Chile this month became the first country in Latin America to prohibit all businesses from giving plastic bags to customers, according to the country’s environment ministry. The Aug. 3 step is the latest in a process that began in August of 2018, when Chile’s Congress approved legislation aimed at cutting down on plastic waste. The law immediately required all businesses to hand out no more than two plastic bags per customer. Six months later, supermarkets and large stores were prohibited from giving out any plastic bags at all, and this month that prohibition was extended to all stores. “In these two years, the distribution of five billion plastic bags has been avoided,” says Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt, asserting the measure has received strong public support. “Many of them would have ended up polluting our neighborhoods, rivers and beaches.” With 15 of its 16 regional jurisdictions bordering the Pacific, Chile ranks...
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Experts and institutions from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States have launched an ambitious research and conservation project on behalf of the Titicaca water frog (Telmatobius culeus), an endangered freshwater frog endemic to the Lake Titicaca basin. “The study has already begun, and we’re standardizing the [research] methodology we’ll be using in common,” says Teresa Camacho, a Bolivian biologist coordinating the international team conducting the project. Undertaken with support from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the project targets an emblematic frog classified as endangered in both Bolivia and Peru by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The frog—known for its flat head and for its loose folds of skin, which bolster its respiratory system—is believed to be the largest completely aquatic frog in the world. It can grow to 145 millimeters (5.7 inches) in length, not including its legs...
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A study has found high levels of mercury in sharks in an area of Colombia’s Caribbean region, signaling concern in particular for Isla Fuerte, a small island off the northern coast where residents regularly consume shark meat. Research conducted by Derly Yurani Rojas, an ecologist at Colombia’s Pontifical Xavierian University, found mercury levels in sharks in the Gulf of Morrosquillo, where Isla Fuerte is located, in excess of World Health Organization standards. A report on the project was published in the June-August issue of the university magazine Pesquisa Javeriana. Rojas’ study focused on levels of methylmercury, the form of mercury found in fish, in the silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis) and Caribbean sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon porosus). It did not sleuth potential causes of the contamination. But Rojas says these could range from naturally occurring contamination due to the region’s geology to human-caused emissions in the form of agrochemical runoff...
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Uruguay announced Aug. 6 that an arbitration tribunal had rejected a US$3.5 billion claim in which the government was accused of unfairly changing ground rules for a massive iron-ore mine and associated deep-water port, forcing the scuttling of the project. Under the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA-CPA) in The Hague, the plaintiffs—three family members with ties to Aratirí, a subsidiary of UK-based Zamin Ferrous—reportedly must reimburse Uruguay for $4.1 million, or 70%, of its legal costs. The iron-ore project in east-central Uruguay was touted as “the biggest, most productive industrial and logistical project in the history of the country” when it was announced in 2011. Called Valentines, it was to have involved a total investment of US$2.7 billion, annual exports of 18 million tons of iron ore and support infrastructure that was to have included a 200...
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