Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08BRASILIA1572
2008-12-08 18:16:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Brasilia
Cable title:  

SOUTH AMERICA ESTH NEWS, NUMBER 115

Tags:  SENV EAGR EAID TBIO ECON SOCI XR BR 
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INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 7242
RUEHGE/AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN 1619
RUEHPO/AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO 1695
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 12 BRASILIA 001572 

SIPDIS

DEPT PASS USAID TO LAC/RSD, LAC/SAM, G/ENV, PPC/ENV
TREASURY FOR USED IBRD AND IDB AND INTL/MDB
USDA FOR FOREST SERVICE: LIZ MAHEW
INTERIOR FOR DIR INT AFFAIRS: K WASHBURN
INTERIOR FOR FWS: TOM RILEY
INTERIOR FOR NPS: JONATHAN PUTNAM
INTERIOR PASS USGS FOR INTERNATIONAL: J WEAVER
JUSTICE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES: JWEBB
EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL: CAM HILL-MACON
USDA FOR ARS/INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH: G FLANLEY
NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL: HAROLD STOLBERG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV EAGR EAID TBIO ECON SOCI XR BR
SUBJECT: SOUTH AMERICA ESTH NEWS, NUMBER 115

BRASILIA 00001572 001.2 OF 012


UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 12 BRASILIA 001572

SIPDIS

DEPT PASS USAID TO LAC/RSD, LAC/SAM, G/ENV, PPC/ENV
TREASURY FOR USED IBRD AND IDB AND INTL/MDB
USDA FOR FOREST SERVICE: LIZ MAHEW
INTERIOR FOR DIR INT AFFAIRS: K WASHBURN
INTERIOR FOR FWS: TOM RILEY
INTERIOR FOR NPS: JONATHAN PUTNAM
INTERIOR PASS USGS FOR INTERNATIONAL: J WEAVER
JUSTICE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES: JWEBB
EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL: CAM HILL-MACON
USDA FOR ARS/INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH: G FLANLEY
NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL: HAROLD STOLBERG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV EAGR EAID TBIO ECON SOCI XR BR
SUBJECT: SOUTH AMERICA ESTH NEWS, NUMBER 115

BRASILIA 00001572 001.2 OF 012



1. The following is part of a series of newsletters, published by
the Brasilia Regional Environmental Hub, covering environment,
science and technology, and health news in South America. The
information below was gathered from news sources from across the
region, and the views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of
the Hub office or our constituent posts. Addressees who would like
to receive a user-friendly email version of this newsletter should
contact Larissa Stoner at stonerla@state.gov. The e-mail version
also contains a calendar of upcoming ESTH events in the region.
NOTE: THE NEWSLETTER IS NOW ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE BRASILIA INTRANET
PAGE, BY CLICKING ON THE 'HUB' LINK.


2. Table of Contents

Agriculture
--(3)Argentina: Rice Plantation Plan Goes Against the Grain

Forests
--(4)Paraguay: Uncontacted Indigenous People Threatened by
Deforestation
--(5)Brazil Mob Attacks Environmental Police in Amazon

Wildlife
--(6)Venezuela: Hunting Pushes Bird to extinction

Protected Areas
--(7)The Nature Conservancy to Target Argentine Grasslands
--(8)Petrobras Drops Plans to Drill in Yasuni Park in Ecuador

Science & Technology
--(9)Brazil Goes High-Tech in Bid to Protect Vulnerable Amazon
Tribes

Pollution
--(10)Diesel Vehicle, Fuels Accord Struck In Brazil
--(11)Argentina: Mandatory Environmental Insurance on Way
--(12)Peru's New Ministry Unveils Air Standards
--(13)No Let-Up in Battle over Ecuador's Oilfield Pollution

Climate Change
--(14)Three U.S. States Partner with Six Other Foreign States to
combat deforestation

--(15)Climate-Policy Changes Awaited From Obama
--(16)Argentina: Cattle Gas Emissions Account for 30% of GHG
Emissions, Says Study

Energy
--(17)Brazil to Build 5 New Hydroelectric Plants in the Amazon
--(18)Chile's Codelco Withdraws Thermoelectric Project
--(19)Chile Bets on Rapeseed to Produce Biodiesel
--(20)Huge Coal Plant Approved in Chile's Region VII
--(21)Brazil Needs to Find Long-Term Solution to Nuclear Waste
--(22)After Trip To Russia, Chvez Charts Nuclear Course

