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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 11 BRASILIA 001618 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS USAID TO LAC/RSD, LAC/SAM, G/ENV, PPC/ENV 
TREASURY FOR USED IBRD AND IDB AND INTL/MDB 
USDA FOR FOREST SERVICE: LIZ MAHEW 
INTERIOR FOR DIR INT AFFAIRS: K WASHBURN 
INTERIOR FOR FWS: TOM RILEY 
INTERIOR PASS USGS FOR INTERNATIONAL: J WEAVER 
JUSTICE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES: JWEBB 
EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL: CAM HILL-MACON 
USDA FOR ARS/INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH: G FLANLEY 
NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL: HAROLD STOLBERG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAGR EAID TBIO ECON SOCI XR BR
SUBJECT: SOUTH AMERICA ESTH NEWS, NUMBER 79 
 
¶1.  The following is the seventy-ninth in a series of newsletters, 
published by the Brasilia Regional Environmental Hub, covering 
environment, science and technology, and health news in South 
America.  The information below was gathered from news sources from 
across the region, and the views expressed do not necessarily 
reflect those of the Hub office or our constituent posts. 
Addressees who would like to receive a user-friendly email version 
of this newsletter should contact Larissa Stoner at 
stonerla@state.gov.  The e-mail version also contains a calendar of 
upcoming ESTH events in the region. 
 
¶2. Table of Contents 
 
Agriculture 
--(3)Cultivation of Coca Exacts Rising Environmental Cost 
--(4)Colombia: Turn To Transgenics Spurs GM-Free Zones 
--(5)Soybean Boycott in the Amazon Region 
 
Health 
--(6)A hard look at HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean 
--(7)Brazil: Copaiba as Anti-Inflammatory 
--(8)Transgenic Mosquitoes Enlisted in Fight Against Malaria 
 
Protected Areas 
--(9)Chile, Argentina Agree To Create Cross-Border Nature Reserve 
--(10)Colombia: Fire Devastates Nature Reserve 
--(11)Colombia: Malpelo Island Declared a UNESCO World Heritage 
Site 
 
Science & Technology 
--(12)Brazil's Innovation Law: Lessons for Latin America 
--(13)Peru Launches National Plan for S&T 
--(14)Fifth Space Conference of the Americas in Quito, Ecuador 
--(15)Brazilian Researchers Call for Stronger Science Dissemination 
--(16) Peru Approves Biotech Law 
 
Climate Change 
--(17)Bill Clinton Launches City Climate Change Partnership 
--(18)Caribbean: MOU to Help Low-Lying States Adapt to Climate 
Change 
 
Pollution 
--(19)Colombia: Border Closed to Toxic Waste 
--(20)Opening of Chilean Pulp Mill Generates Opposition 
--(21)Argentine Water Supply Faces Uranium Threat 
 
Energy 
--(22)Chile Wind Farms Help Promote Energy Independence 
--(23)Brazil: The Vegetable Oil Revolution - From the Kitchen to the 
Car 
 
General 
--(24)Call for Ecological Integration in Mercosur 
--(25)In Chile, Mapuche score Supreme Court win 
--(26)Brazil: Selective Garbage Collection Expands 
--(27)Brazil: Another Highway Threatens the Amazon 
 
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--(28)Argentina: A Warning on Dune Disappearance 
 
----------- 
Agriculture 
----------- 
 
¶3. Cultivation of Coca Exacts Rising Environmental Cost 
 
JULY 2006 - Coca, the raw material for cocaine, continued to spread 
throughout Colombia in 2005, penetrating into the heart of some of 
the world's most fragile and biodiverse ecosystems, according to 
reports released by two drug control agencies.  Despite the aerial 
fumigation of nearly 346,000 acres (140,000 has), a record high, the 
area covered by coca crops expanded 26 percent in Colombia last 
year, according to a report released in March by the U.S. State 
Department's Office of National Drug Control Policy.  A second 
report, released last month by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime 
(UNODC), estimates the increase at 8 percent.  Drug experts 
described as especially worrisome the spread of coca in the 
northwestern state of Choco, the southeastern department of Vichada 
and the southern department of Amazonas-richly biodiverse regions 
vulnerable to the slash-and-burn techniques of coca growers. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
¶4. Colombia: Turn To Transgenics Spurs GM-Free Zones 
 
