Tierramérica

Issue of May, 17, 2004



	Current Edition

	Report

	Accents

	Analysis

	Dialogues

	Notable Writings

	Eco-Briefs

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Ecocide: Forests are decimated in Mexico's Tarahumara sierra.
Credit: Claudio Contreras

Report
Indigenous Eco-Activists Await Medals, or Punishment
By Diego Cevallos
Two Mexican indigenous farmers who have fought logging operations could be sentenced to around a decade in prison. To the NGOs, they are prisoners of conscience. To government prosecutors, they are criminals.

Accents
Big Landowners Come to the Aid of Atlantic Forests
By Mario Osava
Some 360 private reserves have been created to protect the forests in the rich Brazilian Atlantic biome, one of the five most endangered in the world. The Mata Atlantica has lost more than 90 percent of the area it covered when Europeans first came to the Americas.

Libia Grueso

Q & A
The 'Other Face' of Colombia
By Yadira Ferrer
Libia Grueso, winner of the Goldman environmental prize for her efforts benefiting Afro-Colombian communities, spoke with Tierramérica about the award and her work. Grueso was able to put the brakes on a multi-use pipeline that threatened the delicate ecosystems of mangroves and jungles in Colombia's Valle del Cauca department.

Accents
Private Conservation at a Snail's Pace in Chile
By Gustavo González
The number and size of protected areas in private hands have grown, but they still lack official recognition and there are no incentives for them, say NGOs. There are more than 375 thousand hectares of privately run reserves in Chile -- a tiny area compared to the 14.1 million hectares under public protection.

Eco-Briefs

CHILE: Electric Company Floods Indian Cemetery
Chilean minister of planning, Andrés Palma, said on May 11 that the Endesa electric company must pay damages to the indigenous Pehuenche community for flooding their cemetery when the reservoir of the Ralco dam was filled without authorization.

BRAZIL: Celebrating Sustainable Agriculture

CUBA: Homemade Vegetable Soap
A community project under way in this eastern province of Cuba promotes the production of homemade soap using the physic or Barbados nut (Jatropha curcas), the cultivation of which also improves soils damaged by drought or salinity.

VENEZUELA: Water Lentils Cover Lake Maracaibo
A fine layer of water lentils (Lemnaceae family) has extended during the past few weeks over a quarter of Lake Maracaibo, in western Venezuela, underscoring the high level of water pollution that affects fish and lake navigation.

GUATEMALA: Dump Filling Up
An enormous garbage dump less than two km from the Guatemalan capital's historic center could reach its breaking point within three years and cause serious damage, warns Mario Dary, minister of environment and natural resources.

Lessons From a Unique Decade - José Graziano da Silva *
Rio+20 and Beyond: Together for a Sustainable Future - José Graziano da Silva *
Why Inclusive Green Growth Can Sustain Recent Gains in Latin America - Hasan Tuluy*
The Global Food Crisis and the Latin American Paradox - Pamela Cox