Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state is showing greater environmental-enforcement clout, a change that the owners of a new US$7 billion steel mill in the state—Germany’s ThyssenKrupp and Brazil’s Vale—have now learned firsthand. The lesson began last August after emissions from the Cia. Siderúrgica do Atlântico (CSA) mill, built on the outskirts of the town of Santa Cruz in southeastern Rio de Janeiro state, polluted the town’s air with an accidental release of graphite powder. For that, ThyssenKrupp, which holds a majority stake in the mill, and Vale, which has a minority share, were collectively fined R$1.3 million (US$778,000). Then on account of a second such release in December, regulators this month slapped the CSA plant’s two owners with an...
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A prominent indigenous leader and critic of the Guyanese government’s forestry policy is reportedly being threatened with death, according to his group, the Amerindian Peoples Association (Apa). Tony James, Apa’s president, is a leading Guyanese advocate of indigenous land tenure and the right of indigenous to be consulted on policies affecting their territories. He has received several death threats in recent months, including one in November when a woman visited an associate to warn “they want his head: they want him dead.” The alleged threats come as Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo awaits the first US$30 million installment of a $250 million grant given by Norway to ensure that Guyana preserves the bulk of its 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of woodlands. The money...
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Two months after Argentina and Uruguay resolved a long-running conflict over construction of a huge pulp mill on their common border, Uruguay announced plans for an even bigger mill, also on the border. This time, though, the plan hasn’t stirred anywhere near the controversy produced by construction of the first mill, which provoked deep diplomatic tension on account of its location directly across the Uruguay River from the Argentine tourism town of Gualeguaychú. Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro visited Buenos Aires this month to inform his Argentine counterpart, Héctor Timerman, about the impending construction of the new plant, slated for a site on the River Plate approximately 160 kilometers (100 miles) downstream of the first plant. Timerman later said the Argentine government “has no...
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The three-nation environmental agency created in conjunction with the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) has dismissed a citizen submission alleging the Mexican government failed to control the illegal planting of genetically modified corn. In a ruling late last month, the Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) declared the complaint, filed by four Mexican non-governmental organizations, did not meet criteria under Article 14 of Nafta’s environmental side accord to warrant the preparation of a factual record. At issue was the alleged failure of the Mexican government to stem the planting of more than 25,000 hectares (over 60,000 acres) of transgenic corn in the northern state of Chihuahua, a prime corn-growing region. Greenpeace Mexico, the Women’s Human Rights Center of Chihuahua, the...
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