JULY 2006 - When leaders from the Zenu Indian tribe, from northern 
Colombia, discovered last year that a government research institute 
was testing genetically modified (GM) corn just 60 miles (100 kms) 
from their reserve, they moved fast.  In August of last year, they 
dispatched tribal representatives to Mexico to consult with Indian 
and peasant leaders about the effects of transgenic corn there. 
Then, in October, they gathered in Colombia and announced they would 
prohibit cultivation of gene-modified crops in their 54,000-acre 
(22,000-ha) reserve, which spans the northern Colombian states of 
Cordoba and Sucre and is home to 17,000 people.  Wearing straw hats 
and holding palm-fiber bags in an open coliseum surrounded by corn 
fields, 300 Zenu leaders also called on authorities to ensure 
gene-altered foods are not transported through Zenu territory or 
introduced through food-aid projects.  They vowed to protect native 
plant varieties and traditional farming techniques. But for the Zenu 
and other Indian and peasant groups in Argentina, Costa Rica and 
Mexico that have banned transgenic crops, larger issues are at 
stake.  Latin America is a center of origin and of biological 
diversity for vital plants including corn, potatoes, yucca, beans, 
tomatoes and cotton.  Maintaining this biodiversity not only guards 
against future crop failures, it also preserves a low-cost form of 
chemical-free farming that for centuries has allowed indigenous 
communities to sustain themselves without harming the environment. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
¶5. Soybean Boycott in the Amazon Region 
 
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JULY 28, 2006 - Multinational soy traders agreed to a two-year 
moratorium on the purchase of soybeans from newly deforested land 
starting in the 2006-07 crop season.  A remarkable feature is that 
even soybeans grown on land legally cleared during this period on 
farms in the Amazon forest zone will not be purchased by these 
traders.  The agreement followed a Greenpeace report claiming that 
the grain's cultivation is responsible for the deforestation of new 
lands in the Amazon.  U.S. distributors Cargill, Archer Daniels 
Midland Co. and Bunge Ltd., as well as France's Dreyfus and 
Brazilian-owned Amaggi are all taking part in the boycott. 
 
Source - BRASILIA   1514 
 
 
------ 
Health 
------ 
 
¶6. A hard look at HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean 
 
JULY 28, 2006 - The devastation the HIV virus is causing in Latin 
America and the Caribbean grabs a fraction of the attention paid to 
HIV/AIDS epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.  But by 2015 the 
region is expected to have nearly 3.5 million people living with 
HIV.  Shared factors such as poverty, migration and homophobia are 
threatening to send these numbers spiralling upwards.  In this 
special set of articles in Science, Jon Cohen describes the 
commonalities and key differences in what is driving the epidemic in 
Latin American and the Caribbean, and how countries there are 
fighting back 
 
¶7. Brazil: Copaiba as Anti-Inflammatory 
 
JULY 29, 2006 - A study conducted by University of Sao Paulo's 
Ribeirao Preto science department has certified the 
anti-inflammatory properties of the copaiba plant (Copaifera 
officinalis).  In testing on mice, this tree native to the tropical 
regions of Latin America and Western Africa presented 
anti-inflammation properties twice as strong as diclofenac sodium, a 
synthetic medication.  To date, copaiba has been used in scents and 
varnishes, but traditional medicine has used it to prevent scarring 
and as an anti-inflammatory. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
¶8. Transgenic Mosquitoes Enlisted in Fight Against Malaria 
 
JULY 15, 2006 - Brazil's Rene Rachou Research Center has genetically 
modified a mosquito to remove its ability to transmit the parasite 
that causes malaria.  If this mosquito can reproduce in nature, and 
replace the original disease-carrying mosquito, it would help 
control a disease that affects 300 to 500 million people each year 
-- 90 percent in Africa -- and claiming one million lives annually. 
Luciano Andrade Moreira, head of the research that began in 2003 at 
the Rachou Center, learned the technique when he studied for his 
 
