In Mexico, reform targets mining in protected areas

May 2023

Ecuador

Double dose of good news for Galápagos archipelago

This month Ecuador surprised the world by reaching the biggest debt-for-nature swap in history. Under the deal, the country will avoid more than US$1 billion ......

U.S.–Mexico (Free Read)

Whale survived strike believed to have killed mother

Whale conservationists in Mexico and the United States were overjoyed to learn last month that Aria, an orphaned humpback whale calf, lives. Aria was between eight ......

Uruguay

Drought takes toll in Uruguay, exposing vulnerability

Uruguay in the last week of May emerged from the deepest and most prolonged drought it has experienced since the 1947 inception of its modern-day ......

Panama

Panama installs Trash Wheel to get handle on plastic

Rather than resembling green oases, urban rivers across the tropical Americas too often qualify as eyesores, their trash-lined channels containing gray-tinged waters and pungent scents ......

Argentina

Push for first Argentine jaguar-hunting prosecution

Argentina’s federal government, one of its provincial governments, and an environmental group are pushing for the country’s first criminal trial of a person for hunting ......

Around the Region

Mexican reserve planned to protect rare mangroves

Wan-ha, meaning “river quail,” was the original Mayan name for the San Pedro Mártir River in Tabasco State, Mexico. The name Wan-ha has been chosen ......

Centerpiece (Free Read)

Worry in ‘Lithium Triangle’ about mining impact

Verónica Chávez is the elected president of Santuario de Tres Pozos, an Argentine Indigenous village of earthen houses, unpaved roads, and about 400 residents. Among ......

Q&A

Argentina’s Nicolini sees need for new approaches to climate funding

Cecilia Nicolini has served since February 2022 as state secretary for climate change in the administration of Argentine President Alberto Fernández. In that post, she ......

In Mexico, reform targets mining in protected areas

A Mexican mining-law reform that took formal effect on May 8 includes a prohibition on mining in protected areas and national waters. Mexico’s mining industry has grown rapidly since 1992, when legislation was enacted to spur the sector as Mexico moved to liberalize trade with the United States and Canada and attract foreign investment. The country is now a leading exporter of silver, zinc, and other metals. With that expansion, however, came concern—voiced by Mexico’s Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) in 2019—that the mining industry was responsible for the greatest number of toxic-pollution sites around the country. Conservationists welcome the recent, congressionally approved reform, which addresses their longstanding complaint that the 1992 mining law failed to safeguard natural areas. The government reports that 1,671 licenses have been granted for mining in natural protected areas. Fourteen of these permits allow mining in the high-conservation-priority... [Log in to read more]

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May 2023

Ecuador

Double dose of good news for Galápagos archipelago

This month Ecuador surprised the world by reaching the biggest debt-for-nature swap in history. Under the deal, the country will avoid more than US$1 billion ......

U.S.–Mexico (Free Read)

Whale survived strike believed to have killed mother

Whale conservationists in Mexico and the United States were overjoyed to learn last month that Aria, an orphaned humpback whale calf, lives. Aria was between eight ......

Uruguay

Drought takes toll in Uruguay, exposing vulnerability

Uruguay in the last week of May emerged from the deepest and most prolonged drought it has experienced since the 1947 inception of its modern-day ......

Panama

Panama installs Trash Wheel to get handle on plastic

Rather than resembling green oases, urban rivers across the tropical Americas too often qualify as eyesores, their trash-lined channels containing gray-tinged waters and pungent scents ......

Argentina

Push for first Argentine jaguar-hunting prosecution

Argentina’s federal government, one of its provincial governments, and an environmental group are pushing for the country’s first criminal trial of a person for hunting ......

Around the Region

Mexican reserve planned to protect rare mangroves

Wan-ha, meaning “river quail,” was the original Mayan name for the San Pedro Mártir River in Tabasco State, Mexico. The name Wan-ha has been chosen ......

Centerpiece (Free Read)

Worry in ‘Lithium Triangle’ about mining impact

Verónica Chávez is the elected president of Santuario de Tres Pozos, an Argentine Indigenous village of earthen houses, unpaved roads, and about 400 residents. Among ......

Q&A

Argentina’s Nicolini sees need for new approaches to climate funding

Cecilia Nicolini has served since February 2022 as state secretary for climate change in the administration of Argentine President Alberto Fernández. In that post, she ......