Infrastructure Development
--(23)Oil and Gas Projects Proliferate In Western Amazon
--(24)Controversial Colombian Port Project Is On
Extractive Industries
--(25)World's Biggest Coal Mine Is Slated for Northern Colombia

General
--(26)Decrees Affecting Indigenous Lands Are Overturned In Peru
--(27)Peru: Free Trade Opens Environmental Window

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--(28)Global Financial Crisis a Bad Sign for Andean Biodiversity

--------------
Agriculture
--------------


3. Argentina: Rice Plantation Plan Goes Against the Grain
OCT. 2008 - A private consortium's plans to build a dam in
Argentina's Corrientes Province and flood 20,000 acres (8,000
hectares) as part of a huge commercial rice-farming project have
stirred growing opposition. Critics fear the project will
contribute to an expansion of intensive, chemical-based agriculture
in Corrientes that eventually could encroach upon the Ibera Natural
Reserve, a spectacular 5,000-square-mile (13,000-sq-km) network of
wetlands that accounts for 15% of Corrientes Province's land area.
The reserve, a portion of which is included on the Ramsar List of
Wetlands of International Importance, lies 30 miles (50 kms)
upstream of the dam site. Fueling more immediate concern are the
project's expected local impacts, which would include inundation of
an area prized for its grassland, forest and native fauna. Such
criticism appears to have struck a chord with some in the national
government. Responding this month to a letter of concern from
members of the lower house of the National Congress, Argentine
Environment Minister Romina Picolotti wrote that she has called on
[Corrientes Governor, Arturo] Colombi to discuss the matter with
Corrientes environmental officials. Picolotti stated: "This
secretariat looks with serious concern at the realization of this
type of mega-project, which is likely to generate deep negative
impacts on [ecosystems] of incalculable value."
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)

--------------
Forests
--------------


4. Paraguay: Uncontacted Indigenous People Threatened by
Deforestation
NOV. 27, 2008- Large swathes of native forest have been turned into
pasture land in the northern part of Paraguay's semi-arid Chaco
region, as large Brazilian cattle ranchers expand their property in
the country. The ranchers and landowning companies are encroaching
on the territory of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians, and the
destruction of forests is threatening the natural and cultural
heritage of the nomadic indigenous group, some of whom still live in
voluntary isolation in the forest. "Our situation is very worrisome,
because we still have relatives who do not want to be in contact
with white society," Porai Picanerai, a leader of the Payipie
Ichadie Totobiegosode Organization (OPIT -- New Totobiegosode
Thinking),told IPS. The Totobiegosode form part of the larger
Ayoreo ethnic group. In early November, there were reports that
some uncontacted members of the group had been seen in a deforested
area that belongs to Brazilian landowners, on the edge of the
indigenous group's protected territory. Until December 1986,
Picanerai was living in the bush in the northern department
(province) of Alto Paraguay, which is part of the Chaco region -- a
vast area of dense, scrubby forest that covers western Paraguay and
parts of Bolivia and Argentina.
Source - IPS News


5. Brazil Mob Attacks Environmental Police in Amazon
NOV. 25, 2008 - A mob of about 3,000 people enraged by a crackdown
on illegal logging trashed a government office in a remote jungle

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city of Brazil and tried to attack environmental workers, according
to press reports. Environment Minister Carlos Minc sent federal
police to the northeastern town of Paragominas following the riot,
which was prompted by the seizure of 400 cubic meters (14,124 cubic
feet) of wood believed to have been cut inside an Indian
reservation. Many residents of the Amazon deeply resent - and
sometimes attack - environmental officials who try to block logging
that provides income for rich and poor alike. Paragominas is about
150 kilometers (90 miles) from the small city of Tailandia, where a
mob of 2,000 rioted over wood seizures in February, forcing
environmental authorities to leave the city for days. Minc said the
new riot would not stop efforts to control illegal logging: "To the
contrary, we're going to intensify operations and we'll punish those
who are responsible".
Source - Miami Herald

