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Doha climate conference leaves REDD under cloud

plans to drop the two lawsuits it led in con-nection with the spills, which should result inthe judges dismissing the case, Federal Prose-cutor Gisele Porto said at a Dec. 14 public hear-ing on the matter.

Chevron has oered to pay R$90 million($43.1 million) to compensate or environmen-

tal damages caused by the spillsthree timesits own estimates o the damageand to spendR$221 million ($106 million) in saety-relatedupgrades, including equipment, said Raael Wil-liamson, head o corporate aairs or ChevronBrazil, at the hearing. We have...pledged toimprove all o our procedures and operations,including those involving saety, Williamson

continued on page 94

Federal prosecutors and Chevron are draw-ing criticism or a proposal under which theoil giant would pay R$311 million (US$149

million) in environmental compensation andoileld-saety investments to settle two lawsuitsseeking damages o R$40 billion ($19.1 billion)or two oshore oil spills.

Chevron proposed the settlement in talkswith the watchdog agency that led the suits,the ederal prosecutors oce or Rio de Janeirostate. Prosecutors dont rule out the possibilitythat the settlement amount could be adjusted innal negotiations, which they expect to resultin a signed agreement in February.

Once the agreement, soon to be nalized,has been signed, the ederal prosecutors oce

December 2012

Vol. 15 - No. 2

InsideAround the region 2

U.S.-Mexican wateraccord wins praisefrom green groups 3

After political shift,El Salvador weighsbills to curb mining 4

Safer drilling plansurged with Amazonoil projects on way 5

CENTERPIECE:

Beneath the forestcanopy in BrazilsPar state, illegal

loggers taking toll 6

Q&A:Venture formed tocertify oil firmslabor, environmentand social policies 12

Protection o orests as a means o mitigatingclimate change has commanded outsized

attention at recent United Nations climateconerences. Not surprisingly, Latin America hasapplauded. The region, ater all, possesses thelargest tropical orest area in the world. As such,it ranks as the worlds leading recipient o undsor a orest-conservation mechanism known asREDD, or Reducing Emissions rom Deoresta-tion and Forest Degradation, under which devel-oped countries pay rainorest nations to curbdestruction o their woodlands.

Thats why many Latin American govern-ments elt dismay when a spat arose over REDDat last months UN climate conerence in Doha,Qatar. The disagreement, over who should be in

charge o veriying the amount o carbon diox-ide that orest-conservation projects preventrom entering the atmosphere, has slowed workon integrating REDD into the UN climate system.This has rustrated Latin Americans who hopedthat REDD might become part o a UN compli-ance market sometime soon and, in the process,generate large sums or orest conservation.

The quarrel pitted Norway, the worlds big-gest contributor to orestry protection, againstBrazil, the worlds largest recipient o suchunds. Norway insisted an independent board ointernational experts should be responsible orthe verication; Brazil countered that such veri-

Proposed oil-spill settlement is criticized in BrazilRio de Janeiro, Brazil

A monthly report

on development and

the environment in

Latin America


cation should occur domestically. Experts saythat aside rom slowing progress on REDD, the

dispute has highlighted dicult issues o sover-eignty raised by the orest-protection strategy.

UN Convention on Climate Change Executive SecretaryChristiana Figueres at Doha (AP Images)


2/12

Coverage of Latin American environ-mental developments and trends for

academic institutions, businesses,NGOs and public agencies.

Editor & PublisherGeorge HatchDesignMarina Tubio

Subscriptions Manager

Maria Belesis

Editorial/Subscriptions OfficeFourth Street Press3 Ellis SquareBeverly, MA 01915

Tel: (978) 232-9251Fax: (978) 232-9351E-mail: [email protected] site: www.ecoamericas.com

Ecomricas is published monthlyby Fourth Street Press, Inc. It isavailable in print and electronic ver-sions. One-year charter subscriptionrate is $225, with discounts availablefor organizations needing multiplesubscriptions. Back issues are $20Copyright 2012 by Fourth StreetPress, Inc. All rights reserved. Repro-duction in whole or part prohibited

except by permission.

ISSN 1532-835X

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December 2012

EcoAmricas

currently produces less than10% o its electricity rom os-sil uels. The rest comes romrenewable sourcesmainlyhydropower plants, which

accounted or 75% o the coun-trys electricity last year, androm geothermal installations,

which accounted or 12%.Under the carbon-neutral

plan, wind energy will growrom 4% o the power supplyto at least 12% by 2021, andthe share o solar energy also

will be expanded rom its cur-rent level o less than 1%.

Meanwhile, a new orestryplan will oer easy creditto cattle ranches and coee

arms will ing to participate ina national program to plant 7million trees. Those trees willsoak up carbon dioxide as theygrow and then be sold to thetimber industry beore a newcycle o tree planting begins.

Costa Rica is not the onlynation yearning or carbonneutrality. Norway, one othe worlds top 10 oil export-ers, also has committed tobeing carbon neutral, butby 2030 rather than 2021.

Follow-up: Patricia Alpzar, Director,Press Office, Ministry of Environment,Energy and Telecommunications, SanJos, Costa Rica, +(506) 2256-3859,(506) 2233-4533, ext. 172, [email protected] . National Climate ChangeStrategy Action Plan available (in Span-ish) at: www.cambioclimaticocr.com/biblioteca-virtual/cat_view/2-public

aciones-sobre-cambio-climatico.

In Brazil, credits for forest

conservation to be tradedThe Brazilian state o Rio de

Janeiro this month activateda trading system in whichlandowners in violation ogovernment land-clearinglimits can legalize their prop-erty by buying credits romthose who conserve morethan the required minimum.

The land-clearing restrictionsthat guide the new tradingsystem are set down in the For-

est Code, a 1965 law that wasrevised this year. The revisedlaw retains a longstandingrequirement that landownerskeep a portion o their land

uncut80% in the Amazon,35% in the woodland savannahknown as the Cerrado, and20% elsewhere. (See Ruralistasprevail in Brazils Forest CodebattleEcoAmricas, Oct. 12)

Using the new electronictrading system, called the Riode Janeiro Green Exchange(BVRio), landowners who haveailed to meet these orest-conservation minimums canbring their land into compli-ance by purchasing environ-

mental credits (CRAs). Theycan buy the credits romlandowners who have pre-servedand agree to continueto preservea correspondingamount o orest above andbeyond the required minimum.

As a precondition, both thebuyers and sellers landhold-ings must be geo-reerencedand registered with state orederal environmental agencies.

CRAs are authorized underthe revised Forest Code. They

only can be used to legalizeproperty deorested beore July22, 2008, when the govern-ment implemented a decreesetting tougher rules or therestoration o illegally cut prop-erty. Another limitation placedon use o the credits: landown-ers can only buy CRAs in thesame biome and state wheretheir property is located.

