I write on environmental, health, safety and consumer protection issues in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). I'm the author of a book on wastes and recycling in LAC. I serve as moderator for the Environment Forum on DR1.com and as the leader of a "team blog" on Dominican environment issues, The Green Team. I speak/write Spanish & Portuguese, love merengue, salsa & samba, futbol, Presidente beer and Bahian cuisine.
TemasEtUnam Temas Note: This announcement is interesting to me for at least four reasons. First, as the title says, this is the largest biofuel loan package yet made by a multilateral development bank (MDB). [I doubt that record will stand, and probably will not even stand for very long.] Second, it underscores IDB’s commitment to, and enthusiasm for, biofuels in general and Brazilian sugarcane ethanol in particular. Third, the Bank appears to be using itself to attract private capital to... Read Full Story
TemasEtUnam In a recent post on the growing list of international carbon finance sources available to nations of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), I mentioned the new Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) recently created by the World Bank designed to combat deforestation and climate change at the same time. The Facility essentially will help developing countries get credits for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through avoided deforestation and degradation, known as REDD... Read Full Story
TemasEtUnam Last month the World Health Organization (WHO) released, without much fanfare, Safer Water, Better Health, its estimate of how many deaths or how much “disease burden” can be attributed to deficiencies in water, sanitation and hygiene (WSH).
Access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation is key to improving health conditions in developing countries. Water-related diseases bring diarrhoeal and parasitic diseases, and lack of sanitation increases the risk of outbreaks of... Read Full Story
If you lived any time at all in the US, you doubtless have heard/seen and remember well (maybe even fondly) the public service ads (PSAs) of the character "Smokey Bear" (some say "Smokey the Bear") telling you, Joe Citizen, in that deep baritone of his that only YOU can prevent forest fires (nowadays he says "wildfires" instead of forest fires). Those ads were effective, making people very aware that most forest fires are caused by humans and thus preventable. The Need to Get the Word... Read Full Story
As we noted in our last entry on reefs, 2008 is the International Year of the
Reef, and the DR has some beautiful reefs well worth protecting that are confronting some serious stress. Why should you care about reefs? Two years ago we did a
series which explored why
they are important, what the specific
pressures DR reefs are facing, what
you can do to help, and what are recommended good,
reef-friendly practice (in Spanish) for divers
and snorkelers
(you can get the English versions of the... Read Full Story
TemasEtUnam Recently Costa Rica was presented its long-awaited Solid Waste Plan (PRESOL) by the entities belonging to the Inter-Institutional Platform of the Competitiveness and Environment Program (CYMA): the Health Ministry (MinSalud), the Planning Ministry (Mideplan), the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the Institute for Municipal Development and Advice (Instituto de Fomento y Asesoria Municipal - IFAM - the body representing the country’s municipalities), the Chamber of... Read Full Story
TemasEtUnam From the World Bank:
Brazil: Improved Living Conditions and Employment Generation for over 40,000 Poor Urban Families in São Luís
Project to promote city competitiveness and upgrade housing and sanitation in one of the Brazil’s poorest states
The World Bank approved yesterday a loan of US$ 35.6 million for the São Luis Enhancing Municipal Governance and Quality of Life Project. The project will directly promote better living conditions for the 230,000 inhabitants of São Luís... Read Full Story
TemasEtUnam From the World Bank:
Haiti: World Bank Approves US$1.6 Million Grant to Prevent Avian Flu
The World Bank Board of Directors approved a US$1.6 million grant for the Republic of Haiti to respond to the risk of Avian Influenza infection by engaging in prevention, surveillance, reporting, mitigation and response measures.
“This project aims to confront the threat posed by Avian Influenza infection to the poultry sector, and to prevent a potential human influenza pandemic,” said Yvonne... Read Full Story
TemasEtUnam Last week the group representing Colombia’s palm oil business, the National Federation of Palm Oil Growers (Federación Nacional de Cultivadores de Palma de Aceite - Fedepalma), announced their adherence to the Principles and Criteria of the Zurich-based Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
The RSPO arose from a concept first proposed by WWF in 2001. After discussions with palm oil trader Aarhus United, the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA), Sainsbury’s and Unilever... Read Full Story
