Uruguayan honey exports have been facing headwinds in the United States and Europe since five shipping containers of the country’s honey were rejected in Germany in August on account of chemical contamination. Germany’s action, taken after glyphosate herbicide was found in the honey in concentrations above the maximum allowable European Union standard of 50 milligrams per kilogram, was only the first blow to Uruguay’s beekeepers. After the shipments were barred entry to Germany, Uruguay’s Ministry of Ranching, Agriculture and Fishing (MGAP) issued a statement calling on honey producers to stop using glyphosate on their fields. The ministry statement drew a swift and angry reaction from two prominent associations of rural producers—the Uruguayan Apiculture Society (SAU) and the National Commission of Rural Promotion (CNFR). The...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
During a morning stroll through San José’s historic Amón neighborhood, it is not uncommon to hear a mournful roar through the trees on the neighborhood’s north end. The bestial cry does not come from one of Costa Rica’s native jungle-cat species, but from its one and only African lion, held in the nation’s one and only public zoo. Born in captivity in Cuba and later moved to San José’s Simón Bolivar Zoo, Kivú the lion has spent most of his 18 years in a small enclosure with iron bars, just feet away from the eyes of visitors. Though it is widely acknowledged that Kivu is stressed, depressed and sickly, attempts by the government this month to relocate the lion were foiled when the zoo...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
A 2014 law meant to stimulate Peru’s economy during a downturn also stimulated non-compliance with environmental regulations, according to the head of the country’s environmental oversight agency. The measure, due to expire in July 2017, required the Environmental Monitoring and Oversight Agency (Oefa) to trade its sticks for carrots. Under Article 19 of Law 30230, if a violator of environmental regulations takes approved corrective action, any fine is suspended. Fines are only levied in cases of repeat infractions, “very serious” violations that do “real and very serious harm to people’s life and health,” or operating without environmental permits or in places where certain activities are prohibited. The latter category includes unregulated gold mining in protected areas such as the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru’s...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
When residents of the southern Paraguayan town of Itapé discovered thousands of dead fish floating on the surface of the Tebicuarymí River last month, they suspected immediately that a sugar mill, Azucarera Paraguaya (AZPA), was responsible. The mill has been blamed before for polluting the river. In the latest instance, Martha Leiva, the environmental prosecutor for the local jurisdiction that includes Itapé, received complaints from local residents and from Itapé Mayor Ignacio Rotela after dead fish began turning up on Oct. 2. She ordered an inspection of the sugar mill’s waste treatment system and had samples taken of the plant’s effluent and of river water. The river samples were found to contain toxins which Leiva says have been linked to overflows of liquid waste from...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