The BVRio has drawn its rstregistered buyers, as well assellers with surplus uncut or-

est totaling 200,000 hectares(490,000 acres) in six statesand three biomesthe Ama-zon rainorest, the Atlanticrainorest and the Cerrado.BVRio declined to give thecurrent numbers o buyersand sellers, other than to saythere were dozens o each.

BVRio Executive PresidentPedro Moura Costa expectstrading o CRAs to begin in the

Costa Rica hones plans toachieve carbon-neutrality

Costa Rica, moving aggres-sively to meet its goal obecoming carbon-neutral by2021, has unveiled a plan toincrease its use o renewableenergy, push a quarter o itstaxi and bus feet to use cleaneruels, and plant 7 million treesto absorb carbon dioxide.

Costa Rica already hastaken signicant steps to

reduce its carbon ootprintby increasing its orest coverrom 21% in 1987 to 52%today and improving itsenergy eciency by 15%.

But the plan, announced byRen Castro, the minister oenvironment, energy and tele-communications, puts CostaRica on a path to become the

worlds rst carbon-neutralnation within a decade.

With this plan, we shouldbe able to reduce 2.6 million

tons o carbon dioxide, oraround 30% [o our emissions],

which is enough to meet ourgoal, Castro told the press atthe Nov. 7 launching o the

Action Plan or the NationalStrategy on Climate Change.

Environment ocials saythe strategy is to balancereduced greenhouse-gasemissions with new treeplantings so that net carbonemissions amount to zero.

In the process, the govern-

ment will tighten standardson public transportation. It

will negotiate with car mak-ers and banks so taxi and busowners can cheaply switch tonatural-gas-, liquied-petro-leum- and natural-gas-powered

vehicles. And it will encour-age municipalities to establishtaxi and bus stands or thesealternative-uel vehicles.

Power generation also isslated to evolve. Costa Rica continued on page 114

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EcoAmricas

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Agreement reserves water for Colorado delta

Contacts

Jesus LuevanoSecretaryInternational Boundary and

Water CommissionCiudad Juarez, MexicoTel: +(52 656) [email protected]

Patricia MulroyGeneral ManagerSouthern Nevada

Water AuthorityLas Vegas, NevadaTel: (702) 258-3104

[email protected]

Francisco ZamoraDirectorColorado River Delta ProgramSonoran InstituteTucson, ArizonaTel: (520) 290-0828 [email protected]

Experts say a water-sharing agreement thatMexico and the United States struck lastmonth will permit long-delayed upgrad-

ing o Mexican water inrastructure, deliveryo surplus water to thirsty southwestern U.S.

states and environmental restoration in thelower Colorado River watershed.I think it is a good example o collabora-

tion between two countries and, in this case,with the env ironmenta l community, saysFrancisco Zamora, Colorado River Delta pro-gram director or the Sonoran Institute, a non-governmental group active in the United Statesand Mexico. Especially along the border, all

you hear about is bad news. This is good news.The agreement, signed Nov. 20, eleven

days beore Felipe Caldern turned power overto new Mexican President Enrique Pea Nieto,includes provisions that would:

n require Mexico to accept reduced waterdeliveries in times o drought;

n provide US$21 million in U.S. unds toupgrade Mexican water inrastructure dam-aged in a 2010 earthquake;

n permit Mexico to store up to 1.5 millionacre-eet o water in Nevadas Lake Mead (con-tinuing a storage arrangement begun on a trialbasis ater the 2010 earthquake);

n prompt steps to address increased watersalinity stemming rom low reservoir levels;

n and release 158,000 acre-eet o waterover ive years to ensure that water lowsthe entire length o the Colorado, which has

stopped short o the Gul o Caliornia thanksto U.S. dams and burgeoning water demand.

Treaty amendmentThe agreement is contained in an amend-

ment, called Minute 319, to the 1944 treaty thatgoverns the two nations use o Colorado River

water. Designed to expire in 2017, the amend-ment was signed in a ceremony in San Diegothat included U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Sala-zar and outgoing Mexican National Water Com-mission (Conagua) chie Jos Luege.

In a joint communiqu, Mexicos ForeignRelations Ministry and National Water Com-

mission stressed that Minute 319 does not alterU.S. or Mexican water distribution obligationsunder the 1944 agreement or imply the loss o

water by one par ty or the other.Such reassurances garner attention amid

the ast-growing border regions ongoingdrought and diminishing water supplies. TheU.S. Department o the Interiors Bureau o Rec-lamation says the Colorado River Basins waterstores have shrunk 35% in the last 12 years.

Minute 319 aims to achieve better use othe river and even water surpluses throughecient usage. In the process, Mexicos water

deliveries will be delayed while the countryuses Lake Mead or temporary water storageand undertakes water-inrastructure upgradessuch as lining water-transport canals andimproving irrigation systems. The stakes are

high. In Mexico alone, the 1,450-mile (2,330-km) river provides drinking water or Tijuanaand Mexicali, irrigation or arms in the Mexi-cali Valley, crucial habitat or wildlie and aneconomic livelihood to residents o the Colo-rado River Delta and Upper Gul o Caliornia.

Jess Luevano, secretary o the Mexicansection o the International Boundary and

Water Commission, the binational agency thatoversees U.S.-Mexican water agreements, antic-ipates a steady fow o river water to the Colo-rado Delta and Gul o Caliornia by 2014-16.

Speaking about Minute 319, Pat Mulroy,general manager o the Southern Nevada Water

Authority, says: Probably the most compellingbenet is the stabilizing eect it will have onLake Mead. Were very much driven by whatclimate change is going to do to this basin [andthe need] to buer against it.

Surplus waterThe U.S. Bureau o Reclamation has

warned that continued declines in the waterlevel o Lake Mead, which supplies 90% o Las

Vegas drinking water, could cause water andhydroelectricity shortages in the U.S. city. Inreturn or allowing Mexico to use Lake Mead asa water bank, Arizona and Nevada will be per-

mitted to draw 100,000 acre-eet o the surpluswater during the ve-year term o Minute 319.

The Sonoran Institutes Francisco Zamoracredits cross-border projects already underwayin the region or helping push Minute 319 or-

ward and or persuading negotiators to priori-tize environmental restoration.

Work ing with Mex ica n part ner s, theSonoran Institute has planted 50 acres o cot-tonwood and willow trees, built a small chan-nel reconnecting the Colorado River to the seaand created an articial wetland near Mexicali.

