Private border-fence scheme surprises U.S. town

June 2019

Ecuador

Decree rekindles Yasuní Park oil-drilling concerns

Thirteen years since the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called for protection of two Ecuadorian indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation—the Tagaeri and Taromenane—indigenous-rights ......

U.S.–Mexico

Private border-fence scheme surprises U.S. town

The controversial construction of an 18-foot-tall, half-mile-long fence on the outskirts of the U.S.-Mexican border town of Sunland Park, New Mexico, has stoked political tension, ......

Argentina

Argentine high court upholds historic glacier law

One of Argentina’s hardest-fought environmental battles in recent years took a favorable turn for conservationists this month when the country’s Supreme Court upheld an ambitious ......

Chile

Chile’s coal-plant phaseout rapped as too gradual

Six months before his country is scheduled to host the world’s next climate summit, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera on June 4 announced a plan under ......

Brazil

Green advocates lose clout on Brazil policy board

Civil society members of Brazil’s National Environment Council (Conama), the country’s main environmental policy-making body, are condemning a new decree under which the administration of ......

Around the Region

Manager of protected area is murdered in southern Mexico

The manager of a protected area in southern Mexico was shot to death this month after he had alerted authorities about the illegal extraction of ......

Centerpiece (Free Read)

Warning sounds for white-lipped peccary

For centuries, the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) ranged in herds of up to 120 animals through much of Mesoamerica, helping to maintain the ecological balance ......

Q&A

Too many Gulf of California artisanal fishers for resource to bear

Mexican oceanographer Alfredo Girón, a researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), worries about the ......

Private border-fence scheme surprises U.S. town

U.S.–Mexico

We Build the Wall’s fence in Sunland Park, N.M. (Photo by Robert Chessey)

The controversial construction of an 18-foot-tall, half-mile-long fence on the outskirts of the U.S.-Mexican border town of Sunland Park, New Mexico, has stoked political tension, no doubt as intended, but also has raised environmental questions. The barrier was built on private and public land only feet from the Mexican border by We Build the Wall, Inc., a Florida-based organization associated with two high-profile supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump—former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and ex-Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon. Illuminated and visible from nearby El Paso, Texas, the fence snakes from the Rio Grande up Mt. Cristo Rey, site of a much-visited statue of Jesus and a historic marker where the states of Texas, New Mexico and Chihuahua meet. Construction of the fence, which is outfitted with cameras, sensors and a paved road for possible U.S. Border... [Log in to read more]

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June 2019

Ecuador

Decree rekindles Yasuní Park oil-drilling concerns

U.S.–Mexico

Private border-fence scheme surprises U.S. town

The controversial construction of an 18-foot-tall, half-mile-long fence on the outskirts of the U.S.-Mexican border town of Sunland Park, New Mexico, has stoked political tension, ......

Argentina

Argentine high court upholds historic glacier law

One of Argentina’s hardest-fought environmental battles in recent years took a favorable turn for conservationists this month when the country’s Supreme Court upheld an ambitious ......

Chile

Chile’s coal-plant phaseout rapped as too gradual

Six months before his country is scheduled to host the world’s next climate summit, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera on June 4 announced a plan under ......

Brazil

Green advocates lose clout on Brazil policy board

Civil society members of Brazil’s National Environment Council (Conama), the country’s main environmental policy-making body, are condemning a new decree under which the administration of ......

Around the Region

Manager of protected area is murdered in southern Mexico

The manager of a protected area in southern Mexico was shot to death this month after he had alerted authorities about the illegal extraction of ......

Centerpiece (Free Read)

Warning sounds for white-lipped peccary

For centuries, the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) ranged in herds of up to 120 animals through much of Mesoamerica, helping to maintain the ecological balance ......

Q&A

Too many Gulf of California artisanal fishers for resource to bear

Mexican oceanographer Alfredo Girón, a researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), worries about the ......