–Mexico: 11) UN designation likely won’t help save the Butterfly forest
–Brazil: 12) Limiting Soy when its value is rising? 13) Saving the edible heartwood of the Juçara palm, 14) Stora Enso found to be criminal in courts again, 15) Economy vs. environment conundrum, 16) What the forest minister resignation means, 17) Palm Oil Barons plan to take over Brazil, 18) Nature reserves are being thoroughly ransacked,
–Ecuador: 19) Site of Greatest Bat diversity ever being studied, 20) New constitution recognizes rights for nature and ecosystems!!!!!

Articles:

Mexico:

11) Environmentalists fear the decision to list Mexico’s wintering grounds of the Monarch butterfly as a U.N. world heritage site may do little to halt deforestation that threatens the butterflies. UNESCO bestowed the global landmark distinction Monday on the Monarch reserve, a series of mountain forests west of Mexico City where the butterflies spend the winter after migrating thousands of miles (kilometers) from the United States and Canada. “The listing isn’t going to produce results unless there is an integral plan for the reserve,” Mexican environmentalist Ivan Restrepo said Tuesday. “I hope this serves as a wake-up call and doesn’t just serve as an advertisement.” The Mexican government says it has turned the corner in defending the dense fir forests that shelter the Monarchs from the winter cold. Ernesto Enkerlin, Mexico’s commissioner of natural protected areas, said the deforestation problem today is confined to a few small farming communities that account for about 6 percent of the 139,000-acre (56,259 hectare) reserve. It is mostly in those areas that the reserve continues to lose about 100 hectares (247 acres) of trees per year. He acknowledged “it’s a disaster” in the problem communities where much of the land is clear-cut, but said trees are starting to grow back in the rest of the reserve, where local residents are cooperating. “We are entering into a new phase of the Monarch butterfly reserve, one of recovery,” Enkerlin said. Boundary disputes, indigenous issues and local rivalries are also making it difficult for authorities to work in those areas, he said. Enkerlin acknowledged that illegal logging was so bad at the reserve three years ago that if authorities had proposed it World Heritage status, “we would have gotten absolutely nowhere.” http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/08/america/LA-Mexico-Butterflies.php

Brazil:

12) The price for soybeans is soaring as more and more soy is being used to replace petroleum. These days you’ll find the flexible bean in everything from plastics to gasoline. With increased demand comes increased pressure on farmers to plant soy wherever they can – and even places they’re not supposed to, like Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest. That’s why a new agreement to ban soybeans grown in the rainforest could play a big role in preserving the region. The moratorium removes the farmers’ economic incentive. Lindsay Allen of Greenpeace helped broker the deal. So how does this moratorium work? ALLEN: Well the moratorium works by ensuring that there isn’t new deforestation in the Amazon for soy and it sets in place the monitoring mechanisms so that the big traders like Cargill, ADM, and Bunge can know that the soy they’re getting and sending to market isn’t coming from farmers who have deforested. GELLERMAN: Well what’s in it for Cargilll and ADM and the other companies to observe this moratorium? ALLEN: It’s their economic interests because before we announced the moratorium we released a report called “Eating up the Amazon.” And it was essentially a case study that walked from soy in the hands of the farmers to the hands of Cargill, Cargill would then send it to Europe to be animal feed, and those animals were then going into McDonalds’ chain of custody. So the pressure that we were able to exert on McDonalds they in turn exert on Cargill. And knowing that deforestation of the Amazon not only is devastating to biodiversity but it also has an impact on climate change, given Brazil is the fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, McDonald’s has European customers who refuse to buy Amazon soy. GELLERMAN: Well why now? I mean these farmers have been cutting down the forest to grow food for years. What’s the impetus for the action now? ALLEN: Well we’ve seen a huge surge of soy moving into the Amazon and while logging and cattle-ranching are still greater threats, this expansion of soy was a reason for us to say, “We can stop this now and we can put in place a moratorium that really protects the biome,” while setting a precedent. So as we see biofuels expand, as European customers came to understand that animal-based products being fed to animals causes mad cow we see an increase desire for soy in the international markets and that’s what’s really driven this expansion. http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=08-P13-00028&segmentID=8