In the amendment talks, a coalition ogreen groups agreed to pay or a third o

the 158,000 acre-eet o water to be releasedinto the Colorado delta. The coalition, whichincludes the Sonoran Institute, Pronatura Nor-este and the Environmental Deense Fund, islaunching a undraising campaign or the pur-pose with help rom the Nature Conservancy.Says Zamora: I think the United States andMexico were able to look at the big picture othe Colorado River and how to use it to the ben-et o the countries. Environmentalists wereable to show that restoration was easible.

Kent Paterson


4/12December 2012

EcoAmricas

4

Contacts

Rafael CartagenaResearcherSalvadoran Research Programon Development andEnvironment (Prisma)San Salvador, El SalvadorTel: +(503) [email protected]

Nery Arely Daz de RiveraFMLN Deputy to theNational AssemblySan Salvador, El SalvadorTel: +(503) 2281-9360

[email protected]

Alejandro LabradorCommunications CoordinatorNational Roundtable onMetallic Mining (Mesa)San Salvador, El SalvadorTel: +(503) [email protected]

El Salvador weighs legislation to curb mining

In 2006, thousands o demonstrators took tothe streets in San Salvador to denounce goldand silver mining projects. The protestors,

angered by reports that exploration activityby the Canadian rm Pacic Rim had reduced

access to resh water or armers along theLempa River, demanded an end to that project.They also called or a ban on all metallic min-ing on grounds it could lead to widespread con-tamination o rivers and streams.

Such concern runs deep in El Salvador,where more than 90% o surace water is pol-luted and which has the least amount o wateravailable per capita o any Central Americancountry, according to studies conducted or theUnited Nations. But when the National Round-table on Metallic Mining (Mesa), a coalition ocommunity, environmental and human rightsgroups, lobbied the National Assembly in 2006

to ban metall ic mining permanently, the legis-lation went nowhere.

The Assembly, dominated by the right-wing, pro-business Arena party, had little inter-est in taking up a bill that would lose the coun-try hundreds o millions o dollars in royaltiesrom U.S. and Canadian mining companies.

New environmentSince then, though, the political equation

has changed. The let-wing FMLN has becomethe most powerul party in the Assembly. AndMauricio Funes, an FMLN member, was electedpresident o El Salvador in 2009. He opposes

metal mining. Yet as Mesa pushes again orenactment o its legislation, it eels a renewedsense o urgency that stems, paradoxically,rom advances made by the anti-mining cause.

In August, the Funes government pre-sented the Legislative Assembly with its ownmining bill. The legislation, which will likelybe taken up in the coming year, would suspendmining permits until the governments mining-regulation agencies are improved. It wouldalso ban all mining until concession areas areestablished in line with economic and environ-mental criteria and old mines are closed in anenvironmentally sound manner.

Mesa believes the government bill doesnot go ar enough. That is because under theproposed law, a commission, whose members

would be appointed by the president, woulddetermine when conditions warrant a resump-tion o mining. That, Mesa asserts, means auture, more business-oriented president mightsimply appoint a committee eager to certiy theulllment o improved conditions and invitemining companies back.

This bill would temporarily suspend min-ing in El Salvador, but it is not a prohibition ora moratorium, says Alejandro Labrador, Mesas

communications coordinator. It appears tosolve a problem, without actually solving it.

Whether Mesa can push through its billto ban mining permanently in El Salvador isanyones guess. But experts believe that public

opposition to mining in the country is strong.The most recent poll on mining, carried outin 2009 by the University o Central Americain areas aected by mineral extraction, oundthat more than 62% o the population wasopposed to mining projects. Public sentimentdoes not appear to have sotened since, thanksin part to media reports on the diculty andcost o regulating mining investment.

Legal, environmental concernsOne ocus o reports is Pacic Rim, which

sued El Salvador or US$77 million under theCentral American Free Trade Agreement ater

the government suspended its environmentallicense. The suit, alleging arbitrary and dis-criminatory treatment, was led in 2009 andis now being heard by a World Bank arbitrationpanel. It has cost El Salvador millions o dollarsin legal ees, according to some estimates.

Meanwhile, environmental risks o min-ing continue to raise hackles. Earlier this yearthe Ministry o the Environment and NaturalResources released studies showing that goldmining operations rom the 1930s through thelate 1970s in the San Sebastin River basin hadlet the river in eastern El Salvador with ninetimes the permitted cyanide levels and 1,000

times the permitted levels o iron. As a result,ranchers and corn armers rom the area havehad to bring in water rom other regions.

Opposition to mining is not universal inEl Salvador. Some mayors in the country, orinstance, support oreign mining investmentas a means o stimulating economic growth intheir communities.

At present, there are 26 active explora-tion permits and 73 mining applications pend-ing beore the government. Various studieshave shown that those projects could gener-ate billions o dollars in revenue. That income,mining proponents say, could make a huge di-

erence in a country where two-thirds o thepopulation lives on $2 per day.

Still, some FMLN legislators vow theyllpush or a permanent ban, perhaps using ele-ments o the government and Mesa bills. Wehave made clear we are against mining in ElSalvador, says Nery Arely Daz de Rivera, anFMLN member o the National Assembly. Weare a small, vulnerable country which does nothave the socio-environmental conditions that

would al low or mining activity.

Steven Ambrus


5/12December 2012

EcoAmricas

New standards urged for Amazon oil projects

Contacts

Alfonso Alonso

Managing Directoror Sustainability& Conservation ProgramsSmithsonian ConservationBiology Institute

Washington, D.C.Tel: (202) [email protected]://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/cces/Bruce BabbittFellowBlue Moon FundCharlottesville, Virginia

Tel: (434) 295-5160bruce.babbitt@raintreeventures.comwww.bluemoonfund.orgBill PowersChie EngineerE-Tech InternationalSan Diego, CaliorniaTel: (619) [email protected]/

Juan Ignacio Ramrez

Amazon Civil Society &Inter-ministerial Relations

AnalystOice o thePresident o EcuadorQuito, EcuadorTel: +(593) 9982-7521

[email protected] SoriaSenior policy specialist

WWF-PeruLima, Peru

Tel: +(51 991) [email protected]://peru.panda.orgJhon WajaiInter-institutional CoordinatorCoica-Equitable OriginQuito, EcuadorTel: +(59 32) [email protected]

www.coica.org.ec

With 13 Amazonian oil leases out or bidin Ecuador and more slated or auctionin Peru, experts are advocating wider

use o methods to reduce the environmentalimpact o what they expect will be a regional

surge in oil and gas operations.Others, however, warn that governmentsmust in addition establish and enorce mini-mum standards to ensure such best practicesamount to more than good intentions.

Perhaps the most unusual attempt toaddress oil-drill ing concerns is Ecuadors eortto raise US$3.6 billion rom internationaldonors in return or not allowing wells in theIshpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) conces-sion area in Yasun National Park, a hotspot obiological diversity near the border with Peru.

