Frustrated with diplomatic efforts to resolve a water dispute, Texas farmers are seeking monetary compensation from Mexico under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). The action stems from Mexico’s failure to deliver all the water it owes to the Rio Grande under a 1944 treaty with the United States. In a letter sent last month to Mexico’s Economy Secretariat, lawyers for Texas water users requested US$500 million for economic losses they alleged were incurred in their state from 1992-2002. The amount includes the loss of some 100,000 acres (40,000 has) of irrigated farmland due to a shortage of Rio Grande water. The claim draws on research by Texas A&M University economist John Robinson. Representing the farmers, Washington D.C.-based...
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Minería Yanacocha, owner of a gold mine in Cajamarca, northern Peru, that is one of the world’s most profitable, has suspended exploration of deposits in nearby Quilish Hill. Plans to mine the 3.7 million ounces of gold under Quilish have been controversial, with local peasant farmers asserting that mining will disrupt water supplies and that they were not paid a fair price for their land when the company bought the property. (See “Plan to mine mountain stirs debate in Peru”--EcoAméricas, July ‘03.) Yanacocha, whose majority shareholder is Denver-based Newmont Mining, began exploration on Quilish Hill early last month. Protests started almost immediately and escalated, with road blockades and demonstrations by up to 10,000 people, according to local reports. On Sept. 6, company executives...
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A U.S. green group has donated 8,000 tons of carbon reduction credits to offset greenhouse-gas emissions caused by the transportation of delegates to and from the recent U.S. Democratic and Republican conventions. The EcoLogic Development Fund (EcoLogic) says the $40,000 in donated credits reflects the carbon-sequestration benefits last year of 20,000 tropical pine trees planted in rural Guatemala by indigenous communities the group assists. The contribution was a largely symbolic move intended to mark a new effort by EcoLogic to use carbon credits as part of its community-based conservation work in Latin America. Underlying it was a Guatemalan initiative to restore communal forests in the department of Totonicapán, and thus protect watersheds important to traditional livelihoods. “We began to think about creative...
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News that the chemical malachite green was found last month in Chilean salmon shipped to the Netherlands has rekindled concern about use of the fungicide, a suspected carcinogen prohibited in the United States, the European Union and Chile. The detection by Dutch officials follows similar discoveries last year that prompted the European Union (EU) to issue eight food alerts warning of excessive malachite-green levels in Chilean farmed salmon. Malachite green, developed originally as a synthetic-fabric dye, seems to be used illegally by some Chilean salmon producers because it is effective in killing parasites and fungus that threaten farmed fish. Controversy over the latest seizure has revolved partly around the way malachite green and its metabolite, leucomalachite, are detected. SalmonChile, a business association of...
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Brazil’s president has vetoed a controversial provision in an urban development bill that would have allowed real-estate developers to cut down trees in urban areas that currently are subject to Atlantic-Rainforest protection legislation. But the author of the rejected measure says he will try to overturn the veto in Congress. The measure (No. 64) was part of an urban-development stimulus bill (No. 10,931) that the Brazilian Congress passed on July 8 and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed into law on Aug. 2. It would have allowed real-estate developers to cut urban outcroppings of the Atlantic Rainforest protected under the Brazilian Forest Code law of 1965. The Forest Code forbids cutting on riverbanks and within 30 to 500 meters of...
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