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doctorate degree in the United States, and applied it to Brazilian 
mosquito species -- the first project of its kind in a developing 
country.  But this will not be the definitive solution to the 
malaria problem, which requires a combination of different 
strategies, including the conventional ones, like improved medical 
assistance and sanitation, and a reduction in the number of 
mosquitoes, he admitted.  Similar studies are under way at the 
University of Sao Paulo, but focus on dengue -- another 
mosquito-borne disease. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
--------------- 
Protected Areas 
--------------- 
 
¶9. Chile, Argentina Agree To Create Cross-Border Nature Reserve 
 
July 27, 2006 - The governments of Chile and Argentina signed an 
agreement to create a 4.7-million-hectare cross-border nature 
reserve to be known as the Andean-North Patagonian Biosphere 
Reserve.  The signatories were from Chile's 10th Region, Argentina's 
Chubut and Rio Negro Regions, Argentina's National Parks 
Administration, and its National Agricultural Technology Agency. 
Argentina will contribute 2.37 million hectares of territory to the 
reserve, while Chile will provide 2.29 million hectares, all of 
which has already been designated as park or reserve land.  The 
Argentine Parks Authority will present an appeal to the United 
Nations Education Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) in March 
2007 for recognition of the area as a world nature reserve. 
 
Source - Xinhua News Agency.  Kindly shared by US Embassy Santiago. 
 
¶10. Colombia: Fire Devastates Nature Reserve 
 
JULY 15, 2006 - Colombia's environmental authorities have declared 
an ecological disaster as a result of the fires in the 
central-western nature park of Los Nevados that destroyed some 5,000 
of the park's 58,000 hectares.  Former environment minister Juan 
Mayr told Tierramerica that the case is worrisome because the park 
acts as a big water plant in the central Andes mountains, where 
rivers are formed that are essential to the main coffee-growing 
areas of Colombia.  "We will look at all formulas of access to the 
international community -- economic and scientific -- to accelerate 
the recovery of these areas," said the current minister of 
environment, Juan Lozano.  Lozano noted that it could take at least 
50 years to fully recuperate the areas destroyed by the fire. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
¶11. Colombia: Malpelo Island Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site 
 
JULY 12, 2006 - The Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, located in 
the Colombian Pacific Ocean, 506 km to the west of Buenaventura, has 
been declares a Natural World Heritage Site.  The decision was made 
unanimously by the 21 member countries of the World Heritage 
 
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Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural 
Organization (UNESCO).  The island of Malpelo is now the second 
protected area in the country with this prestigious title, with Los 
Katios National Park as the first declared in 1994.  One of 
Malpelo's most outstanding aspects is that it is one of the two 
places in the world with confirmed sightings of the sandtiger shark 
(Odontaspis feroz), a deepwater shark locally known as "the 
monster." Additionally, large aggregations of pelagic species, 
including the large aggregations of more than 200 hammerhead sharks 
(Sphyrna lewini), more than 1,000 silky sharks (Carcharhinus 
falciformis), whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), and tuna (Thunnus 
spp.) have been observed around the island. 
 
Source - UNESCO 
 
-------------------- 
Science & Technology 
-------------------- 
 
¶12. Brazil's Innovation Law: Lessons for Latin America 
 
AUG. 03, 2006 - Innovation is now widely acknowledged as an 
essential tool for development.  Other nations would do well to 
learn from the political challenges that Brazil's new legislation 
has unearthed.  Last week, the five member countries (and five 
associate members) of the Latin American trade pact Mercosur agreed 
to work closely to boost trade, create jobs and reduce poverty.  In 
doing so, they injected new life into an organization that was 
created as the Latin American equivalent of the European Union, but 
has since struggled to get off the ground.  Closer technological 
cooperation and a common desire to boost innovation are seen as 
central to this bid for regional integration.  It is expected that 
Mercosur countries - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela 
and their associates - Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru - 
will set up a program for science, technology and innovation. This 
would promote links between research institutions and private 
companies. 
 
Source - SciDev 
 
¶13. Peru Launches National Plan for S&T 
 
JULY 25, 2006 - The GOP announced its plan for science, technology, 
and innovation until 2021.  Scientific issues of interest are: 
biotechnology, genomics, materials science, environmental science, 
and information and communications technology for small and medium 
business enterprises.  The budget for the national plan is USD36 
million, of which USD25 will come from the Interamerican Development 
Bank.  According to the press report, half of this budget will be 
spent on aquaculture, textile industry, and agricultural industry. 
The final goal of the plan is to increase investment in innovation 
and development from 0.1 percent of the country's GDP to 0.7 percent 
by 2021. 
 
