After years of conflict with the right-wing government of Ricardo Martinelli, green advocates celebrated the July 1 swearing-in of newly elected President Juan Carlos Varela and the appointment of prominent environmentalists to leadership positions in the National Environmental Authority (ANAM). Varela, who won a three-way contest May 5 with 40% of the vote, has promised to elevate ANAM to the level of a ministry, push for a moratorium on new open-pit mining projects, and review existing mining projects to see if they are harming the environment. His government also has appointed environmental activists to top spots in ANAM, including Félix Wing, an environmental lawyer and critic of mining policy, as secretary general and Zuleika Pinzón, a former director of the nongovernmental...
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Argentina this month signed nuclear-cooperation deals with Russia and China, making it possible that the two countries will become involved in efforts here to build a fourth atomic energy plant and a uranium enrichment facility. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Buenos Aires on July 12, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, followed suit a week later. Few details of the cooperation deals were disclosed. Argentina has had two nuclear power plants—Atucha I and Embalse—functioning for decades. Together, they provide 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity. In 2006, the country resumed work on a long-delayed third plant, 745-megawatt Atucha II, which has gone online and is expected to reach full capacity later this year. Putin’s visit was preceded by signals from his...
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After years of struggle between environmental and mining authorities, Colombia moved this month to conserve some of the biologically rich Orinoco region by earmarking 253,000 hectares (625,177 acres) for protection under the Ramsar Convention, the international wetlands-preservation treaty. The designation of the Estrella Fluvial del Inírida, bordering Venezuela in the eastern department of Guainía, as Colombia’s sixth Ramsar site, is intended to shield the area from large-scale mining and agriculture as well as oil and gas drilling. Creation of the Ramsar site came after two years of tussling between authorities with distinct views on how the area should be managed. Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy looked eagerly on the reported reserves of coltan, gold, copper and other minerals. The Ministry of Environment...
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The fate of a set of new tuna fishing regulations hangs in the balance as the Costa Rican government analyzes the viability of an executive decree carried over from the previous presidential administration. If made into law, the decree would ban fishing with purse seine nets—the preferred fishing method of industrial tuna fleets—within 60 nautical miles of the country’s Pacific coastline as well as in a deep-ocean polygon of more than 48,000 square miles. With the ability to scoop up an entire school of tuna in one stroke, purse seine fishing is a major contributor to overfishing in the eastern tropical Pacific. High bycatch rates are also a problem, with scientists estimating that the fishing practice has killed between 5 and 7...
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Argentina’s Supreme Court has created its first-ever Environmental Office to ensure that green issues addressed by the court are better understood and handled. The office will bring environmental expertise to bear in the training of judges, research of court cases, engagement with international bodies and development of sustainable practices for the judicial system. It was created by a resolution signed by all six Supreme Court justices, but was championed by the court’s president, Ricardo Lorenzetti. In a ceremony inaugurating the new office, Lorenzetti said politicians would do well to learn more about environmental issues, too. “For those who govern, the environment is an alien question,” he said. “They are wrong, however. The environmental question affects all of us in a concrete way—for example...
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