind up paying remains unclear, however. Petrobras says two large fines were reduced as a reward for paying them on time, and it is refusing to pay two others. Most conspicuously, it is fighting a $93 million Environment Ministry penalty on grounds that it already had been fined by another agency over the same incident and shouldn’t be hit up twice. Petrobras has paid just $37 million in all—less than a quarter of its total fines. But whatever the amount, this year’s procession of spills clearly has the company reeling. Last January, a...
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U.S. consumer demand for mahogany furniture threatens the survival of big-leafed mahogany trees in the Amazonian rainforest, says a report by the wildlife advocacy group Traffic, a program of the World Wildlife Fund and World Conservation Union (IUCN). The report says the United States is the largest consumer of Latin American big-leafed mahogany, accounting for some 57,000 trees during 1998 alone. Brazil and Peru are the main suppliers of the wood, while Bolivia and other nations also share in the business. Report author Christopher Robbins calls for U.S. import tariffs, promotion of environmental certification and upgrading of big-leafed mahogany’s protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites). Some question whether big-leafed mahogany is...
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Mexico and the United States will work jointly on studies and recommendations targeting the boundary and delta portions of the Colorado River, it was announced this month. The binational International Boundary and Water Commission said it would study how water flows are affecting species habitat and would recommend improvements. “This agreement indicates the willingness of both countries to consider ways to preserve riparian and estuarine habitat,” said U.S. Commissioner John Bernal, who signed an agreement on the project Dec. 12 with Mexican Commissioner Arturo Herrera Solís. News of the IBWC project comes on the heels of a study by researchers from Arizona, Virginia and Mexico showing that the damming of the Colorado in the 1930s killed off more than 90% of the marine life in...
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