But the und only has solid commitmentso about $100 million so ar, and Ecuadorian

President Raael Correa has said that i the undalls short, he will open the area or drilling. Ithat happens, some experts recommend drill-ing rom outside the park, using a techniquecalled extended-reach drilling, which can bedone rom platorms as ar as eight miles (12.8kms) away rom the oil reservoir.

Fewer platformsUsing the technique to drill in dierent

directions rom a single platorm, companiescan shrink their ootprint without increasingcosts, says Bill Powers o E-Tech International,a U.S.-based engineering rm. While drilling a

longer well might be more expensive, the costis oset by the need or ewer platorms, hesays. Powers spoke at a conerence on Amazonoil and gas drilling sponsored by the U.S. Interi-or Department, the U.S. Agency or Internation-al Developments Initiative or Conservation inthe Andean Amazon and the Peruvian Environ-ment Ministry in Lima on Nov. 29 and 30.

By designing each drilling platorm asan island and errying construction equip-ment, materials and workers by helicopterrom camps built along rivers, he says, compa-nies can orgo construction o roadsand, asa result, avoid ragmenting wildlie habitat and

attracting settlers to the area. That oshore-inland technique was used or the Camiseanatural gas project in southern Peru.

Companies exploring or gas and oil useseismic testingsetting o explosive chargesand mapping how sound waves travel throughthe groundto determine the boundaries othe deposit. Studies show the impact on wild-lie is minimal, says Alonso Alonso, managingdirector o sustainability and conservation orthe Smithsonian Conservation Biology Insti-tute. But critics assert paths created to lay theexplosive charges can also allow settlers to

move into ormerly pristine orest.Powers suggests new techniques might

allow companies to gauge oil-producing poten-tial without having physically to enter the ter-ritory to do seismic testing. By taking seismic

inormation rom previous testing that did notresult in oil production and combining it withadditional geomagnetic data gathered rom air-planes, he says, it might be possible to decide

whether to dri ll without urther seismic tests.Pipeline routes can also be designed to

have a lower impact by limiting the right-o-way width to 13 meters, not building a roadalong the right-o-way and leaving canopybridgesplaces where the canopies o treeson both sides o the right-o-way touch, allow-ing tree-dwelling wildlie to cross.

Underscoring the tree bridges eective-ness, cameras monitoring animals use o 13

bridges near Camisea rom Sept. 19 to Oct. 30,2012, recorded 11 animal species, rom mon-keys to porcupines, according to Alonso.

Winnowing well sitesScientists can also promote improved

practices by mapping ragile habitats beorecompanies begin exploring, Alonso says. Sci-entists studying vegetation, amphibians andbirds in a lot leased by Repsol in northern Peruound islands o a particular geologic orma-tion where soil was less ertile. They recom-mended against drilling in those areas becausethey would be harder to remediate, he says.

Powers, meanwhile, says that or compa-nies, improving drilling practices is not a mat-ter o technology or cost. Its a matter o habit.

To improve habits, a venture has beenlaunched to create an international certicationsystem or oil drilling. The voluntary system,called Equitable Origin, would be similar insome ways to the Forest Stewardship Councilstimber certication. (See Q&Athis issue.)

The scheme has the support o the Coordi-nating Committee o Indigenous Organizationso the Amazon Basin (Coica), which sees it as a

way to infuence [companies] to improve theirpractices in our territories, in Latin America

and around the world, says Jhon Wajai, Coicasliaison with Equitable Origin.

Some experts argue voluntary eorts arenot enough. To have a positive impact, bestpractices have to become minimum standards,says Carlos Soria, senior policy specialist orthe WWF in Peru. There must be regulations.

At the conerence, ormer U.S. InteriorSecretary Bruce Babbitt said governments andlenders should require certain practices, suchas oshore-inland oil and gas development.

Barbara Fraser

Lima, Peru


6/12December 2

EcoAmrica

6

Under Brazils radar, illegal logging aboundsCenterpiece

workers in slave-like conditions. Settlers drove some o the lging equipment out to the road leading to the settlement and hthem in the orest not ar rom their houses so that the loggcompany could not come back and reclaim them, as has happen

elsewhere in the Amazon. (Ibama has impounded the vehiclesThe episode underscores the diculty o curbing il legal lging in Brazils Amazon region. With distances vast and regulatpersonnel spread painully thin, even orest dwellers committo conservation oten nd that the only way to save their wolands is to play a dangerous, de-acto enorcement role.

We have to have people, men and women, guarding tentrance to our settlement day and night, another o the comunity members says. Its the only way we can stop the loggicompanies rom invading our settlement and stealing our timbIts dangerous work and we shouldnt have to do it. Its the govements responsibility. But i we dont stop the timber compani

there will be nothing let in ten years time and ochildren wont have a uture.

Virola-Jatob and its sister sustainable-develment-project settlement, Esperana, were set upthe initiative o Sister Dorothy Stang, a U.S.-born n

who was gunned down in the eastern-Amazon sto Par in 2005. Stang, 73 at the time o her deaallegedly was killed or opposing logging and raning interests as she advocated or settlers engagin sustainable use o the rainorest. (See Factorpeople into Amazon conservationEcoAmricMarch 05.)

Sister Dorothy saw that logging companwere beginning to take over the region, so she hthe idea o setting up a series o sustainable-develment projects right in the heart o the orest to st

them, says Father Amaro Lopes, the Catholic priin Anapu. Her idea was to settle small armers 100-hectare plots. They would be able to clear oth o their land [as Brazilian law al lows] while rest would become a orest reserve.

Virola-Jatob and Esperana were created public land, destined or agrarian reorm. Howevsome landowners were claiming part o the land, a

one o them was convicted o paying a gunman to kill Stang whshe was visiting Esperana in 2005.

Although the idea was not taken up elsewhere in the Amzon as Stang had hoped, the rst two settlements are rmly estlished. Both have internal divisions, with some amilies keenaccept payments oered by logging companies in exchange

allowing illegal cutting on their land. Other amilies, howevare more committed than ever to the course Stang charted. FbLoureno de Souza, a settler in Esperana who is building a nhouse or himsel and his amily, is one o these. We need to kethe loggers o our land because they wreck the orest, he saWe can earn enough to sustain our amilies by planting cac

which brings in a good price, and keep our orest reserve intacThe confict with big landowners and logging compan

continues to simmer. Just like Virola-Jatob, Esperana has a stry box, but residents ear that loggers will resort to violenceget their way. Says Father Amaro: Ive heard several times that landowners have oered gunmen R$25,000 (US$12,000) to kme and even more to kill some o the community leaders. Th

Outside this rainorest town in the Brazilian state o Par, 180amilies engaged in a sustainable-development project called

Virola-Jatob have been doing their best to stop loggers romdestroying their settlements orest. Taking turns to man a sen-

try box day and night, residents monitor the dirt track that linksVirola-Jatob to the Transamazon Highway.The challenge, though, is daunting. Their settlement occu-

pies 32,345 hectares (125 square miles)a vast expanse that isalmost entirely orestand illegal loggers have clandestinelycleared their own track to gain access. At the end o Septembersome amilies began to hear the unmistakable roar o skidders andtree-harvesting equipment at the back o their settlement. Theydiscovered loggers were beginning to ell valuable timberpar-ticularly ip, or Brazilian walnut (Tabebuia spp.), a highly prizedhardwoodwith the idea o carrying it o by barge along a tribu-tary o the Amazon River.

