Mexico, Colombia and six Central American countries—Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala—have joined an effort to combat the flow of plastic and other waste into Pacific Ocean waters. The initiative, called the Marine Litter Action Plan for the Northeast Pacific 2022-2026, is being carried out in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the nonprofit marine conservation group MarViva. It calls for the development of regional measures and policies aimed at preventing the relentless influx of trash into the sea. UNEP says that despite improvement in waste management in Latin America and the Caribbean in recent decades, recycling in the region only amounts to about 10% and some 145,000 tons of trash is deposited daily in open-air dumps, including 17,000 tons of plastic waste. Discarded plastics, often food and drink containers, account for about 80% of the trash found in coastal areas...
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Chile has become the 13th country to ratify the Escazú Agreement, the first region-wide environmental treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean. The agreement, named for the Costa Rican town where it was adopted in 2018, requires improved public access to environmental information and decision-making to ensure wider social consensus on development projects. Protecting environmental defenders is another focus of the accord, formally called the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean. Chile initially declined to sign the agreement under its previous president, right-wing Sebastián Piñera, whose government said the treaty would have the effect of elevating to the international level disputes that should be resolved domestically. But current President Gabriel Boric signed the agreement after succeeding Piñera in March of this year, and the Chilean Senate ratified the treaty on May 31 by a...
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Long-delayed plans for what would be the largest open-pit gold mine in the Brazilian Amazon appear likely to be delayed quite a while longer due to a recent appeals court decision. The $R1.22 billion (US$245 million) project planned by Canada’s Belo Sun Mining Corp. to extract five tons of gold annually over at least 12 years at a site in Pará state near the Xingu River was first proposed in 2012. But for years, federal prosecutors, who in Brazil play an ombudsman’s role, have challenged the massive open-pit mine project, effectively tying it up in court. The latest round in that battle occurred in April, when a federal appeals court upheld a decision it had made in 2017 to suspend one of three licenses needed on grounds Belo Sun had failed to consult indigenous communities about its mining plan in advance. Belo Sun can challenge the...
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Fingers are crossed in Central America and the Caribbean following a forecast for above-average storm activity during this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. Prompting the concern is a May 24 estimate by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that the chance of an above-normal season is 65%, with the chances of a near-normal or below-normal season at 25% and 10%, respectively. The forecast, by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, calls for a likely range of 14 to 21 named Atlantic storms, whose wind speeds measure at least 39 miles per hour (mph). Of these, six to 10 could grow to hurricane force, meaning winds of at least 74 mph, and three to six could become category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes, whose winds reach or exceed 111 mph, the Center says. Atlantic hurricanes, of course, can strike well...
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