Eco-Briefs

	BRAZIL
	Agrarian Reform to Pay for Reforestation

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 20 (Tierramérica).- Farmers who received land in an Amazonian distribution will receive about 50 dollars a month to reforest their plots, announced the government's national settlement and agrarian reform agency, INCRA.

The program aims to make up for the deforestation of the past two decades and comply with the law that requires preservation of forests for 80 percent of properties in Brazil's Amazon region.

"We hope by 2010 to involve the 57,000 families settled in the Amazon's 43 most deforested municipalities in planting 500 million trees," INCRA's César José de Oliveira told Tierramérica. That would reforest 1,140 square kilometers, or 0.25 percent of the Brazilian Amazon.

The program is slated to last two years. Seedlings will be native species, for timber or fruits and nuts, with economic potential.

According to Ricardo Rettmann, of the Environmental Research Institute of the Amazon, it is interesting that the government is paying poor people with environmental strings attached.

	ARGENTINA
	Restrictions on Sábalo Fishing

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 20 (Tierramérica).- Given the national government's delay in setting a quota for exports of the sábalo fish (Prochilodus lineatus), an overexploited river species, the eastern province of Santa Fe established the maximum for catches until year end.

The resolution seeks "sustainable management of fishing resources" in the Paraná River.

"Now that we're past midyear, the measure could wait no longer," Julieta Peteán, head of the wetlands and fishing program of the non-governmental Proteger Foundation, told Tierramérica.

But "it is not known on what they based the information on the state of the fisheries" that they set a maximum of 4,000 tons, she said.

In 2007, the Argentine government authorized exports of a maximum of 7,000 tons, and in 2008, it was 5,800 tons.

	HONDURAS
	A Law to Fight Natural Disasters

TEGUCIGALPA, Jul 20 (Tierramérica).- The Honduran parliament last week passed its first law to prevent and mitigate risks related to natural disasters and to establish greater institutional coordination for confronting such events.

"After six years we finally were able to give the country legislation that contains a preventive focus, with rehabilitation and coordination in dealing with natural disasters," Doris Gutiérrez, lawmaker from the leftist Democratic Unification party and head of the congressional contingencies committee, told Tierramérica.

The law was a requirement to receive international cooperation for managing the country's resources and prevent waste when natural catastrophes - like hurricanes, floods or earthquakes - hit this Central American nation, she said.

Honduras identified 28 vulnerable zones in eight of its 18 departments, areas that are at greater risk of landslides, floods or earthquakes.

	MEXICO
	A Factory of Green Ideas

MEXICO CITY, Jul 20 (Tierramérica).- Mexico's University of the Environment (UMA) will begin in September a program in environmental law and public policy.

Once students have completed the program, the university plans to invite those with a solid business plan to seek capital.

"The planning and fundraising began three years ago. Our program is like an incubator for green business," UMA director Federico Llamas told Tierramérica.

The university began operating in January in the city of Valle de Bravo, about 140 kilometers northwest of Mexico City. Its purpose is to promote environmentally friendly business.

The alliance emerged between the non-governmental group Corteza and the companies Water Capital and Ecolo-Systems.

*Source: Inter Press Service.