A small group o the settlers decided to act. Seven o them,accompanied by three ocials rom Brazils ederal land-reormagency, the National Colonization and Agrarian Reorm Institute(Incra), conronted the loggers.

We drove by jeep as close as we could, and then we walkedall day through the orest, guided by the sound o the machines,

says one o the men, a armer who, like other residents, did notwant to give his name or ear o reprisals. We slept in the orest,and then early the next morning we conronted them. We wereall scared, as we thought they might have armed guards protect-ing them.

As it turned out, there was no violence. There were onlyworkers, not bosses or armed guards, and they seemed even morerightened than we were, he said. They shouted Dont shoot!and immediately handed over the keys to their machines. Theyeven shared their lunch with us.

The next day, an ocial rom Ibama, the enorcement arm othe Brazilian environment ministry, arrived and ned the loggingcompany or cutting without government permission and holding

Anapu, Par state, Brazil

Illegally felled timber at the Virola-Jatob sustainable-development-project settlement


7/12December 2012


oered R$50,000 ($24,000) or a gunman to assas-sinate Sister Dorothy and someone did it.

In 2009 a plaque was nailed to a tree closeto where Stang was murdered, paying homage tothe martyrs who have died in the struggle or thepreservation o the orest and agrarian reorm inthe Amazon. Within a ew days, the plaque wasriddled with bullets.

Further to the west, in the settlement o RioTrairo, amilies are trying to take Stangs idea a

step urther by avoiding logging even on a legal,sustainable basis, and living on the sale o productssuch as nuts and oils that they collect rom the or-est. They, too, are acing serious conficts with log-gers. The settlement was not ocially created untilthe late 1990s, and by then logging companies wereterrorizing the region.

The loggers arrived in 1994, explains Deris-valdo Moreira, known as Dedel, the leader o thissettlement. We were already there but Incrahadnt yet made the settlement. The loggers wantedalmost all o us to leave, but we said we wouldnt go. In the endan accommodation was reached, with the loggers agreeing thatthe settlers could take over a band o land, three kilometers (two

miles) wide, beside the Trairo River.For many years there was an uneasy truce, but in 2007 the

settlers, most o whom are Catholics, began to discuss the Cath-olic Churchs theme or that yearFraternity and the Amazon.

With the encouragement o a Catholic nun, Sister ngela Sauzen,they decided that they should start changing the way they armed.

As one o the settlers, Miguel Padre, put it: It ell into our headsthat we should be planting trees, not destroying them.

This is how their project Sementes da Floresta (Seeds o theForest) was born. All the amilies come rom the northeast o Brazil, and until then they had conducted slash-and-burn agriculture

in which they clear orest, burn it and plant subsistence crops onthe temporarily enriched soil. It was not easy or them to starthinking o the orest as a resource they should protect. Theyreceived visits rom members o traditional river communitiescalled ribeirinhos, who have made sustainable use o the oresor many decades, and some o them visited nearby towns to taketechnical courses on the subject.

Today they walk condently through the orest, identiyingtrees. Thats the copaba tree [Copaiera paupera], says DedelWeve learned how to make a small slash in the trunk, collect theoil and then ll in the hole so the tree recovers. They are collecting the oil or medicinal and cosmetic uses. They also make oirom Brazil nuts and rom the seeds o various tree species. Theyhave had diculty meeting the quality standards o beauty-prod

uct makers, their main customers, and are struggling with thebureaucracy o setting up a community-owned company through

which they hope to manage their venture.Their most serious concern, however, is the hostility o ille

gal loggers. The settlers want to annex a large area o orest neatheir settlement or the Seeds o the Forest project, but the loggers see this as a direct challenge. Dedel and others have beenapproached by groups o men while working in the woods andhave been told to halt the Seeds o the Forest initiative or takethe consequences. In October, loggers elled timber with anexport value o at least US$60,000 in Miguel Padres plot whilehe was away doing a course in sustainable orest managementEcoAmricas saw the area that had been cut shortly aterwardsand stopped Miguel Padre as he was driving back to his plot on a

motorbike with his wie and two o his six children, to give himthe bad news.

The logging companies are keen to maintain control in theregion because they are making huge amounts o money. Indeedillegal logging is so common that even loggers in the town oUruar said o the record that they did not know a single loggingcompany that was not skirting the law.

Signs o illegal activity abound. Traveling in the region, oneroutinely sees trucks loaded with valuable timber and displayingno number plates as they leave indigenous reserves or protectedareas. At night these trucks arrive at the timber yards in Uruarand unload their cargo. During the day trucks with number plates

Anapu

Encampment used by workers in an illegal logging operation in Irm Dorothy settlement

To help curb illegal logging, two sustainable-development settlementsEsperana andVirola-Jatobwere set up in Par state atthe urging of Dorothy Stang, a U.S.-born nunwho was later gunned down. Virola-Jatob

Esperana

Transa

mazon

ianHig

hway

RioXi

ngu

On the front lines

BRAZIL

A common sight: truck wi thout license plate, and loaded with contraband timber


8/12December 2012

carrying sawn planks o timber, each with anidentication tag as required by law, leave the

yards. How does the transormation happen?The scam is simple. To get Ibamas permis-

sion to extract timber, landowners must present

the agency with a Plan or Sustainable ForestManagement that includes an inventory o treespecies on the property as well as a sustainable-logging plan. Once the plan has been approved,

which generally occurs without the inventorybeing checked by authorities, the landownerreceives what are popularly known as loggingcredits. Loggers prize these credits, whichthey use to make illegal timber look legalaprocess known as heating the timber.

Many settlers in the region report thatloggers bully them to drat sustainable-orest-

ry plans, even i they have no timber on theirland, so the loggers can buy the resulting cred-its. Others say that loggers have come to theirsettlement and promised to build bridges,

maintain roads and erect schools i the com-munity gave them credits. As the state otenails to provide these basic public services,such oers can be tempting.