--------------
Wildlife
--------------


6. Venezuela: Hunting Pushes Bird to extinction
NOV. 24, 2008.- The scarlet finch, also known as the red siskin
(Carduelis cucullata),a small bird native to northern Venezuela, is
on the verge of disappearing and is rarely seen in the wild because
poachers capture these birds to cross them with canaries in order to
produce red offspring. The hybrid "is red like the finch and sings
like a canary, which is why hunters capture the few that are left in
order to sell them to people who raise canaries. It is an illegal
but very profitable practice," researcher Jon Paul Rodriguez,
co-author of the Red Book of Venezuelan Fauna, told Tierramerica. Of
the 3,625 species evaluated in that book, 202 are threatened with
extinction due to loss of habitat, hunting, pollution, changes in
population dynamic, invasive species, human activities or natural
disasters.
Source - Tierramerica

--------------
Protected Areas
--------------


7. The Nature Conservancy to Target Argentine Grasslands
NOV. 2008 - The Nature Conservancy's new Argentina office was opened
in the southern Andean tourism city of Bariloche. The group plans to
work with ranchers and research institutions to promote sustainable
livestock operations in the region. The Nature Conservancy also aims
to push for the creation of new protected areas on public and
private lands. Temperate grasslands, which harbor biodiversity,
store carbon and help stave off desertification. Such grasslands
have come under pressure in Argentina for reasons ranging from the
spread of monoculture farming to unsustainable ranching. Though
Uruguay and Brazil possess significant amounts of temperate
grassland, Argentina has the greatest expanse of the habitat, which
The Nature Conservancy describes as among the least protected in the
world (less than 2.9% of the 395 million acres are protected).
Source - EcoAmericas


8. Petrobras Drops Plans to Drill in Yasuni Park in Ecuador
OCT. 2008 - The state-owned Brazilian oil company Petrobras is
giving up a drilling concession area that had become highly
controversial because nearly three-quarters of it is located in a
prized national park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The action, however,
owes as much to economics as environmental opposition, analysts say,
leaving open the possibility that oil exploration might still be

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carried out elsewhere within the 497,917-acre (201,500-ha)
concession area. Under an agreement negotiated with the Ecuadorian
government last month, Petrobras is relinquishing its rights to the
area, called Bloc 31, all but 28% of which lies within the borders
of Yasuni National Park. Petrobras acquired the concession from the
Argentine company Perez Companc in 2002, which ostensibly gave it a
22-year period in which to carry out oil exploration and production
in Bloc 31. Environmental advocates applaud the company's
about-face, though they emphasize that the government of President
Rafael Correa must now ensure the land remains protected.
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)

--------------
Science & Technology
--------------


9. Brazil Goes High-Tech in Bid to Protect Vulnerable Amazon Tribes
DEC. 02, 2008 - The Brazilian government's National Indian
Foundation (Funai) recently said it would conduct flyovers in
Amazonia, where it suspects Indians might be in danger from
encroaching farmers, loggers and miners. Military planes flying at
high altitude will use radar, satellite, and infrared technology
that can identify humans and their communities through their body
heat, Funai and military officials said. If pilot programs
scheduled for next year are successful, the high-tech equipment
could prove an indispensable weapon in protecting vulnerable tribes.
"This is one of the tools to help us find and confirm the existence
of isolated Indians," says Antenor Vaz, coordinator of the isolated
Indians division at Funai and an experienced Amazonian explorer. "It
will let us know where they are and what kind of environment they
are in. We can determine if they are in danger; if there are
ranchers or miners close to them." The heat-sensitive technology
will be used on three planes that can fly at altitudes up to 36,000
feet, says Wougran Galvao, the product director at Sipam, the
government's Amazonian monitoring agency. Such technology has
already been used successfully in conjunction with satellite and
radar imagery. But the upcoming tests will mark the first time it
has been tapped to find humans.
Source - Yahoo