Source - SciDev 
 
 
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¶14. Fifth Space Conference of the Americas in Quito, Ecuador 
 
JULY 24, 2006 - The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) participated in the 
Fifth Space Conference of the Americas in Quito, Ecuador, July 
24-28.  According to the report, Brazil aims to strengthen 
partnerships with other Latin American countries, especially 
Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Venezuela.  Brazil has already made 
images from its CBERS satellites available, at no cost, for all 
Latin American countries and is in the process of discussing 
cooperation with other countries in sharing its Laboratory for 
Integration and Tests (LIT/Inpe), which is used for building 
satellites. 
 
Source - Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology 
 
¶15. Brazilian Researchers Call for Stronger Science Dissemination 
 
JULY 23, 2006 - During the 58th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian 
Society for Science Advancement, scientists called for long term 
advances in the dissemination of science issues in the country. 
According to the report, the Ministry of Science and Technology 
allocated USD3.6 million for projects that disseminate scientific 
issues.  Nearly 20,000 people were at the meeting, which was held in 
Florianopolis July 16-21. 
 
Source - SciDev 
 
¶16. Peru Approves Biotech Law 
 
JULY 17, 2006 - The Congress of Peru approved July 11 a Law of 
Modern Biotechnology.  The new legislation intends to improve 
science and development training in universities, institutions, and 
business entities in Peru as well as promote education on modern 
biotechnology.  The law was criticized by some sectors of society 
for not involving enough public debate during its formulation. 
 
Source - SciDev 
 
-------------- 
Climate Change 
-------------- 
 
¶17. Bill Clinton Launches City Climate Change Partnership 
 
AUG. 03, 2006 - The world's largest cities will work together to 
tackle climate change under a new partnership spearheaded by former 
US president Bill Clinton.  The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), 
launched on 1 August in Los Angeles, United States, will collaborate 
with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group chaired by the mayor 
of London, Ken Livingstone.   The partnership aims to reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency through a 
business-oriented approach - providing advice and technical 
assistance to 22 of the world's largest cities, including Buenos 
Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Delhi, Dhaka, Johannesburg, Mexico City and 
Sao Paulo. 
 
 
BRASILIA 00001618  007 OF 011 
 
 
Source -  SciDev 
 
¶18. Caribbean: MOU to Help Low-Lying States Adapt to Climate Change 
 
Aug. 06, 2006 - A memorandum of under-standing (MOU) has been signed 
between the Caribbean Community (Caricom) secretariat and the 
Climate Change Centre in the region to help small islands and 
low-lying coastal states adapt to climate change. Mainstreaming 
Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC) is a USD10.9M project financed 
by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Caricom member sates, the 
Government of Canada, and the Government of the United States 
through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  Guyana 
and 11 other countries are participating, namely, Antigua and 
Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, 
St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and 
Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
Source - Stabroek News.  Kindly shared by US Embassy Georgetown 
 
--------- 
Pollution 
--------- 
 
¶19. Colombia: Border Closed to Toxic Waste 
 
JULY 29, 2006 - Colombia will not import toxic or nuclear waste, 
according to a resolution by the Environment Ministry.  Environment 
chief Juan Lozano said the measure adopted July 21 "confirms that 
Colombia will not be able to import any type of dangerous waste, 
unless there is assurance of an industrial treatment process that 
mitigates all threat to the life and health of Colombians." 
Ecologist Carlos Escobar, adviser to the Environmental Corporation 
of the Atlantic, stated that the measure will help resolve a problem 
whose true scope has not yet been realized.  Citing the United 
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and reports from the 
Attorney General, Escobar said that in Colombia there are at least 
5,400 tons of toxic waste buried or poorly stored -- equivalent to 
nearly half the total for all of Latin America. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
¶20. Opening of Chilean Pulp Mill Generates Opposition 
 
