Environmentalists are hailing a bill moving through the U.S. Congress that would impose the strongest controls enacted by any country on international trade in illegal timber, including coveted mahogany from Honduras and Peru. A product of discussions between the non-governmental Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and U.S. timber and paper industry associations, the bill seems almost certain to pass in the coming months. It enjoys the support of the Bush administration and sailed through the Senate on Dec. 14 by a 79-14 vote as an amendment to the farm bill (H.R. 2419). The measure now awaits a floor vote in the House of Representatives, where it was approved by the Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 7 and has bi-partisan backing. “It now seems primarily...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Venezuela and Guyana last month sought to ease diplomatic tensions after Venezuelan troops entered Guyanese territory Nov. 15 and blew up two gold-mining dredges near their common border. The incident, in which 36 Venezuelan soldiers entered the disputed Essequibo Region by helicopter and dynamited the dredges on the Cuyuní River, drew protests from Guyana’s government and opposition. In the process, it underscored the explosive nature of illegal gold mining in Guyana’s Essequibo region, which borders Venezuela’s Bolivar state and contains dense rainforests rich with coveted timber, aluminum and gold. “This is an area where illegal gold miners from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana are in continual flux,” says Antonio de Lisio, director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Caracas Central University. “Sometimes the...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Environmental groups in Chile are complaining vociferously that they are being spied on by Chile’s National Intelligence Agency (ANI). They have been reacting to a report last month in the Chilean daily La Tercera that ANI has been monitoring Chilean environmental campaigns against hydroelectric plants slated for the Aysén Region; a gold mining project high in the Andes called Pascua Lama; and a new Celulosa Arauco (Celco) pulp mill in Valdivia. José Ignacio Pinochet, a lawyer and executive director of Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente (Fima), a Chilean public interest environmental law group, tells EcoAméricas he believes such spying has indeed been occurring, calling it a “violation of citizen rights.” “All environmental groups in Chile are being investigated,” Pinochet says. “This is very serious, and very...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Officials with the binational Peruvian and Bolivian agency in charge of managing and protecting Lake Titicaca say that if current fishing practices and the introduction of non-native carnivorous fish species into the lake aren’t addressed, seven species of fish known to inhabit the lake could go extinct within the next ten years. “All the species of fish are in danger of going extinct,” says Lake Titicaca Authority (ALT) President Julián Barra, who recently raised the issue publicly with the Peruvian and Bolivian governments. “If things keep developing as they have in recent decades, all these fish could disappear because there are lots of people dedicated to fishing them on a daily basis.” The seven fish species that are known to inhabit Lake Titicaca, the...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
