A new study conducted by the Brazilian government identifies the burning of forests and the lack of sewage-collection systems as Brazil’s two biggest environmental problems. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the government’s official statistics agency, based its study on answers compiled from questionnaires it sent to the country’s 5,560 municipalities in 2002. Released last month, the first-ever IBGE environmental survey cited the country’s lack of adequate sewage-collection systems as the environmental problem that most adversely affects the population. It pointed to government research in 2002 that showed just 52% of Brazil’s municipalities had pipeline sewage collection. The study also reported that in the 1,159 municipalities where infant mortality rates exceeded 40 deaths per 1,000 newborns, the most common environmental...
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Environmental groups suing the Bush administration over proposed changes to U.S. “dolphin-safe” labeling standards for imported tuna won a skirmish last month, when a federal court rejected requests by the Mexican and Venezuelan fishing industries to join the litigation. On May 26, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson preventing lawyers for the two fishing lobbies from intervening in the lawsuit. The suit, brought by a coalition of green groups against the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, challenges a finding issued by the Bush administration in December 2002. The finding held that the practice of encircling mixed schools of dolphin and tuna with vast purse-seine nets would cause “no significant...
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Often called the land of eternal spring, Guatemala in some places looks more like an endless expanse of trash, thanks to a critical dearth of solid-waste management. Government officials say this state of affairs will change, however. The National Solid Waste Management Commission (Conades) is now preparing a nationwide solid-waste plan. The blueprint is expected to call for the development of local trash-hauling capacity, public and private investment in waste-management infrastructure and citizen participation through education and incentives. José Tulio González, Conades’ executive director, acknowledges solid-waste management never has been a priority in most parts of Guatemala. None of the country’s environmental laws even mentions solid-waste management, he says. In rural areas, fewer than 5% of Guatemalans have trash...
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The head of Mexico’s Environmental Secretariat (Semarnat), Alberto Cárdenas Jimenez, is quitting his post this month in preparation for a presidential bid. Cárdenas, previously governor of Jalisco state, ends a 19-month tenure atop Mexico’s environmental agency. He was appointed by President Vicente Fox in September 2003, after the previous secretary, Víctor Lichtinger, was dismissed amid agency infighting. Green groups have accused Cárdenas of a spotty environmental record in Jalisco and a tendency at Semarnat to favor business development over conservation. Critiques have concerned Mexico’s response to such environmental problems as water pollution, deforestation, genetic contamination of native corn and, lately, oil spills by Pemex, the state oil monopoly. No replacement for Cárdenas had been named by press time...
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The Ecuadorian city of Cuenca last month received a US$50,000 prize for its efforts to protect the upper Tomebamba River watershed, a major drinking-water source. Cuenca, Ecuador’s third-biggest city, was one of two winners of the ReSource Award, a watershed-conservation prize given annually since 2003 by Swiss Re, the Zurich-based reinsurance company. The city was cited for its project to reduce human impacts on the 115-sq-mile (300-sq-km) upper Tomebamba watershed, where cattle ranching, fish farming and tourism have taken a growing environmental toll. The project, presented by Cuenca’s water-supply and wastewater-treatment agency, seeks to get residents of the watershed area involved in sustainable natural-resource management and alternative agricultural methods. Sharing the second US...
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