JULY 2006 - Wine growers, farmers, fishermen and thousands of other 
residents in Chile's Itata Valley, located in south-central Chile 
near the city of Chillan, are protesting the expected start-up next 
month of one of the world's largest pulp mills.  The Nueva Aldea 
pulp project also is drawing fire from green groups.  Last month, 
Greenpeace organized a road blockade to protest the USD1.5 billion 
mill, prompting Chilean Interior Minister Andres Zaldivar to 
threaten the expulsion from Chile of Argentine, Brazilian and 
Uruguayan activists involved.  Itata residents fear the mill will 
pollute their valley's air as well as the waters of the Itata River, 
threatening their livelihoods and health.  In part, their concerns 
arise from the sheer volume of output expected from the facility. 
Owned by the Chilean company Celulosa Arauco (Celco), the mill is 
 
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designed to produce 856 million tons of pulp a year.  Opponents cite 
the record of another pulp mill owned by Celco near the southern 
Chilean city of Valdivia. Authorities closed the Valdivia mill 
temporarily last year-just 15 months after it had opened-when they 
determined its discharges had contaminated a wetland reserve and 
caused a die-off and exodus of rare black-necked swans. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
¶21. Argentine Water Supply Faces Uranium Threat 
 
JULY 29, 2006 - Water intended for human consumption may have been 
contaminated by the Ezeiza Atomic Center.  Experts from the 
International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization 
and local authorities will conduct a new assessment.  Argentine 
judicial authorities are investigating cases of uranium 
contamination around the Ezeiza Atomic Center, in Buenos Aires 
province.  The first complaint reached the judicial branch in 2000, 
when residents of the area sounded the alert about possible 
"poisoning" of the water supply with uranium, and blamed the nuclear 
facility for the potential health consequences for the nearby 
population.  The center admitted to uranium contamination in two 
areas -- Campo 5 and Trincheras -- but assured that steps were taken 
to remedy the situation in one case, and that it is in the process 
of resolving the other.  The area alleged to be affected involves 
three districts of Buenos Aires province: Ezeiza, Esteban Echeverria 
and La Matanza -- with a combined population of 1.6 million people. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
------ 
Energy 
------ 
 
¶22. Chile Wind Farms Help Promote Energy Independence 
 
AUG. 02, 2006 - Even though [president] Bachelet's announcement that 
Chile will aspire to be completely energy independent within two 
years did not focus specifically on the wind energy alternative, 
groundwork has already been laid by private and university groups 
who will most certainly lobby to make wind energy an important part 
of Chile's energy independence effort.   The town of Coyhaique in 
southern Chile, for example, could provide a glimpse into what an 
energy independent future would be like.  There, three immense wind 
generators provide for the energy needs of 19,000 families in Region 
XI.  "Alto Baguales" is the only industrial scale wind farm in 
Chile, but that number may multiply as businesses and researchers 
scope out new sites from Arica to Puente Arenas.  Juan Walker, a 
representative of the Danish company Vestas that manufactured the 
three generators, is optimistic about Chile's wind energy future: 
"Chile has the potential to produce 5,000 megawatts of wind energy 
within a timeframe of ten to twenty years," he said.  Vestas plans 
to set up 50-megawatt wind farms in Regions IV and VII beginning 
¶2008.  Still, in comparison with countries like Germany, where 
16,500 wind farms produce five percent of the country's energy, 
 
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these wind farms will not do much to significantly address the 
nation's energy needs. 
 
NOTE: US Embassy Santiago has kindly shared a series of article 
related to a recent FAO conference on agroenergy and biofuels, held 
in Santiago July 26-28.  If you are interested in reading them, 
please contact Larissa Stoner. 
 
Source - Santiago Times (no link) 
 
¶23. Brazil: The Vegetable Oil Revolution - From the Kitchen to the 
Car 
 
JULY 24, 2006 - Brazilian energy parastatal Petrobras recently 
publicized the development of a new diesel fuel, H-Bio, further 
bolstering Brazil's already prominent position in the world of 
biofuels.  A hydrogenated synthesis of petroleum and vegetable oil, 
Petrobras is touting the social, environmental and economic benefits 
of the fuel as well as its capacity to reinforce Brazil's energy 
independence.  Industrial tests of H-Bio began on June 20, and the 
company expects commercial/industrial production to commence by the 
end of 2006.  While certain obstacles still merit attention, H-Bio 
fits into Petrobras' long-term emphasis on green fuel development. 
 