13) The juçara, a palm tree in danger of becoming extinct due to over-exploitation of its edible heart, is beginning to recover thanks to sustainable management by the Afro-Brazilian communities of the Atlantic tropical forest, Brazil’s most deforested biome. “I began cutting palm at age seven with my father, the first ‘palmiteiro’ of Eldorado,” says Antonio Jorge, now 63, and a student of social sciences through a university distance-learning programme. “We did it out of necessity and lack of knowledge,” he admits. But, since 1990, he said, they have been planting juçara instead of cutting it in order to use only its edible bud, the heart, or palmito, which is in high demand on the market. This turnaround occurred in recent years in the Brazilian communities that descended from African slaves in the Ribeira river valley, a basin of 28,306 square kilometres between two industrial cities in the south, São Paulo and Curitiba, and which constitutes the largest preserved area of the Atlantic tropical forest, a coastal ecosystem that has already lost 93 percent of its tree cover. These communities are known as “quilombolas”, emerging from the former “quilombos”, enclaves of blacks who escaped slavery and fought for their freedom in centuries past. A project of the non-governmental Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA) buys juçara seeds gathered by the quilombolas at 1.87 dollars per kilogramme for cultivation in their own lands. In Ivaporunduva, the oldest quilombo in the valley, 13 youths and adults climbed two hills on Jun. 26 carrying sacks full of seeds on their backs to plant in the forest. It was a “mutirão”, an indigenous word used today to describe any community effort that is exceptional and voluntary. Planting has to take place in forested areas because the juçara, whose scientific name is Euterpe edulis martius, needs shade in its early lifetime, and patience, because it takes about eight years to produce fruit and a good palm heart. Silvestre Rodrigues da Silva, a 63-year-old father of five, contributed 250 kg of seeds gathered by his family for the “mutirão”, earning 468 dollars. He was lucky to have preserved hundreds of palms near his house. “I never imagined that their seeds could produce this money. For me, the juçara was just beauty and bird food,” he said. Some communities are growing seedlings in nurseries as another source of income. They are also discovering the benefits of the fruit, whose pulp has nutritional value similar to that of the açaí, an Amazonian palm of the same family that has already conquered a large market share as an energy source. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43164

14) The world’s top paper and board maker Stora Enso said on Friday its associated firm, Veracel of Brazil, would appeal against a court decision which said it had no valid deforestation permits. Stora said a decision issued by a federal judge in Bahia, originating from a claim in 1993, said Veracel’s permits are not valid and no environmental impact assessment study was undertaken for the licensing. Veracel was at the time accused of having deforested a 64 hectares area of native forest. “According to the decision, 47,000 hectares of Veracel’s current plantations should be cut down and reforested within one year with native trees,” Stora said, adding that the decision also imposes a possible fine of BRL 20 million (8 million euros or $12.6 million) on Veracel. But Stora said an environmental impact assessment study was undertaken in 1994-1995 and permits were obtained. It said Veracel disagreed with the court’s findings and planned to appeal. “Veracel vigorously disputes the findings of the court and is analyzing the content of the decision,” Stora said. “The preparation work for possible expansion of Veracel will continue.” http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssPaperProducts/idUSL1126401320080711

15) Overall, a stalwart environmentalist might say that the gains in recent Brazilian federal government policy (PAS and PPCDAM) regarding Amazon conservation do not in any way counter the negative aspects of PAS-related development projects that will inevitably cause deforestation and environmental decline. However, Minister Unger says these projects are necessary to provide economic opportunity in the region, and the rhetoric of the PAS claims innovative technology will be used to conduct such projects with minimal environmental impact. Still, environmentalists correctly argue that any such development is detrimental. Also, it remains to be seen whether the highest degree of technology used for projects will, in fact, have a low environmental impact. Will such technology be available to the projects? And will, as is often the case, technology be sacrificed for cost-efficiency? Recalling the history of Brazilian government culture in the 1970s and 1980s, one encounters a Brazilian model of “development” that was environmentally devastating. Governor Blairo Maggi (a controversial figure at the forefront of debate on the Amazon paradox) noted in a speech in Washington on June 10, 2008 that government programs at the time promoted exploitation with no regard to environmental cost. Maggi added, however, that attitudes have changed including his. The lack of past awareness of the environmental impact of development in the 1970s and 1980s was reminiscent of similar ignorance in U.S. history in various eras of frontier life when people falsely sensed that they lived in a land of endless bounty. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00290.htm