The harm caused by illegal logging otenis not detected by the governments satellite-based deorestation monitoring systems, themost nely ocused o which captures clearedareas o 6.25 hectares (15 acres) or bigger.Thats because rather than clear cutting, ille-gal loggers oten ell only the most valuabletreesa orm o selective cutting with a strongemphasis on economic value and very littleconcern or environmental stewardship.

The orest, while not devastated, can beseriously degraded as a result. A visit to theIrm Dorothy settlement, an area awaiting des-ignation as a sustainable-development project,underscores how illegal logging o this kindis occurring on a huge scale. Dozens o tracksbranch o a road built unlawully by the log-gers, with scores o urther tracks leading othe eeder roads, each with a so-called espla-nadea level piece o ground where timber iscollected beore it is transported out. The log-ging area resembles a secret town, yet the bulko it is nevertheless screened by orest canopy,

so the damage being done is not captured bythe governments satellite monitoring systems.

Juan Doblas, who analyzes digita l geo-graphic data or the Socio-Environmental Insti-tute (ISA), a leading Brazilian environmental

organization, used the GPS coordinates EcoA-mricas had taken at the site and carried outa detailed analysis on the basis o satelliteimages rom August 2012. He detected nineareas, totaling 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres),that showed serious degradation. This damageis not included in the Brazilian governmentsannual Amazon deorestation igures, how-ever, because none o the clearings exceeded6.25-hectare minimum reported in the govern-ments monitoring system.

Though not as damaging in some waysas slash-and-burn clear cutting, selective log-gingparticularly the illegal variety, which

oten is not ollowed by the reorestationrequired under Brazilian lawhas worrisomeconsequences. Gregory Asner, a Stanord Uni-

versity proessor o environmenta l ear th sys-tem science, and other scientists conducted astudy to gauge the impacts o selective loggingoperations in the Brazilian Amazon rom 1994to 2004. In a 2006 paper published in the U.S.

journal Proceedings o the National Academyo Sciences, his team concluded that at least76% o all harvest practices resulted in high lev-els o canopy damage sucient to leave orestssusceptible to drought and re.

On-the-ground observation such as that

carried out by EcoAmricas in Par state sug-gests that in areas along the Transamazon High-

way, a great deal o such damage is being doneto the rainorest, much o which will not berefected in gures generated by Brazils satel-lite monitoring systems.

Those systems tell a story o recent suc-cess. According to the governments latestannual report, 4,655 square kilometers (1,798sq. miles) o rainorest was elled during the 12months that ended on July 31. Though thats anarea the size o Rhode Island, its a ar cry romthe 27,700 square ki lometers (10,700 sq. miles)o orest loss reported during the same period

in 2003-04.In Par state, settlers say illegal loggers

have moved steadily west along the Transama-zon Highway and doing great harm to the or-est. Says Dedel: The teams the loggers sendin dont care how much damage they do. I wedont stop the loggers, they will kill the orest.

Dedels mother worries that her sons out-spokenness will cost him his lie. Says his moth-er: I cant sleep at night or ear that Dedel, theoldest o my children, will be killed.

Susan Branford and Maurcio Torres

EcoAmricas

8

continued from page 7

Contacts

Gregory AsnerDepartment o Global EcologyCarnegie Institutionor ScienceStanord, CaliorniaTel: (650) [email protected]

Juan DoblasAnalyst

Socio-Environmental InstituteAltamira, Brazi lTel: +(55 93) [email protected]

Bullet-riddled memorial to slain forest-preservation activist s


9/12December 2012

EcoAmricas

Contacts

Ricardo BaiteloEnergy CampaignerGreenpeace Brazil

So Paulo, BrazilTel: +(55 11) [email protected]

Richard CharterSenior FellowThe Ocean FoundationBodega Bay, CaliorniaTel: (707) [email protected]

Renato de Freitas MachadoFederal ProsecutorRio de Janeiro, Brazil

Tel: +(55 21) [email protected]

Raphael MouraChie o operational saetyand the environmentNational Oil Agency (ANP)Rio de Janeiro, BrazilTel: +(55 21) [email protected]

Gisele PortoFederal ProsecutorRio de Janeiro, Brazil

Tel: +(55 21) [email protected]

Eduardo Santos de OliveiraFederal ProsecutorFederal Prosecutors OiceCampos de Goytacazes,Rio de Janeiro state, BrazilTel: +(55 22) [email protected]

Fbio ScliarDirectorEnvironment Division

Federal Police inRio de Janeiro stateRio de Janeiro, BrazilTel: +(55 21) [email protected]

Rafael WilliamsonChie o Corporate AairsChevron BrazilRio de Janeiro, BrazilTel +(55 21) [email protected]

Spill settlementcontinued from page 1

said, pointing out that the accord calls orinvestments in improved capability to monitorseafoor areas and collect spilled oil.

In the rst Chevron spill, which occurredin November 2011, 3,700 barrels escaped

rom seven ocean-foor ssures, each roughly250-meters (820 eet) long, near a Chevronexploratory well. In the second spill, in March2012, small amounts o oil seeped rom a hal-mile sea-foor ssure near the rst spill site.

Chevron took responsibility or bothspills, the irst o which was caused by anunderground blowout that ractured the oceanbottom, according to the National Oil Agency(ANP). A small amount o oil is escaping romthe two sets o ssuresa total o about 40liters a day, the ANP saysand Chevron is col-lecting it in underwater receptacles.

Raphael Moura, the ANPs head o opera-

tional saety and the environment, said at thehearing that his agency is now reviewing newsaety and operating procedures proposed byChevron or its oshore oil operations.

Transocean, Chevrons drilling operatorand a deendant in the two lawsuits, must signthe agreement, even though the ANP absolvedit o any responsibility in the spill because it

was executing Chevrons dr ill ing plans whenthe leakage occurred, Moura said. The agree-ment also must be endorsed by the ANP andIbama, the Environment Ministrys enorce-ment arm. Ibama has yet to send ederal pros-ecutors its nal impact assessment.

Fines unaffectedIbama and ANP have ned Chevron R$60

million (US$29.7 million) and R$35.15 million($17.4 million), respectively, or the Novem-ber spill. (See Agency moves to close book onChevron spill,EcoAmricas, Sept. 12). Thesettlement will not aect the nes, ocials say.Chevron is seeking a reduction o the Ibamane, and has resolved the ANP ne by puttingup R$24.6 million ($12.1 million), thanks to anearly-payment discount.

Rio de Janeiro state ederal prosecutorRenato de Freitas Machado says that while pros-

ecutors could make a counter-proposal, Chev-rons settlement oer is a serious one, andshould help us soon reach a settlement. On thediscrepancy between the R$40 billion in dam-ages prosecutors sought and the R$311 mil-lion Chevron oered, de Freitas Machado says:The R$40 billion was an excessive amount notbased on acts, and was set by a ederal pros-ecutor no longer involved in the case, evenbeore the ANP and Ibama had done investiga-tions and led reports on the accident.