--------------
Pollution
--------------


10. Diesel Vehicle, Fuels Accord Struck In Brazil
NOV. 2008 - After intense legal infighting, Brazil has unveiled a
schedule for cutting sulfur concentrations in diesel fuels and
introducing lower-emission diesel buses and trucks.
Environmentalists complain that the complex, six-year phase-in of
lower-sulfur fuels is too gradual, unduly compromising air quality
and public health. But officials who negotiated the deal with the
state oil company Petrobras, vehicle manufacturers, and other
stakeholders stand by the accord. "With the agreement in place,
pollution levels will drop, especially in metropolitan areas, even
if not as quickly as we and others would have liked," says Sco Paulo
federal prosecutor Ana Cristina Bandeira Lins. "Given the situation,
we got the best deal we could." Under the deal, Petrobras will
lower the sulfur content in the two diesel fuels sold in
Brazil-S-2000, in which sulfur measures 2,000 parts per million
(ppm),and S-500, in which sulfur levels are 500 ppm. S-500, which
accounts for 25% of diesel sold, is available in Brazil's 14 biggest
cities, where air pollution is worst. S-2000 is available in

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virtually all other areas of Brazil, accounting for 75% of diesel
sold. Diesel is only used by trucks and buses in Brazil; by law,
ethanol and gasoline are the only fuels allowed for passenger cars.
Due to distribution bottlenecks cited by Petrobras, the sulfur-fuels
agreement only applies to buses in the case of existing
vehicles-except in three northern cities, where it also covers
existing trucks. NOTE FROM HUB: Santiago current standards are
50ppm; target is to reach 10ppm by 2012 in Santiago and 50ppm in the
countryside. FYI - US current standard is 15ppm. END NOTE.
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)



11. Argentina: Mandatory Environmental Insurance on Way
NOV. 2008 - Argentina is preparing to require that companies
involved in pollution-prone activities take out insurance to cover
potential environmental restoration costs-the first time a country
has made such coverage mandatory, Argentine authorities say.
Legislation establishing the requirement was approved by the
Argentine Congress in 2002, but never took effect. However,
Argentine officials say implementation is near as a result of
factors including the Argentine Supreme Court debate on the issue
rule-making by the Environment Secretariat, and the emergence of
environmental insurance in the private market. "Though
environmental insurance is very well developed in Europe and the
United States and, within Latin America, in Chile..., nowhere has it
been mandatory," says Mariana Valls, head of the environmental
regulations division of Argentina's Environment Secretariat.
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)


12. Peru's New Ministry Unveils Air Standards
OCT. 2008 - In one of its first major initiatives, Peru's newly
created Environment Ministry has launched an effort to improve air
quality in the country's major cities by drafting new standards for
airborne concentrations of sulfur dioxide, particulates, benzene,
hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide. Ministry officials say the new
standards would require upgrading vehicles, lowering the sulfur
content of diesel fuel and making industries more efficient. The new
standards, which generally follow World Health Organization
guidelines, will tighten allowable levels of some pollutants in two
phases. The maximum allowable average of sulfur dioxide in a
24-hour period will be lowered from the current level of 365
micrograms per cubic meter of air to 80 micrograms as of Jan. 1,
2009, and to 20 micrograms as of Jan. 1, 2014. The 24-hour maximum
for fine particulates (PM2.5) will have to drop from the current 65
micrograms per cubic meter of air to 50 micrograms by Jan. 1, 2010,
and 25 micrograms by Jan. 1. 2014. But some experts worry the
measures may set the bar too high too quickly. Peru's deadline for
lowering sulfur levels in its two classes of diesel fuel from 3,000
parts per million (ppm) and 5,000 ppm, respectively, to 50 ppm was
pushed back to the end of 2009.
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)


13. No Let-Up in Battle over Ecuador's Oilfield Pollution
OCT. 2008 - Long-running litigation pitting rainforest Indians
against Chevron might run a whole lot longer-at least three more
years if the eventual ruling is appealed, say attorneys from the two
sides involved in the case. That's not entirely surprising. With
potential liability recently estimated at US$16 billion and with
copious technical evidence filed, the courtroom fight over
oil-industry impacts on the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1972 to 1992 has

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reached a scale and intensity never before experienced by this
country's justice system. In the latest clash, attorneys from both
sides filed their respective critiques of a court-appointed
investigator's report that pegged health and environmental costs of
the contamination at US$8.02 billion. The report, by investigator
Richard Cabrera, also alleged that the oil operations at issue
generated "unfair earnings" of US$8.31 billion for Texpet, a Texaco
subsidiary and the operating partner of the two-company consortium
that did the drilling. Chevron is the defendant by virtue of its
acquisition of Texaco in 2001. The critiques of Cabrera's report
were filed in Superior Court in the Amazon town of Nueva Loja, where
the case is being heard, but other fronts in the oil-pollution
battle have been active as well. In New York, a federal appeals
court on Oct. 7 blocked an effort by Chevron to shift liability for
the environmental damage at issue in the case onto the Ecuadorian
government.
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article).

