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BRAZIL: Sugarcane Alcohol Tarnished by U.S. Maize Ethanol
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Recent efforts by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to clearly mark the difference between Brazilian ethanol and the agrofuels produced by the United States are an admission that signing an agreement with Washington to promote a global bioethanol market was a serious political mistake, say analysts.
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ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Controversy Over Indigenous Land and Biofuels
By Mario Osava
BRASILIA - The legal status of an indigenous territory in the far north of Brazil, and biofuels, are two hot potatoes at the Third National Conference on the Environment being held in the capital city, which is focusing on climate change.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Indians Speak Out Against Carbon Markets
By Haider Rizvi*
UNITED NATIONS - International policymakers are facing fierce criticism from leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples over plans to use carbon markets as one of the tools to mitigate climate change.
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DEVELOPMENT-BRAZIL: Activists Opposed to Rebuilding Amazon Highways
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Nearly four decades after they were first planned, three highways through the jungles and swamps of Brazil’s Amazon region are being rebuilt. Neglected in the past when they became economically obsolete, they are once again a focus of environmental criticism.
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LATIN AMERICA: Reconciling Oil and the Environment
By Humberto Márquez*
CARACAS - Years of public scrutiny, ever-newer technologies, more government regulations, notions of corporate responsibility and the market-driven need for greater efficiency are all factors behind improvements in the environmental policies of Latin America's petroleum industry.
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BRAZIL: Amazon Ghost Highway to Be Brought Back to Life
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO - BR-319, a road blazed 35 years ago through the heart of the Amazon jungle and now impassable due to neglect, has sparked a new battle between environmentalists and the Brazilian authorities, who have decided to rebuild it.
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BRAZIL: Growing Foreign Appetite for Land
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - It is a question of "national sovereignty, not xenophobia," said the president of Brazil’s land reform agency, INCRA, explaining the need to regulate foreign land ownership in Brazil.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Brazilian Ethanol Goes It Alone
By Mario Osava*
BRASILIA - Despite the urgency to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, Brazil has been unable to stave off the doubts that are slowing the growth of an international market for plant-based biofuels.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Lula Calls for Flexibility from Rich Countries
By Mario Osava
BRASILIA - Industrialised nations must live up to their Kyoto Protocol commitments and be flexible in trade negotiations in order for the world to make progress towards solutions to climate change and to prevent the poor from being steeped in poverty for a long time to come, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Thursday.
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LATIN AMERICA: Deforestation Still Winning
By Diego Cevallos*
MEXICO CITY - Never before have Latin America and the Caribbean fought so hard against deforestation, say experts and government officials, but logging in the region has increased to the point that it has the highest rate in the world.
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RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Recovering Guaraní Traditions
By Mario Osava*
DOURADOS, Brazil - Until the visitor runs across a large "house of prayer" that confirms the area's indigenous character, this place in the central-western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul looks like any other rural district, with the ramshackle housing highlighting the widespread poverty.
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RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Pantanal Indians Threatened by Deforestation
By Mario Osava*
CAMPO GRANDE, Brazil - The indigenous peoples of the central-western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul do not look like the tribes portrayed in film, decked out in colourful clothing and adornments and depending on their natural surroundings to survive in the Amazon jungle. But some of their problems are similar to their Amazonian counterparts, and in some cases even more serious.
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ENVIRONMENT-PERU: "For Sale" Signs in Amazon Jungle
By Milagros Salazar
LIMA - The Peruvian Congress plans this week to debate a draft law pushed by the government that would authorise the sale of vast tracts of deforested, uncultivated land in the Amazon jungle to private companies that invest in "reforestation" efforts.
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PERU: Logging Firm Accused of Using Workers’ Identities for Tax Fraud
By Milagros Salazar
PUCALLPA, Peru - Impoverished local residents of the Amazon jungle town of Orellana in Peru have filed a complaint against a logging company for using their identity documents to commit tax fraud in illegal timber sales worth more than 200,000 dollars.
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WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Diversity, a Birthright Waiting to Be Recognised
Analysis by Mario Osava
CAMPO GRANDE, Brazil - For many people, the World Social Forum (WSF)’s influence and effect is waning, perhaps because it has outpaced public opinion and the dominant political processes, but not the real needs of the times, which require complex and urgent solutions.
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The Amazon in RSSLand of myths and plunder, the Amazon is the Earth's largest tropical forest, and holds 20 percent of all plant and animal species. Flowing in the mighty Amazon River is 18 percent of all freshwater entering the oceans worldwide. In addition to the region's rich biodiversity are riches in minerals and fossil fuels.

The Amazon is home to dozens of indigenous cultures, with an array of languages and traditions, as well as other extractive communities and even large cities. Agricultural expansion, mining and mega-dams are a threat to the forest and its peoples. If current rates of deforestation continue, by 2050 the Amazon will have lost more than 30 percent of its forests, and the planet will suffer the climate changing consequences.

News in RSS
BURMA: Junta Holds Referendum in Cyclone Aftermath
CLIMATE CHANGE-CUBA: Prized Wetland in Danger
LEBANON: Hezbollah, In Opposition, Takes Charge
POLITICS-BOLIVIA: Morales Bets All or Nothing
BURMA: Junta Does U-Turn on Relief Aid
EUROPE: Stealth Lobbyists Creep In
PERU: All-Out War on Remnant of ‘Shining Path’ Guerrillas
BRAZIL: Sugarcane Alcohol Tarnished by U.S. Maize Ethanol
DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: "Political Will" Needed To Address Food Crisis
PERU: Highlands Families Work to Save Their Birthright - the Potato
More >>
News in RSS
THE WORST DISASTER IN AMAZON HISTORY - SO FAR
by Lucio Flavio Pinto
The massive spill of kaolin clay waste by the French multinational Imerys on June 11 in Barcarena, Brazil, is the largest environmental accident yet in the Amazon, writes Lucio Flavio Pinto, director of the Jornal Pessoal (Personal Diary), which denounces corruption, impunity, and the economic and ecological consequences of the exploitation of the Amazon.
more >>
SAVE THE AMAZON, SAVE THE EARTH
by Leonardo Boff
Brazil today is being pulled between the need for economic growth and the need to preserve its natural resources, which is especially critical with regard to the Amazon, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and writer.
more >>

Brazil's MST - Landless Workers' Movement
Via Campesina - International Peasant Movement
Amazon Watch
AIDESEP - Peru's Indigenous Amazonian Development Federation
Brazil's National Amazon Research Institute
CONAIE - Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
Global Forest Coalition
CATIE - Tropical Agricultural Research Centre
FAO's State of the World's Forests 2007
FUNEDESIN - Sustainable Development Foundation in Ecuador
Rainforest Action Network
Rainforest Alliance
Rainforestweb.org

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