Eduardo Santos de Oliveira, the ederalprosecutor who led the original lawsuits and

set the R$40 billion damage gure (R$20 bil-lion or each suit), disputes that view. Chev-rons R$311 million proposal is its attemptto minimize the environmental harm it did,especially its having ractured the sea foor

and damaged its geological structure, Santosde Oliveira says. I ederal prosecutors acceptthis small settlement oer, it will send othercompanies a message that they will only belightly punished or the oshore spills theycause. This could result in their not taking thesaety precautions needed to avoid spills.

Santos de Oliveira says a Jan. 2012 ederalruling transerred the case rom his oce, inCampos de Goytacazes, the city closest to thespill, to the state capital o Rio de Janeiro. The

judges ruling removing me rom the case wasbased on his understanding o one law sayingthat when an accident has a regional impact, a

civil lawsuit in connection to it must be ledin the capital o the state where it occurred,he says. I led the two lawsuits based on myunderstanding o another law which said thata lawsuit must be led in the city closest to

where the accident occurred.

Damages faultedFbio Scliar, director o the environmen-

tal division o the Federal Police in Rio deJaneiro state, whose initial investigation o thespill was used by Santos de Oliveira to le therst lawsuit, says that the R$40 billion in dam-ages initially sought by the ederal prosecutor

involved was likely a negotiating strategy, [but]not one meant to result in the R$311 millionsettlement oer by Chevron, an amount I eelis too low i you consider the environmentaldamages o the spillcracked sea foor, severalthousand barrels o oil likely covering it, andoil still leaking rom the ssures.

Says Richard Charter, a senior ellow atthe U.S.-based Ocean Foundation: The hugemonetary discrepancy between the R$40 bil-lion in damages sought by prosecutors and theR$311 mill ion that Chevron oered to settle thecase indicates that it will likely get a nancialslap on the wrist or a major spill. This wont

likely caution Chevron or other oil companiesin Brazil to be more serious about saety.

The proposed settlement has no bearingon a criminal lawsuit led in March by ederalprosecutors charging 17 Chevron and Trans-ocean executives and engineers with environ-mental crimes and harm to public patrimonyin connection with the November 2011 spill,prosecutor Porto said at the hearing. A ederalcourt judge has not yet heard the case, whosepenalties carry prison terms o up to 31 years.

Michael Kepp


10/12December 2012

EcoAmricas

10

Climate talkscontinued from page 1

ContactsDoug BoucherDirector o ClimateResearch and AnalysisUnion o Concerned Scientists

Washington, D.C.Tel: (202) [email protected]

Glenn HurowitzSenior Fellow on Forest Policy

Center or International PolicyWashington, D.C.Tel: (202) [email protected]

No developing country will have inter-national verication o its actions, especial-ly i theyre national policies, Luiz AlbertoFigueiredo, an environmental specialist withBrazils oreign ministry, said at the meeting.

Well have a system to check the accuracy oour data, done domestically.The disagreement over REDD was not the

only disappointment or Latin America at theclimate summit. Doha conerees gave anothereight years o lie to the Kyoto Protocol, whichotherwise would have expired at the end o this

year. But the proposal to create a new mecha-nism that would compensate island nations andother vulnerable countries or loss and dam-age rom storms, typhoons and other extreme

weather events related to climate change ailedto gain traction. The United States stronglyresisted, earing such a mechanism would

expose it to liability claims. A negotiator romBarbados reportedly walked out o a meetingon the issue with tears in his eyes. The par-ties to the summit nally agreed to take up theissue again in 2013, with no decision on howsuch a mechanism might be unded.

Help not on wayThe lack o action on a loss-and-damage

mechanism did not just disappoint Barbadosand other Caribbean island countries. It also

was a blow to Central American nations suchas Honduras and Nicaraguathe worlds rstand third most vulnerable countries to climate

change, respectively, according to the GlobalClimate Risk Index 2012. Myanmar ranks sec-ond according to the index, which is compiledby the German nonprot group Germanwatchbased on deaths and damage resulting romextreme weather events over the past 20 years.

Setbacks or the Green Climate Fundwere another disappointment. Created as aconduit or donations to vulnerable nations,the Fund was supposed to deliver US$100 bil-lion annually by 2020 or climate goals includ-ing adaptation to climate change. Ater outlayso $30 billion rom 2010 to 2012 under a ast-track scheme, the und is essentially empty.

Moreover, new commitments o $6 billionrom European countries at Doha will be insu-cient, experts say, to help nations in Latin

Amer ica and the Caribbean gird their coasts,reorest watersheds and take other actions.

The worlds major emitting countries arereally leaving Latin America and other climate-

vulnerable regions without anything close tothe support they need to address climate changeand protect themselves rom its impacts, saysGlenn Hurowitz, a orestry expert at the non-prot Center or International Policy in Wash-ington, D.C. It is a symptom o the deeper lack

o commitment to climate action by the UnitedStates and China in particular.

Still, inaction on REDD ranked as a majordisappointment or Latin America. Amid ear-lier optimism, the region in recent years has

received hundreds o millions o dollars romthe UN, the World Bank and donor nations orprojects and institution-building in connection

with the orest-conser vation strategy. Thoseinvestments have appeared to pay o. Brazil,

which created an Amazon Fund in 2009 toreceive donor money, has reported decreasesin its deorestation rate as a result o economicactors, stronger enorcement andin part,some experts sayREDD programs.

Global market neededNonetheless, with no international mar-

ket system in place to implement REDD, most

Latin American nations are being rustratedin their eorts to save orests on a large scale,experts say. Thus ar, REDD markets have beenorming at the national and sub-national level.

Austra lia, or example, wil l initiate a nationalcompliance market or emissions reductions in2015, and is expected to include unding o or-eign REDD projects as one o the ways pollut-ers can acquire carbon credits. Caliornia alsooresees importing REDD credits to its statecap-and-trade program, which begins to oper-ate in 2013. But neither o those markets com-pares in size to the European Union EmissionsTrading Scheme, which accounts or the bulk

o trading in emissions allowances worldwideand does not allow REDD programs.

The Caliornia market is really importantas an initial example o how a market might

work, but the quantities are very small and myimpression is that thats going to be the case or

Australia too, says Doug Boucher, director oClimate Research and Analysis at the nonprotUnion o Concerned Scientists.

That leaves voluntary markets, in whichindividuals, rms and organizations voluntarilyoset their emissions, oten to garner goodpublicity. Voluntary markets have generatedtens o millions o dollars in recent years or

orest-conservation in Latin America, whichreports the greatest number o such projectso any region. That said, though, Latin Americalast year saw a 52% decline in the volume oorestry-related carbon credits it contracted tosell compared to the year beore, says ForestTrends, a Washington D.C. nonprot. Expertsdoubt that the market downturn, related part-ly to the lack o an international complianceregime into which voluntary credits could beincorporated, is likely to reverse itsel soon.