--------------
Climate Change
--------------


14. Three U.S. States Partner with Six Other Foreign States to
combat deforestation
NOV. 19, 2008 - Governors from the U.S. states of California,
Wisconsin and Illinois signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
with six governors from Brazil and Indonesia on November 18 to
reduce forestry-related greenhouse gas emissions. The MOU was
signed at the two-day Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los
Angeles. "With this agreement, we are focusing our collective
efforts on the problem and requiring our states to jointly develop
rules, incentives and tools to ensure reduced emission from
deforestation and land degradation. We are also sending a strong
message that this issue should be front and center during
negotiations for the next global agreement on climate change," said
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The agreement commits
California, Illinois and Wisconsin to work with the governors of six
states and provinces in Brazil and Indonesia to help slow and stop
tropical deforestation, the cutting and burning of trees to convert
land to grow crops and raise livestock, and land degradation through
joint projects and incentive programs. Under the agreement, the
signatories will develop a joint action plan by early 2009.
Source - English People


15. Climate-Policy Changes Awaited From Obama
NOV. 2008 - Barack Obama's election as president of the United
States has sparked optimism that U.S. climate policy will change
dramatically, engaging the world and making developing regions such
as Latin America part of the solution. Obama has called for a cap
and trade system to reduce emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by

2050. He also has pledged that the United States will "re-engage" in
international climate negotiations, stipulating that those talks
must also include high-emission developing countries, such as China
and Brazil. He "sees this as an opportunity to rebuild American
credibility in the international sphere, but also sees that
approaching global warming requires solutions, and engaging more
constructively in that process helps deliver a much better
solution," says Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director
for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC),a leading U.S.
green group based in Washington, D.C. Even some of the CDM's
boosters see flaws in the process. Among them is Mary Gomez,
director of the Latin America carbon program for the Andean

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Development Corporation, a development agency linked to the Andean
Community, which has about 30 projects at various stages in the CDM
pipeline. Gomez says the system is hampered by the sluggishness of
an approval process that can take up to two years. If measures are
not taken to expedite approval, she says, "the system will
collapse."
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)


16. Argentina: Gas Emitted by Cattle Account for 30% of GHG
Emissions, Says Study
OCT. 2008 - Just how prominently cattle figure in the climate-change
picture has become the subject of intensive study in Argentina, home
to some 55 million cattle. Argentina's National Institute of
Agricultural Technology (Inta) recently rigged cows with tubes
leading from a surgical incision in their stomachs to a tank
strapped to their backs in order to estimate with some precision how
much greenhouse gas the animals produce. The device measures gas
that normally is emitted through burps as the cows, which in
Argentina are typically range-fed, digest grass. Inta researchers
themselves were astonished to find that on a daily basis, a 550-kilo
cow produced from 800 to 1,000 liters of gas, approximately 30% of
which was methane. Extrapolating, the scientists calculate that
cattle are responsible for 30% of Argentina's greenhouse-gas output,
according to Inta's Guillermo Berra, a veterinarian by profession
who for a decade has been responsible for assessing the greenhouse
emissions of Argentina's agricultural sector. Berra estimates that
the country's farm sector overall accounts for roughly half of
Argentina's total greenhouse emissions.
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)

--------------
Energy
--------------


17. Brazil to Build 5 New Hydroelectric Plants in the Amazon
NOV. 20, 2008 - The president of Brazilian electric energy company
Eletrobras, Jose Antonio Muniz, announced in Rio de Janeiro on
November 19, at the 22nd Brazilian Energy Congress, that the holding
company is looking to build five new hydroelectric plants in the
Tapajos River, which crosses the northern states of Amazonas and
Para. The enterprises will have a total production capacity of
10,680 megawatts (MW) of energy, and the projects should be tendered
by mid-2010. According to Eletrobras, construction of the units is
part of a sustainable energy project, and will be integrated with
the northern Brazilian communities. To further connect Brazil's
north region, Eletrobras is also contemplating the installation of
transmission lines by means of the so-called "Linhao" (Big Line),to
the National Interconnected System (SIN). Muniz explained that the
goal of Eletrobras is to build the new units under the concept known
as "platform-plant" - a model proposed by the Brazilian minister of
Environment, Carlos Minc. The concept means the plant will be
installed without the traditional infrastructure, such as roads and
construction sites with barracks, which attract a large number of
people to the area surrounding the site. Source - Brazzilmag


