In a unique undertaking blending cultural and environmental protection, Colombia has created a new national park to preserve the hallucinogenic and medicinal plants important to the culture of five Indian tribes. Colombian officials say creation of the 25,000-acre (10,000-ha) Orito Ingi-Ande Medicinal Plants Sanctuary in the southwestern departments of Nariño and Putumayo will protect tropical rainforests providing habitat to more than 400 species of birds. But they say the prime goal is to safeguard some 100 medicinal plants, including the hallucinogenic yagé (Banisteriopsis spp) and the yoco (Paullinia yoco), which lie at the core of the religious and spiritual practices of Indian tribes in southwestern Colombia`s Andean-Amazon Piedmont region. "This marks the first time a national park has been created...
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Argentina's defense minister has pledged to keep naval operations at the "lowest possible level" in the vicinity of Patagonia's Peninsula Valdés during the period of the year that Southern Right whales (Eubalaena australis) use local waters as a calving ground. The pledge follows the discovery last month that a whale had been killed by the propellers of an Argentine Navy destroyer, Heroína. At the time of the accident, Heroína was among a group of naval vessels leaving the coastal city of Puerto Madryn following a visit there for a July 9 Independence Day ceremony. Every year, thousands of tourists travel to Peninsula Valdés by way of Puerto Madryn to watch whales. After last month's accident, visitors took in the unwelcome sight of the...
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Mexico's environmental agency has approved the construction of a highway through two federally protected natural areas just southwest of the capital, accepting supporters' claims that the road may benefit local ecosystems and dismissing activists' warnings that it dooms them to destruction. The proposed 42-mile (67-km) Lerma-Tres Marías toll road would connect two major highways radiating out from the Mexican capital to the nearby cities of Toluca and Cuernavaca. (See "Toluca-Cuernavaca road project meets resistance" - EcoAméricas, July '08.) The route passes through a protected wetland system called the Ciénegas de Lerma. It then climbs into pine, oyamel and oak forests, crossing the protected Corredor Biológico de Chichinautzin, which boasts impressive biodiversity and plays a fundamental role in absorbing rainfall into the...
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Stronger than usual ocean currents are being cited as a prime cause of the unprecedented number of wayward penguins washing up on the beaches of Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, but some experts believe depleted fisheries may also be to blame. The gray-and-white Magellan penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) that wind up here are typically young birds that became separated from their group during their first fishing expedition, scientists say. Eduardo Pimenta, head of the Rio de Janeiro State Coastal Environmental Protection agency (GMA) says a windier-than-normal winter has added strength to the region's ocean currents, distributing lost penguins more broadly and in greater quantities. According to Pimenta, it is not unusual for 1,000 penguins to arrive, dead or alive, on the beaches...
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