Controversial from the start and under police investigation in the end, Ricardo Salles resigned this month as Brazil’s environment minister nearly two and a half years after assuming the post under right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. Salles tendered his resignation on June 23; it was accepted the same day by Bolsonaro, who had steadfastly supported him during his tumultuous time in office. Salles stoked controversy soon after becoming minister in January 2019, in part by turning Bolsonaro’s relentlessly anti-environmental rhetoric into policy. He slashed environmental-enforcement budgets and promoted legislation, still pending, to legalize land grabs in publicly owned forest; allow mining, oil drilling and dam construction on indigenous lands; and facilitate licensing of major Amazon infrastructure, mining and farming projects. In January 2019, Salles suspended all contracts and partnerships between the ministry and non-governmental organizations for 90 days while they underwent an in-house analysis, a move...
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Honduras marked the June 1 start of this year’s hurricane season amid forecasts of an above-average number of named Atlantic storms—13 to 20 in all, six to 10 of which could be hurricanes, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That would be fewer than last year’s record of 30, including 14 hurricanes. But it has nevertheless caused deep concern in the country of 9.7 million people, which was hit particularly hard by the one-two punch delivered to Central America last November by Hurricanes Eta and Iota. A prime focus of that concern is northern Honduras’s Sula Valley, an important industrial and agricultural center that is also among the country’s most vulnerable regions to storm-driven floods. Pummeled by Eta and Iota, the valley suffered heavy losses of life and property from the hurricanes, which according to the government killed approximately 100 and affected...
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Panama quadrupled the size of its Cordillera de Coiba marine protected area in June, expanding a critical corridor for sea life and taking the lead in a regional push to protect oceans. The Pacific reserve, created in 2015, was expanded to 67,908 square kilometers (26,219 sq miles) from 17,223 square kilometers (6,650 sq miles) by an executive decree signed by President Laurentino Cortizo. The expansion doubles the area of Panamanian waters under some degree of protection. Panama has now conserved 30% of its ocean area, joining Chile as a regional leader in reaching the U.N. goal of safeguarding 30% of world seas by 2030. “It’s a historic milestone for Panama on a global scale and it means a lot for the country and the region,” said Héctor Guzmán, a marine biologist for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. “With this, Panama increases the protection of a countless number of species that...
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The Peruvian government created the country’s first marine protected area on June 5, publishing legislation to establish the Nazca Ridge National Reserve. The reserve, which encompasses underwater mountains, covers 62,400 square kilometers (24,100 sq. miles) of Pacific Ocean waters 105 kilometers (65 miles) off Nazca, a city on the southern coast. Equivalent in size to 8% of Peru’s territorial waters, the new reserve is home to more than 1,100 types of fish and other marine animals, and it serves as a migratory route for numerous aquatic bird species. Interim President Francisco Sagasti’s government rejects concerns that the law creating the reserve contains counterproductive clauses. Environmental groups have objected in particular to a provision ensuring that the law respects existing fishing permits. The provision, Article 5, allows for small-scale fishing as well as deep-water long-line fishing for Patagonian toothfish, which is known commercially as Chilean sea bass. “The...
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