Source - BRASILIA   1480 
 
------- 
General 
------- 
 
¶24. Call for Ecological Integration in Mercosur 
 
JULY 29, 2008 - Argentine environmentalists have proposed that the 
countries of Mercosur take a regional focus for drafting policies 
that involve their shared natural resources.  For the first time, a 
forum of civil society organizations met in parallel to the Mercosur 
Summit, held July 20-21 in the central Argentine city of Cordoba. 
"The environment does not understand borders. Natural resources are 
shared and so is responsibility for their management," Cecilia 
Iglesias, an activist with the Environmental Network, told 
Tierramerica.  The Network and other environmental groups 
participating in the parallel forum also called for regulating the 
activities of highly contaminating industries, harmonizing 
environmental protection standards amongst the Mercosur members, and 
ensuring access to public information on related issues. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
¶25. In Chile, Mapuche score Supreme Court win 
 
JULY 2006 - The high court ruled that Aguas Araucania, a regional 
water company privatized in 2004, violated environmental laws by 
failing to conduct an environmental-impact study (EIS) and a public 
hearing before starting to build a sewage plant in the Araucania 
Region.  It ordered the company to stop work on the 80,000-gallon 
(302,000-liter) -per-day plant, which is adjacent to Mapuche land, 
 
BRASILIA 00001618  010 OF 011 
 
 
until it has an approved impact statement.  And it concluded that 
the project, still in its early stages, might threaten the Mapuches' 
health and right to live in a clean environment, as well as "their 
freedom to practice religious ancestral rites..."  Though the court 
ruling may not be the last word in the case, for Rivera and other of 
southern Chile's Mapuche Indians, it marks a step forward in their 
cause to combat what they describe as environmental racism. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
¶26. Brazil: Selective Garbage Collection Expands 
 
JULY 15, 2006 - The number of Brazilian communities with systems of 
selective garbage collection has increased 38 percent, according to 
a new study by CEMPRE, a business organization that promotes 
recycling.  The southeastern cities of Porto Alegre, Curitiba and 
Santos are some of the 327 that already have this recycling service 
in place, and which reaches 25 million Brazilians.  CEMPRE director 
Andre Vilhena [believes] the social commitment in Brazil is greater 
than in developed countries, so its model for selective collection 
of waste materials is being exported to other developing countries. 
CEMPRE has been studying collection of recyclable urban waste since 
1994, when just one percent of all waste in Brazil was being 
recycled. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
¶27. Brazil: Another Highway Threatens the Amazon 
 
JULY 15, 2006 - Brazil's Ministry of Environment proposes creating 
10 conservation areas along the route of highway BR-319, which will 
connect the Amazon cities of Porto Velho and Manaus.   The aim is to 
plan an "organized" occupation of the land, with farm regulation and 
a government presence to prevent deforestation, [according to] 
Mauricio Mercadante, the ministry's director of protected areas. 
The proposal will be discussed at public hearings in six cities of 
the region in the next couple weeks.  The imminent paving of the 
route has environmentalists worried -- they see it as a threat to 
Amazonian ecosystems of vast biodiversity.  "We will only accept it 
if they ensure protection of indigenous lands and small farms, and 
benefits for other populations," as well as an environmental impact 
study, said Adilson Vieira, coordinator of the Amazon Working Group, 
a network of 600 local organizations. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
¶28. Argentina: A Warning on Dune Disappearance 
 
JULY 15, 2006 - Sixty percent of the sand dunes have been lost in 
the last 35 years because of increased human activity in the eastern 
Argentine city of Puerto Madryn, on the Atlantic coast, says the 
Patagonia Natural Foundation.  Gabriela Degorgue, head of the study 
presented July 7, stressed that the dunes "give an identity to the 
landscape, but they also play a fundamental role in preserving the 
beach; they protect the cost from erosion and are habitat for unique 
 
BRASILIA 00001618  011 OF 011 
 
 
species."  "Without protection measure in the short term, there is a 
risk that there won't be any dunes left to protect," she said, 
urging an end to construction on the beach, restrictions on heavy 
machinery, and installation of special routes to reach the resorts. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
Sobel