Argentine diplomat Raúl Estrada Oyuela, a much-praised protagonist in the talks that birthed the Kyoto climate-change agreement, was removed from his post as the Argentine Foreign Ministry’s environmental-affairs representative last month, two days after declaring that his country “has no environmental policy.” Oyuela, who in 1997 presided over the international meeting that produced the Kyoto Protocol and was described by a U.S. negotiator as a “grandmaster of diplomacy and the godfather of Kyoto,” made the remark during a Sept. 19 conference at the United Nations office in Buenos Aires. He also said Argentina urgently must adopt strategies aimed at adapting to climate change. Since his dismissal, Oyuela has continued to speak out. He recently faulted the national government for not intervening in...
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Green advocates last month applauded two conservation gains in Ecuador: the designation of the country’s fourth biosphere reserve and the deeding of rainforest land to the nation’s Shuar indigenous community. Granting official recognition to historic Shuar land claims, the government of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on Sept. 20 approved the titling of 17,000 acres (7,000 has) to three Shuar communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon—Yaupi, Achunts Mankusas and Chinkianas. The three communities are home to 400 of Ecuador’s total population of 150,000 Shuar, who live in the provinces of Morona Santiago, Pastaza and Zamora Chinchipe and are believed to have inhabited what is now known as Ecuador since 1500 B.C. Green groups say that the land under Shuar stewardship stands a better chance of conservation...
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Fifteen years after it was first proposed, native-forest protection legislation looks likely to clear the Chilean Congress. The bill, called the “Forest Development and Native Forest Recovery Law,” won unanimous Senate approval last month and is expected to be endorsed by the lower house, called the Chamber of Deputies, in the coming weeks. The legislation includes provisions that would require forest-management plans; impose new controls on logging near water courses, in wetlands, on hillsides and near glaciers; create incentives for native-forest conservation and the production of non-wood forestry products; set up a certification and monitoring system; and impose a new, tougher forestry-management enforcement system. Officials expect the bill will be implemented in the first three months of 2008. Environmental advocates...
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Organizers of a Tijuana conference on spent lead acid batteries and electronic waste plan to begin a three-day meeting Dec. 4 by inviting the public to bring old electronic equipment to a central collection point for recycling. The conference will mark the first time stakeholders from the three signatory nations of the North American Free Trade Agreement will have met at the U.S.-Mexican border to analyze problems related to the growing issues of e-waste and used lead acid batteries. The meeting has been convened by the trilateral Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the U.S.-Mexico Border 2012 Program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It comes as Mexico moves to implement federal legislation that requires the country’s states and municipalities to draft...
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