16) The Brazilian president is confronted with a difficult set of circumstances made evident by the bitter debates within Lula’s administration, which came to a head with the May 13 resignation of the dejected Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva. Although it is difficult to anticipate how Brasília’s current measures will affect deforestation in the Amazon, the most important ecological initiative of Lula’s six-year tenure thus far has been the Plan for a Sustainable Amazon (PAS). The document was originally signed in 2004 and later enhanced in 2007, but its implementation only began this year. It is characteristically more pro-economic development than pro-environmental preservation. However, the PAS and related initiatives such as the 2004 Plan of Action for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAM) could potentially slow deforestation by designating new areas as nature reserves, combating illegal logging and farming, and eradicating falsified land deeds throughout the region. Overall, Brasília deserves some applause for developing a policy that responds to the international outcry against deforestation. Unfortunately, the needs of a growing economy and agricultural sector, in concert with high commodity prices, conflicts markedly with environmental groups’ unwavering commitment to preserving the region crucial to the survival of mankind. For some critics, Minister Silva’s resignation, coupled with new reports of increasing rates of deforestation, signify a lack of progress in the Brazilian government’s modest crusade to conserve the Amazon. Silva had been considered the essential spokesperson within Lula’s administration for the environmental movement. Her six-year tenure as Minister of the Environment was littered with tough battles against powerful agribusiness and development interests that ultimately would destroy the Amazon, the area where she was raised as the daughter of rubber-tappers. To understand Silva’s ouster, one must take into account the way Brazilian politics function. The country’s political system is a complex, relational game of corporatism at every level and Lula’s cabinet is no exception. The enormous executive branch currently contains more than 35 ministries–and is known for its non-stop inter-ministry feuding. These ministries, when not given the leeway to work autonomously, fight for the ear of the president on nearly every issue. When dealing with a controversial issue like Amazon conservation, it is easy to see how Silva was overwhelmed by other ministers’ promotion of development and business in the region. http://ranforestpower.blogspot.com/2008/07/contemporary-efforts-to-address-amazon.html

17) Malaysia’s Land Development Authority FELDA has announced plans to immediately establish 100,000 hectares (250,000) of oil palm plantations in the Brazilian Amazon. The agency will partner with Braspalma, a local company, to form Felda Global Ventures Brazil Sdn Bhd. FELDA will have a 70 percent stake in the venture. “As a start, 20,000ha in Tefe will be opened for oil palm planting. After that, between 3,000ha and 5,000ha will be opened yearly,” said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. “Felda wants to emulate Petronas as a global player,” he added, referring to Malaysia’s national oil company. Wednesday’s announcement had been expected. Last month Najib said Malaysia would seek to expand its booming palm oil industry overseas. The country is facing land constraints at home. Accordingly, Felda chairman Tan Sri Mohd Yusof Noor said the agency had been offered 105,000ha in Papua New Guinea, 45,000ha in Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and 20,000ha in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The establishment of oil palm plantations in the Amazon will be seen by environmentalists as a new threat to the world’s largest rainforest. Presently little commercial palm oil is produced in the region due partly to the traditional nature of Brazilian farmers and pest concerns, but the entrance of industry-leading Malaysian producers could serve as a model and quickly increase palm oil’s visibility as a viable form of land use. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0709-amazon_palm_oil.html