Steven Ambrus


11/12December 2012

EcoAmricas

Around the Regioncontinued from page 2

rst hal o 2013. He believesthat simultaneously, the sys-tem will initiate trading oCRA utures contractslegalguarantees that a landowner

with registered proper tywill sell CR As at a price setin the contract once he orshe receives the credits.

Purchase o CRAs is not theonly means the Forest Codeprovides or normalizing ille-gally cleared land. The lawalso allows owners o suchproperty to legalize theirlandholding by registering itand agreeing to replant it withtrees over a 20-year period.

But Walter De Simoni, super-

intendent o green economyat the Rio de Janeiro StateEnvironmental Secretariat,considers the CRAs an easier

way out or armers who havecleared more orestland thanis legally allowed. Says DeSimoni: [Its] an attractivealternative to ripping out hiscrops and losing his earningsrom them, and then replant-ing trees on that cut land, anexpensive and time-consumingmeans o legalizing it.

A study cited by BVRio esti-mates our million propertieshave been cleared in excess oForest Code limits to the tuneo 30 to 60 million hectares(75 to 150 million acres).

Because o the huge num-ber o landowners who haveillegally cut their property andbecause buying CRAs will l ikelybe much cheaper than replant-ing trees on that land, especial-ly crop land, there should be abig demand or CRAs and CRA

utures contracts, says PatrickFunaro, head o South Ameri-can commodities with Natixis,a French investment bank.This should make their pricesattractive enough to encour-age landowners with surplusuncut property to sell CRAs.Follow-up: Pedro Moura Costa, Execu-tive President, BVRio, Rio de Janeiro,Brazil, +(55 21) 3596-4006, [email protected] ; Walter De Simoni,Rio de Janeiro state Superintendent of

that in 2010, or example, thecity disposed o 2.1 billionmetric tons o solid wastedouble the target set or that

year in the Zero Waste law.

This year, the law calls orthe city to send no more than750 million tons o trash tothe landll, a quantity thecity surpassed in April.

Tired o the citys brokenpromises and concernedthat the current landll willbecome so bloated it mightcollapse, Buenos Aires Prov-ince Governor Daniel Scioli

vowed publicly to prohibit theentry o trash shipments romthe capital into his province.

My patience has a limit, andthe landll does, too, Sciolitold reporters last month.

On Dec. 12, the city andprovince signed an agreementin which the ederal capitalpledged to cut the solid wasteby 78% in a year and a hal.The accord has won applauserom green advocates, but theapproval has been accompa-nied by doubts about the citysability to meet its terms.Aside rom making a dra-

matic trash-reduction pledge,the city agreed that the pro-

vincial government couldvalidly reuse entry totrash trucks rom the capitali the capital doesnt meetits trash-reduction goals.

The timeline established inthe agreement calls or thecity o Buenos Aires to reducethe monthly tonnage it sendsto the landll rom 6,000 cur-rently to 5,400 in January 2013;4,280 in March; 4,150 in July;

3,350 in November o nextyear; and 1,350 by June 2014.

The rst step, city ocialssay, will be next monthsstart-up at the landll site oa mechanical biological treat-ment plant (MBT). The plantis slated to receive 1,000 tonso reuse a day, separatingout and treating the reusableorganic materialabout 600tons dailyto produce com-post. Some o the compost will

Green Economy, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,+(55 21) 2332-5791, [email protected]. Patrick Funaro, head ofSouth American Commodities, Natixis,So Paulo, Brazil, +(55 11) 3027-5926,

[email protected].

Buenos Aires pledgesmajor trash reduction

In early 2004, the state-owned company that handlessolid-waste disposal or the

Argentine capital concludedthat the landll in the sur-rounding province o Buenos

Aires where it dumped thecitys trash was just a ew

years shy o reaching capac-ity. So the company, Ceamse,solicited private bids or theconstruction o a new landllelsewhere in the province.

Ceamse soon learned thehard way how public con-cern about the environmentalimpacts o waste disposalhad grown strong in Argen-tina. The request or propos-als fopped: not one bid waspresented because none othe private companies inter-

ested in building a landllcould nd a community will-ing to host the project.

Now we need to think aboutalternatives, said Carlos Hurst,Ceamses president at the time.We know that these wontappear in the short term, andthe system, unortunately, willcontinue in crisis. But theresno magic to this. We have todo something with the trash.There are times when thisproblem is not understood.

Hursts analysis still holdstrue. In 2005, the Buenos Airescity legislature approved a Zero

Waste law that establishedambitious reuse-reductiontargets aimed at reducing thecitys solid-waste-disposalneeds. Since then, though, anear total lack o ollow-up anda period o economic growthhave driven the citys trashgeneration up, not down.

Government gures show

be used to cover the landllsdaily layers o deposited trash,replacing the dirt that cur-rently serves that purpose.

Environmental groups com-

plain the citys plan lacksdetail, and some o them saythey suspect municipal o-cials might be planning tomove to incineration, whichthe city has prohibited asa means o solid-waste dis-posal or over two decades.

The MBT plans tend to bethe initial step toward incin-eration, says Juan Carlos

Villalonga o The Greens oun-dation, an Argentine environ-mental organization that signed

a joint statement on the subjectwith other green groups here.This is not a viable optionsince it generates emissions

with toxic substances thataect the environment, and itinvolves a waste o resources.

The Buenos Aires municipalgovernment also announcedthat in 2013 it will start up twoplants that together will pro-cess 1,800 tons o constructiondebris daily or reuse in otherorms. The city also plans to

open two plants in 2014 thatwill boost processing o organ-ic waste by 2,000 tons daily.Though details on these plantsare scant, ocials say they willproduce compost and biogas.

City ocials insist that theprocessing plants, coupled

with the removal o 250 tons orecyclable materials a day romthe solid-waste streamthanksto a new trash-separation pro-gramwill cut Buenos Airess

volume o landl l-bound trash

to 1,350 tons daily by mid-2014.Follow-up: Carolina Diotti, Press of ficerthe Greens Foundation, Buenos Aires, Ar-gentina, +(54 911) 5891 9632,[email protected]; Federico Sangalli, Pressofficer, Environment and Natural Re-sources Foundation (Farn), Buenos Aires+(54 11) 4312-0788,[email protected], Karina Seraf ino, CommunicationsDirector, City of Buenos Aires Ministry ofEnvironment and Public Spaces, BuenosAires, +(54 11) 4342-6003, ext. 209,[email protected].


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p, 4: el salvador sopesa prohibición minera

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