A traditional Bolivian community and two environmental nonprofits in Brazil have been collaborating in a joint effort to save over a million giant South American river turtle hatchlings threatened by unseasonably early and heavy Amazon summer rains. The species (Podocnemis expansa), whose weight reaches an average of 60 kilos (130 pounds) and whose shells grow to an average of 80 centimeters (31 inches) in length, breeds on the Guaporé River on the Bolivian-Brazilian border. The largest freshwater turtle in Latin America, it is found throughout the Amazon, but its biggest population and main breeding grounds are located on the Guaporé River. An estimated 80,000 female giant South American river turtles deposit eggs in nests they dig in sandbanks along the river in September and October. Triggering the need for rescue help was the arrival in October of summer rains that were one month earlier, and heavier, than usual. With...
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Costa Rica has expanded its Cocos Island National Park to 27 times its current size, boosting efforts by governments and scientists to create a protected Eastern Tropical Pacific marine corridor extending south to Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands. A decree signed on Dec. 17 by Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado and Environment Minister Andrea Meza expands the marine reserve, located some 540 kilometers (336 miles) off the country’s Pacific coast, to 54,844 square kilometers (21,175 sq. miles) from 2,034 sq. kms (785 sq. miles). It also stretches the management area, a buffer zone where large-scale commercial fishing is prohibited, to 106,285 sq. kms (41,037 sq. miles) from 9,649 sq. kms (3,726 sq. miles). The change boosts the area of Costa Rican waters under some level of protection to 30% from 2.7%, in line with the UN goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. “This isn’t just a park...
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Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber has suspended a controversial 2019 presidential decree that boosted the influence of federal officials serving on the National Environment Council (Conama), the country’s main environmental policymaking body, at the expense of civil-society representatives. Weber’s Dec. 17 provisional ruling, expected to be confirmed in a vote of the court, also suspended the council’s activities. She wrote that the decree had the effect of “excluding civil society participation in [Conama], something that seriously endangers constitutional norms.” The ruling comes as a rebuke to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose 2019 decree reduced the say of Conama civil-society members in part by dramatically downsizing the multistakeholder body. These members included environmental and human rights advocates, indigenous leaders, scientists and academics—all representing constituencies Bolsonaro has battled while pursuing policies favoring unfettered development and spurring environmental-enforcement cuts, deforestation and displacement of traditional communities. The Bolsonaro decree...
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Paraguay is being lobbied by neighboring Brazil to allow fish farming of tilapia in the vast reservoir of Itaipú, their jointly operated 14,000-megawatt hydroelectric dam on the Upper Paraná River. Jorge Seif, Brazil’s secretary of aquaculture and fishing, says his government is urging the Paraguayan executive and legislative branches to change a law that prohibits farming of exotic fish species in Paraguay’s rivers and streams. Currently, Paraguay only allows aquaculture in artificial ponds isolated from natural water bodies, a restriction intended to reduce the risk of invasive species escaping into the wild and altering riverine ecosystems. The proposal came up during a Nov. 29 meeting in Brasília of Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez and his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, who said the Paraguayan government has shown “great willingness” to make the legislative change. Neither Abdo nor any of the Paraguayan cabinet members present at the meeting commented on the...
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