18. Chile's Codelco Withdraws Thermoelectric Project
NOV. 19, 2008 - Just hours before the Chilean Regional Environmental
Commission (COREMA) convened to review Codelco's Farellones
thermoelectric project set for northern Chile's Coquimbo region, the
state-owned copper company decided to withdraw the project from
consideration. The project director, Rodrigo Jorquera, claims the

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withdrawal would give more time to study the project and its
impacts. But others speculated Codelco acted strategically. If
COREMA had rejected the plan, due mainly to toxic emissions in the
area, the project would not have another chance to pass
environmental reviews, and Codelco would have lost millions of
dollars. Codelco has been facing other problems lately due to the
falling price of copper, which constitutes the majority of the
company business. These economic setbacks may also have played a
part in the company's decision, say economists.
Source - Santiago Times (no link)


19. Chile Bets on Rapeseed to Produce Biodiesel
NOV. 13, 2008 - The Chemical and Mechanical Engineering Department
of Chile's Universidad de la Frontera (UFRO),along with agriculture
company Molino Gorbea and oil company COPEC, are suggesting the use
of rapeseed - an oleaginous plant that is produced in southern
Chile's Bio Bio and Los Lagos Regions - as a base for Chilean
biodiesel production. Robinson Betancourt, UFRO academic and
director of the biodiesel project, explained that the objective of
producing rapeseed-based biodiesel is to provide an additional fuel
supply in response to national demand. "The objective is to supply
Chile with 5 percent of various types of biofuels in regards to
total fuel consumption," he said. The scientists from the UFRO are
already producing 200 liters of biodiesel per day in one of Molino
Gorbea's plants - with the aid of a government grant - and are
working on improving the quality of the product to meet national and
European criteria. The objective is to market the product in the
coming two years.
Source - Santiago Times (no link)


20. Huge Coal Plant Approved in Chile's Region VII
NOV. 04, 2008 - Despite vocal opposition by area residents, Chilean
environmental authorities have decided to approve plans by
U.S.-owned energy company AES Gener to construct a huge coal-burning
electricity plant along the coast in Region VII between Constitucion
and Chanco. The so-called Los Robles project is expected to cost
AES Gener approximately US$1.3 billion. Once in operation, the plant
will add some 750 mega-watts to Chile's central grid, making it one
of the largest electricity facilities in the country. An opposition
group, which collected more than 10,000 signatures against the Los
Robles plant, insists the project will hurt the region's budding
tourism industry, harm the local agriculture and fishing industries
and jeopardize the health of area residents.
Source - Santiago Times (no link)


21. Brazil Needs to Find Long-Term Solution to Nuclear Waste
OCT. 2008 - Ever since Brazil's National Energy Policy Council in
June 2007 endorsed plans for Angra 3, the country's third nuclear
plant, the project has seemed a forgone conclusion. Officials view
the 1,400-megawatt, R$7.2 billion (US$4.5 billion) reactor as a
means of avoiding future energy shortages. They also feel Angra 3
will help maintain diversification in a power grid dominated by
hydroelectricity. If the plant starts up as planned in 2014, nuclear
power will continue to account for 2% of the energy Brazil produces
as new hydropower facilities come on line. Given the official
support, it came as no surprise last month when Angra 3 cleared its
last big bureaucratic hurdle by receiving a preliminary license from
IBAMA, the Environment Ministry's permitting arm. The project still
must obtain a construction license and, ultimately, an operating
license from IBAMA. These are usually pro-forma permits, linked to
certain government conditions. One requirement in this case,
however, could constitute a roadblock for the project unless the
government removes it. Under the requirement, imposed by the

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Environment Ministry, the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN),
Brazil's nuclear regulatory agency, must present IBAMA with a plan
for the long-term disposal of high-level radioactive waste before
Angra 3 is put into service. Currently, spent fuel rods from the two
reactors are stored in indoor, on-site pools. Eletronuclear, the
state company that runs Angra 1 and Angra 2 and will build and
operate Angra 3, argues the high-level-waste requirement is neither
feasible nor necessary now. It points out that not even nations with
the largest nuclear-power programs have developed permanent disposal
sites for high-level waste.

Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)


22. After Trip To Russia, Chvez Charts Nuclear Course
OCT. 2008 - Following a two-day visit to Russia to sign energy
agreements, Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez said his country is
ready to develop nuclear power-a prospect that troubles military and
environmental experts. Speaking at a political rally in Caracas on
Sept. 28, Chvez said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had
offered to help Venezuela build a nuclear reactor. "We certainly
are interested in developing nuclear energy, for peaceful ends of
course-for medical purposes and to generate electricity," Chvez
said. "Brazil has various nuclear reactors, as does Argentina. We
will have ours as well." Venezuela has sought assistance in
developing nuclear energy technology from both Iran and Argentina in
the past in an effort to show it is a "green country" that is
serious about replacing greenhouse-gas-producing fossil fuels. The
announcement that it would delve into nuclear technology with
Russian assistance raises hackles among some experts who say the
move will worsen U.S.-Venezuelan relations and pose new risks of
nuclear proliferation.
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)

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Infrastructure Development
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23. Oil and Gas Projects Proliferate In Western Amazon
NOV. 2008 - Dozens of new oil and gas concessions have cropped up in
recent years in the Amazon's most biodiverse and pristine regions,
propelled by strong world oil prices and the discovery of large oil
and gas reserves. A recent study shows state and multinational
companies now hold more than 180 oil and gas blocks covering 680,000
square kilometers (170 million acres) in the western Amazon. The
new concessions, most of them granted since 2004 in Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and western Brazil, could threaten hundreds
of species of birds, primates and amphibians as well as numerous
isolated Indian tribes, according to a study by Duke University and
the U.S.-based non-governmental groups Save America's Forests and
Land is Life. Many of the concessions overlap with national parks
and existing or proposed Indian reserves, the study says. The
study, entitled "Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats
to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples," was published
Aug. 13 in the online scientific journal Plos One. It warns of
devastating impacts if the hydrocarbon projects are not
environmentally well-managed and Indian rights not respected. The
western Amazon is one of the most species-rich regions in the world
in amphibians, birds and animals, and has nearly as many tree
species per hectare (up to 600) as the entire United States. It also
is home to over a dozen Indian tribes that live in what is known as
"voluntary isolation."

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Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)


24. Controversial Colombian Port Project Is On
NOV. 2008 - For nearly 10 years, Indians and environmental activists
have sought to stop construction of a multi-purpose port on the
ecologically rich and fragile coast of Dibulla, an impoverished
Colombian municipality on the Caribbean. They have sent hundreds of
protestors to the project site, petitioned environmental authorities
and filed suit. But despite those efforts and a two-year suspension
of the project ordered by environmental authorities, construction of
the US$13 million Brisa Multipurpose Port resumed in late September
in Dibulla, which lies at the foot of the Sierra Nevada de Santa
Marta, the world's highest coastal range. The Brisa Port is being
carved out of an area of dry forest interspersed with numerous
wetlands and mangrove swamps that harbor migratory birds and species
including the vulnerable American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) and
the critically endangered hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata).
Executives at Brisa, the private company which began building the
port in 2006, argue that the facility-combined with an accompanying
steel and iron complex, cement factory and duty-free zone-will
generate 3,500 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect ones in construction
and operation. They also say the deepwater harbor where the port is
being built will allow Brisa to manage exports of nearly four
million tons annually of limestone, coal and other raw materials,
and permit a massive ramping up of production in Colombia's steel
and iron industry. Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa
Stoner for complete article)

