Peruvian forest advocates scored victories on two fronts last month, as President Fujimori created a trio of new reserved zones in the Amazon region and later signed a new forestry law aimed at establishing sustainable forest manage- ment in Peru. The forestry law, signed by Fujimori on July 16, had long been blocked by logging interests. It calls for an inventory to identify all land suitable for timber extraction, sets maximum and minimum limits on forestry concessions and requires that all new logging concessions be awarded by public auction and have government-approved sustainable-management plans. The new law, which cannot take effect until implementing regulations are approved, also authorizes the granting of concessions for ecotourism and the sustainable extraction of non-wood plant species...
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A federal appeals court this month upheld a September 1998 injunction banning the sale of Monsanto’s genetically modified “Roundup Ready” soy seeds here, but Monsanto may take its case to a higher court. In a unanimous decision Aug. 8, the three-judge panel rejected an appeal in which Monsanto and the Brazilian government demanded that the injunction be overturned. The court also upheld the 1998 injunction’s requirement that the ban remain in effect until Monsanto files an environmental impact statement and the government drafts health and safety regulations regarding consumption of Roundup Ready products. Monsanto said in a prepared statement that it had “already done extensive studies to evaluate the environmental impact of its genetically modified soy,” adding that “with the Aug. 8 court decision...
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Mexico’s General Wildlife Law, enacted last month, formalizes one of the outgoing administration’s most hotly debated policy initiatives: the Rural Sector Productive Diversification and Wildlife Conservation Program. The new legislation ensures that the program, which encourages the establishment of private game ranches and other market-based conservation initiatives, will continue. Implementing regulations remain to be issued, however. Since its inception three years ago, the wildlife program has been the subject of sometimes acrimonious debate. But passage of the law enshrining it was overshadowed by last month’s historic Mexican presidential elections. The goal of the legislation is to preserve habitat and species by enabling landowners with approved conservation plans to generate income through hunting, collecting and wild plant and animal husbandry. The Environment, Natural Resources and...
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Chile and the European Union (EU) go before a World Trade Organization panel next month to seek what some say could be a precedent-setting resolution to their dispute over EU swordfishing vessels’ access to Chilean ports. At issue is Chile’s refusal to open its ports to foreign vessels that catch swordfish inside and outside Chile’s exclusive 200-mile coastal economic zone. Since 1989, Chile has maintained local restrictions to protect swordfish, whose numbers have declined precip- itously due to overfishing. Officials here charge that the Spanish fishing fleet has complicated these efforts because it does not observe Chile’s safeguards for swordfish, which migrate in and out of the 200-mile zone. “We just want to agree with the EU on a regulatory framework on...
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