U.S. President Joe Biden announced this month that he would seek congressional approval of a US$500 million contribution over the next five years to Brazil’s Amazon Fund, a key source of international support for rainforest conservation projects. Biden faces an uphill battle in getting the proposal through Congress, where numerous Republican lawmakers oppose international climate assistance. But supporters of climate action believe that even so, the initiative could still encourage other developed nations to commit funds for rainforest-protection targeting Brazil as well as other countries that share the Amazon Basin. Brazil possesses about 60% of the Amazon Basin, with Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname home to the remaining 40%. In a televised news conference on April 20, the day Biden made his pledge, Brazilian Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva said the U.S. president’s announcement “will help Brazil leverage similar resources from other...
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Beekeepers in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula state of Campeche say a mass die-off of their hives occurred on March 27th and 28th after the neighboring Zenit ranch, run by Bayer-Monsanto, sprayed pesticide on its corn, sorghum and soy crops. They claim bees in some 3,600 beehives died instantly, with the number rising to 4,000 since then—and continuing to increase. Beekeepers in the affected communities of San Francisco Suc-Tuc and Crucero Oxá, located in the municipality of Hopelchén, say they took pollen and wax samples themselves because government authorities were slow to respond. They say preliminary laboratory results have confirmed the presence of fipronil—a toxic, broad spectrum insecticide that affects insects’ nervous systems. State and federal authorities did not respond to requests for comment. Beekeepers worry that toxic spraying will continue and even escalate as industrial-farming operations contend with increasingly resistant pests. “More chemicals will be...
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An enormous pulp mill built by the Finnish company UPM on central Uruguay’s Negro River initiated operations on April 14 after receiving environmental authorization from the national government. The US$3.47 billion plant, which aims to export 2.1 million tons of pulp annually, is described as the biggest private investment project in Uruguayan history. The effort involved construction of a deepwater port terminal in Montevideo, roads in the department of Durazno, and a vast new nursery to supply eucalyptus seedlings for plantations that will supply the mill. Green advocates opposed the plant on grounds it will consume large quantities of water from the Negro River and release pollutants into the waterway. More broadly, environmentalists argue that expansion of Uruguay’s pulp-export industry has triggered a proliferation of monoculture forestry plantations that have decreased biodiversity and sapped groundwater reserves, a criticism industry and government leaders assert is not borne out in...
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When authorities in February initiated their ongoing crackdown on illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon lands of the Yanomami people, they discovered that some miners knew what was coming. Some of the 20,000 miners occupying Yanomami territory at the time of the raids had been using the satellite-based Starlink internet service to communicate with city-based confederates on matters ranging from bank transfers to air and river supply logistics. As it turns out, fleeing miners detained for questioning said the system also allowed them and their gold-trafficking partners to receive warnings of impending enforcement action. They said many fled with their Starlink equipment; though since the crackdown began, authorities have seized 11 of the portable terminals. “Starlink gives both illegal miners and the upper echelons of their criminal rings protection,” says Hugo Loss, operations coordinator at Ibama, the enforcement arm of Brazil’s Environment and Climate Change Ministry...
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