18) Brazil’s nature reserves, which harbor much of the world’s biodiversity, are grossly mismanaged, underfunded, and often ransacked by intruders, the environment minister said on Tuesday. Nature reserves account for more than eight percent of Brazil’s vast territory, an area equal to the U.S. state of Texas. Brazil also claims to have the world’s largest forested national park, the Tumucumac park in Amapa state with 3.8 million hectares (9.39 million acres). But several of Brazil’s parks, which harbor treasures from the Amazon forest or the Pantanal wetlands, are sanctuaries not for wildlife but illegal loggers, miners and ranchers. Of 299 protected areas, 57 percent have no permanent law enforcement officials, 76 percent have no management plan, and nearly one-third have no manager, an internal study showed. “We discovered a very serious problem and we called the public to show this ecological striptease,” Environment Minister Carlos Minc told a news conference in Brasilia. “The current situation is not sustainable,” he added. In the Bom Futuro or “Good Future” National Park in northwestern Rondonia state, around 1,600 wildcat miners, farmers, loggers, and ranchers are raiding natural resources. In some years the rate of deforestation in protected areas of the Amazon was higher than in unprotected areas, Minc said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7638401

Ecuador:

19) Bats are a remarkable evolutionary success story representing the second largest group of mammals, outnumbered only by rodents in number of species. Now, researchers of the Leibniz-Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin (Germany) and Boston University (U.S.A.) have discovered the place that harbours the highest number of bat species ever recorded. In a few ha* of rainforest in the Amazon basin of eastern Ecuador, the authors have found more than 100 species of bats. Dr. Katja Rex and colleagues captured bats at several biodiversity hotspots in the New World tropics, in the lowland rainforest of Costa Rica, the slopes of the Andes and a site in the Amazon rainforest of Eastern Ecuador, at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station1 located adjacent to the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. During many months of strenuous nightly field work, exposed to rain and mosquitoes, the researchers captured bats, identified species and recorded the total number of each species they captured. Based on these numbers, they calculated the species richness and diversity present in each of these forests. “The forest at Tiputini Biodiversity Station is known as one of the global biodiversity hotspots with extremely high numbers of plant, insect and bird species” explains Dr. Christian Voigt (IZW, Berlin). “We expected a high number of bat species when we started our study, but we were amazed ourselves by our final estimates. This forest is just super diverse in life forms, including bats.” Forests of the temperate zone are regionally inhabited by only 3 to 10 bat species which all feed exclusively on insects. In contrast, tropical forests harbour more than 10 times as many species as temperate forests. Now the researchers want to study how so many bat species manage to coexist together in such a small area. “The forest is like a large city with people of various professions, some are specialised and some are generalists. The ecological role of bats in the forest is quite similar. Among bats we observed dietary specialists and generalists” states Voigt. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080712150148.htm

20) On July 7, 2008, the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly – composed of 130 delegates elected countrywide to rewrite the Ecuador Constitution – voted to approve articles for the new constitution recognizing rights for nature and ecosystems. “If adopted in the final constitution by the people, Ecuador would become the first country in the world to codify a new system of environmental protection based on rights,” stated Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. “Ecuador is now leading the way for countries around the world to make this necessary and fundamental change in how we protect nature,” added Mari Margil, Associate Director of the Legal Defense Fund. Over the past year, the Legal Defense Fund has been invited to assist delegates to the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly to re-write that country’s constitution. Delegates requested the Legal Defense Fund to draft Rights of Nature language for the constitution based on ordinances developed and adopted by municipalities in the United States. The Legal Defense Fund has assisted communities in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Virginia to draft and adopt new laws that change the status of natural communities and ecosystems from being regarded as property under the law to being recognized as rights-bearing entities. These local laws recognize that natural communities and ecosystems possess an inalienable fundamental right to exist and flourish, and that residents of those communities possess the legal authority to enforce those rights on behalf of those ecosystems. In addition, these laws require the local governments to remedy violations of those ecosystem rights. In essence, these laws represent changes to the status of property law, eliminating the authority of a property owner to interfere with the functioning of ecosystems and natural communities that exist and depend upon that property for their existence and flourishing. The local laws allow certain types of development that do not interfere with the rights of ecosystems to exist and flourish. Shireen Parsons, Virginia Community Organizer, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund http://www.celdf.org