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Extractive Industries
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25. World's Biggest Coal Mine Is Slated for Northern Colombia
NOV. 2008 - Drummond Coal will soon begin construction of a new
100,000-acre (40,000-ha) coal mine in northeastern Colombia which
company officials say will be the biggest open-pit mine in the
world. The new US$1.5 billion El Descanso Norte mine is expected to
boost Drummond's annual exports of mined thermal coal from an
average of 70 million tons to 100 million tons, increasing
Colombia's gross domestic product by as much as 4%. That would
propel Colombia to the third among world coal exporters, ahead of
Russia and behind Australia and Indonesia. While the huge mine
would generate substantial revenues from the more than 1 billion
tons in estimated coal reserves, some environmental groups have
expressed concern about airborne coal dust causing water- and
air-pollution, including in the immense Zapatosa Marsh, which is fed
in part by area rivers and is home to egrets, manatees and myriad
fish species in the departments of Cesar and Magdalena. In
response to these concerns and those of residents worried that
engineering work will divert several area rivers and lower the water
table, the Colombian government negotiated with Drummond over two
years one of the most robust and carefully crafted environmental
permits in Colombian history. Colombian environmental officials
consider it a benchmark permit in terms of environmental protection
and conditionality.
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)

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General
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26. Decrees Affecting Indigenous Lands Are Overturned In Peru
OCT. 2008 - Following protests by indigenous groups in the Peruvian
Amazon, Congress has handed President Alan Garca a rare defeat,
overturning two executive decree laws in a vote that some
environmentalists say could prompt future challenges to presidential
decrees. By a 66-29 vote with no abstentions, Congress has repealed
decrees 1015 and 1073, which reduced the voting support needed for
native communities in the tropical lowlands and campesino
communities in the highlands to make decisions about land use,
including sales or leases. Community leaders protested that they
had not been consulted about the measures, which lowered the
required majority from two-thirds to a 50% plus one. According to
Ernesto Raez-Luna, director of science and development for the
Center for Environmental Sustainability at Lima's Cayetano Heredia
University, the Aug. 22 vote demonstrated both the new-found power
of the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian
Amazon (Aidesep),the national indigenous organization, and is also
indicative of a previously unseen willingness by Congress to stand
up to Garca. That could signal new alliances among
environmentalists, indigenous groups and some members of Congress in
efforts to overturn other laws in the package of more than 100
decrees designed by the executive branch to bring Peru into line
with the provisions of the Peruvian-U.S. free trade agreement,
Raez-Luna says. (Does this overturning then threaten the US Free
Trade agreement then?
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete
article)


27. Peru: Free Trade Opens Environmental Window
NOV. 01, 2008 - Legislative decree 1090, which modifies Peru's
forest policy, is worrying U.S. trade authorities because it
contravenes environmental clauses of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
that is scheduled to enter force between the two countries in
January 2009. The decree, which in June amended the Forestry and
Wildlife Act of Peru, leaves 45 million hectares -- or 60 percent of
Peru's jungles -- out of the Forestry Heritage protection system --
a step that runs counter to the FTA forestry annex. That was one of
the 10 observations made by the Office of the U.S Trade
Representative, Susan Schwab, in a meeting with delegates of the
Peruvian government in October in Washington, according to Sandro
Chvez, president of the non-governmental Ecological Forum (Foro
Ecologico). It was a point of concern particularly for U.S.
authorities, Chvez told Tierramerica, as was the elimination of the
National Forestry Commission, which ensured citizen participation in
forest management and was stipulated in the unmodified version of
the law. At the meeting, the U.S. delegates stated that in order to
implement the (FTA) Free Trade Agreement, a public consultation
mechanism for forest issues was essential, he said. Decree 1090 is
one of the 99 adopted by the executive branch under special
legislative powers granted it by Congress for the implementation of
the FTA.
Source - IPS News


28. Global Financial Crisis a Bad Sign for Andean Biodiversity
OCT. 16, 2008 - The crisis affecting the financial sector and stock
markets around the world could fuel the expansion of extractive
industries (primarily fossil fuels) in South America's Andean
region, warn experts. Investors from the industrialized world may
feel pressure to seek alternative means for financial liquidity,
forced by divestment from stocks in recent weeks, Stewart Maginnis,
director of forest conservation for the World Conservation Union
(IUCN),told Tierramerica. Debate on the environmental
repercussions of the financial crisis overtook much of the World

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Conservation Congress held by the IUCN Oct. 5-14 in Barcelona,
Spain, which drew some 8,000 experts. But the uncertainty is such
that others predict reduced pressure on natural resources as a
result of the economic crisis. Maginnis pointed to the current high
prices of fuels, noting that investment in the expansion of oil and
gas company activities now is attractive -- and constitutes a threat
to protection efforts in areas like the Amazon jungle region in
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Source -
Tierramerica

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