Panama is moving to protect the rainforests of the Darién Gap, a rugged 60-mile (97-kilometer) stretch of land straddling Panama and Colombia that in recent years has become strewn with waste left by migrants traveling north. The administration of Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino says it is seeking US$3 million in U.S. support to plan cleanup and environmental restoration in the Gap, which last year was crossed by over 500,000 migrants making their way north. “The president has given us clear instructions to bring order to and clean up [the Darién Gap], Environment Minister Juan Carlos Navarro said at a recent press conference. Navarro said the funding request stems from a U.S.-Panamanian agreement reached in July to curb illegal migration through the region. The funding would be used exclusively for cleanup planning on the Panamanian side of the Gap. To date, no plans have been laid...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Aug. 20 marked the first anniversary of Ecuadorian voters’ historic approval of a national referendum to shut down operations on Block 43, an Amazon-region oil concession area more widely known as Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT). The unprecedented Aug. 20, 2023 rejection of oil development in the sprawling 190,000-hectare (730-sq.-mile) concession area occurred in part because nearly half of the block underlies highly biodiverse Yasuní National Park, a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve since 1989. (See "Ecuadorians vote “yes” to safeguard two biospheres" —EcoAméricas, August 2023.) Some 5.5 million Ecuadorians, 59% of voters, approved the referendum to protect the region, which is home to Indigenous Waorani communities and frequented by the Tagaeri and Taromenane, nomadic Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. The ITT block, all of which must be shut down—not only the part in Yasuní—had...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
An Argentine federal judge has ordered a three-month suspension of land-clearing of any kind in the northern province of Chaco pending an investigation of alleged corruption in land-use oversight. The ruling, issued on Aug. 19, was prompted by a complaint filed by the Argentine Association of Environmental Attorneys (AAdeAA) and supported by federal Prosecutor Patricio Sabadini. The complaint accuses the provincial Minister of Production and Sustainable Economic Development, Hernán Halavacs, and six provincial officials, legislators and entrepreneurs of organizing the deforestation of valuable forestland in violation of Argentina’s native-forest protection law. Chaco province covers 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 sq. miles) of the semi-arid Gran Chaco bioregion, the largest dry-forest ecosystem in South America. Rampant deforestation of the Gran Chaco, which also includes parts of Paraguay and Bolivia, prompted the Argentine Congress in 2007 to enact its native-forest law. That law required provinces to...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Brazilian federal environmental-enforcement employees have ended a walkout they initiated in late June and early July, according to a spokesman for the National Association of Environmental Career Specialists (Ascema Nacional), the union representing them. The stoppage—to improve pay for the often-dangerous work of cracking down on such violations as illegal logging and mining—was halted on Aug. 15. The government did not meet the union’s longstanding demand—an average 40% increase for all federal environmental workers and an additional 20% hike for in-field enforcement employees. Ascema said it “unwillingly” accepted a final government offer of 21-23% for all federal environmental workers over a two-year period because its leaders did not think they would get a better one. In-field environmental-enforcement employees began the job action with a walkout on Jan. 2. In late June and early July the job action extended to federal environmental...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
