In an unprecedented move, the Colombian government will more than double the size of its largest national park to protect biodiversity and uncontacted hunter-gatherer tribes in the Amazon region along the western edge of the Guiana Shield. The expansion of Chiribiquete National Park from 1.3 million to 3 million hectares (5,000 to 12,000 sq miles), scheduled for March, will create a protected area the size of Belgium and make the park, with its immense waterfalls, rapids and table-top mountains, or tepuys, the largest in the Amazon. Jaú National Park in the Rio Negro watershed of Brazil has been the record-holder until now, with 2.7 million hectares (10,000 sq miles). Conservationists are delighted. They say a larger protected area is needed to preserve...
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Business groups and environmental organizations often clash, but on Mexico’s Caribbean coast they’ve joined forces to fight plans there for a giant, Chinese-backed exhibition and sales center for manufactured goods. The complex, called Dragon Mart Cancún, would occupy land between the Cancún airport and a relatively undeveloped town to its south called Puerto Morelos. Dragon Mart’s chief executive, Juan Carlos López, says the company has received all necessary permits from the state of Quintana Roo, and that once it receives a construction permit from the municipal authority, groundbreaking will occur in February. Business groups worried about competition from low-priced Chinese goods have raised the alarm in the media about Dragon Mart. A Chinese-owned company, Chinamex, which describes itself as a “window” to...
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The much-debated plan to build a US$1.4 billion coal-fired power station in the Atacama region of northern Chile has won approval, drawing vocal criticism from environmental groups. The ministerial committee that oversees national environmental regulatory decisions last month registered unanimous support for the Punta Alcalde power station, whose twin plants are collectively slated to provide 740 megawatts, or about 12% of Chile’s generating capacity. Proposed by Endesa Chile, local affiliate of the Spanish multinational Endesa, the plant is portrayed by green groups as a potential health and environmental threat to Huasco, a province of some 67,000 residents. Alex Muñoz, executive director of the green group Oceana Chile, calls the approval an “embarrassment” for the country, noting that Chilean President Sebastián Piñera once...
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A new Chilean initiative, Greenticket, taps travelers and communities for funds to compensate for their carbon footprint. The nonprofit venture, launched last month, sells so-called green tickets for 1,000 Chilean pesos (equivalent to approximately 2 dollars) apiece at hotels, restaurants, travel agencies and other businesses across Chile. Some hotels also increase their prices to automatically include the sale of green tickets. These tickets then give the holder the right to discounts at businesses participating in the Greenticket program. Sixty percent of the money raised from the sales of green tickets, essentially a thin paper ticket with a code number, is shared with Greenticket partner organizations involved in conservation, reforestation and compensating for carbon footprints. Currently, the beneficiary organizations include Así Conserva Chile, a conservation...
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