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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 17 BRASILIA 000877 
 
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 FOR NPS: JONATHAN PUTNAM 
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 110 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  001.2 OF 017 
 
 
¶1.  The following is the one-hundred-tenth 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.  NOTE: THE NEWSLETTER IS NOW 
ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE BRASILIA INTRANET PAGE, BY CLICKING ON THE 
'HUB' LINK. 
 
¶2. Table of Contents 
 
Agriculture 
--(3)Stakeholder Group Mulls 'Responsible Soy' 
--(4)Brazil Extends Amazon Soy Ban 
 
Health 
--(5)South-South Cooperation to Fight Child Malnutrition 
 
Forests 
--(6)Brazil Slaps Millions in Environmental Fines on Steel 
Companies 
--(7)Brazil Police Arrest Loggers in Amazon Reserve 
--(8)Brazil to Set Up Amazon Protection Fund 
--(9)Brazil Environment Agency Seizes Amazon Soy, Corn 
--(10)Colombian Drug Cartels Blamed For the Destruction of 
Rainforest 
--(11)Brazil Announces Plan for Sustainable Amazon Development 
 
Fishing & Marine Conservation 
--(12)Guyana Gets Go-Ahead for the Import of Shrimp 
 
Protected Areas 
--(13)Colombia to Add More Land to Its National Park System 
--(14)Oil and Gas Exploration Plans Rile Argentina's Tourist 
Destinations 
 
Science & Technology 
--(15)Brazil Biotech 'Held Back' By Regulatory Barriers 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  002.2 OF 017 
 
 
--(16)Lula Tries To Build South American Antarctic Research Program 
 
Climate Change 
--(17)Scientists Probe Chile's Coast for Climate Change Factors 
--(18)Brazil's Amazon Conservation Efforts worth $100 Billion 
 
Pollution 
--(19)Brazilian Court Ruling Targets Impact Fees 
 
Waste Management & Recycling 
--(20)Argentina Approves Recycled Plastic for Food Containers 
 
Mining & Other Extractive Industries 
--(21)Venezuela Halts Two Gold Mining Projects 
--(22)Guyana, Brazil to Work Closer On Conflict Diamonds 
--(23)World Wildlife Fund Guyana Pushing Safer Mining Practices 
 
Energy 
--(24)Chile to Build Eco-Friendly Dams 
--(25)Sugar Cane Surpasses Hydroelectric Dams in Brazil Energy 
Complex 
--(26)Editorial: Challenges of Installing Wind Power in Chile 
 
General 
--(27)Scientists Monitor Eruption's Fallout in Chile 
--(28)Chile Enviro Groups Give Bachelet Lukewarm Review 
 
----------- 
Agriculture 
----------- 
 
¶3. Stakeholder Group Mulls 'Responsible Soy' 
 
May 2008 - Can agricultural standards be developed voluntarily that 
would make South America's boom in soy cultivation environmentally 
sustainable? A multi-stakeholder group including representatives of 
agribusiness, environmental organizations, the banking industry and 
academia convened in Buenos Aires last month on the theory that such 
an initiative might be possible. "Until recently we thought 
productivity was not compatible with sustainability," Gustavo 
Grobocopatel, a leading Argentine soy producer, said at the April 
23-24 meeting, called The Round Table Conference on Responsible Soy. 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  003.2 OF 017 
 
 
"We discovered the opposite is true." South America has played a 
large part in the expansion of world soy production.  Brazil, 
Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia alone account for more than half of 
the world's soy crop, with production in each of these countries 
increasing at a rate of 10% annually. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
¶4. Brazil Extends Amazon Soy Ban 
 
June 17, 2008 - Grain crushers have extended a two-year-old 
moratorium on the purchase of soybeans planted in areas of the 
Amazon rain forest cut down after 2006. Brazil's environment 
minister Carlos Minc made the announcement together with the 
Brazilian Vegetable Oils Industry Association, a soy industry group, 
as part of a larger effort to regulate land use in the world's 
largest remaining tropical wilderness. The original ban began July 
31, 2006, and was scheduled to end on July 31 of this year. It will 
now remain in effect until July 23, 2009. Minc told reporters in 
Brazil's capital that he would work to fashion similar agreements 
with loggers, slaughterhouses, and steel mills in the Amazon. The 
current moratorium seems to be preventing additional rain forest 
destruction in the name of soy expansion: A study conducted by 
Greenpeace and the oils industry association concludes that no new 
soybean plantations were detected in any of the 193 areas that 
registered deforestation (250 acres or more) during the first year 
of the moratorium. 
 
Source - Miami Herald 
 
------ 
Health 
------ 
 
¶5. South-South Cooperation to Fight Child Malnutrition 
 
May 7, 2008 - Cooperation between Latin American countries, which is 
"cheap, efficient and horizontal", could fast-track the fight 
against child malnutrition, said Nils Kastberg, the regional 
director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), at a 
conference held in Santiago, Chile.  Kastberg called on Latin 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  004.2 OF 017 
 
 
American and Caribbean countries to commemorate the 200th 
anniversary of their independence from Spain in 2010 with a specific 
goal in mind: ensuring that no child is undernourished.  In his 
view, the challenge could be achieved with political will and a 
pan-American spirit, by harnessing South-South cooperation. He said 
indigenous communities and migrants are two of the most vulnerable 
populations that could benefit from South-South cooperation on child 
malnutrition. There have already been experiences of cross-border 
cooperation, where immigrants are covered by the health system, even 
when their status is irregular and of training courses for customs 
personnel. South-South cooperation is a goldmine the region has not 
yet learned to exploit. A continent-wide strategy needs to be 
developed," said Cristina Lazo, executive director of the Chilean 
Agency for International Cooperation (AGCI). 
 
Source - IPS News 
 
------- 
Forests 
------- 
 
¶6. Brazil Slaps Millions in Environmental Fines on Steel Companies 
 
June 13, 2008 - Brazil is imposing US$250 million in fines on steel 
companies caught using charcoal made from illegally logged forests. 
Carlos Minc, the environment minister, said 60 steel companies in 
three states face 414 million reals (US$250 million) in fines and 
must replant about 27,181 acres (11,000 hectares) of forest for 
using the illegal coal.  He said charcoal companies would be fined a 
total of 70 million reals (US$43 million).  Brazil has very few coal 
mines and demand for wood-based charcoal for use in steel mills is a 
major driver of deforestation in the Amazon and other regions. In 
this case, the illegal charcoal came from the Cerrado, a 
savanna-like ecosystem that occupies much of central Brazil, and the 
Pantanal, a huge wetland that extends into Bolivia and Paraguay. 
 
Source -GMA News 
 
¶7. Brazil Police Arrest Loggers in Amazon Reserve 
 
May 29, 2008 - Brazilian federal police arrested at least 40 members 
of an illegal logging operation in an Amazon tribal Indian 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  005.2 OF 017 
 
 
reservation amid growing concern over destruction of the world's 
largest rain forest. The operation cleared the equivalent of 70,000 
football fields of virgin forest in the Vale do Guapore Indian 
reserve in Mato Grosso state, the federal police said in a 
statement. Among those arrested were loggers, highway and military 
police officers, neighboring farmers, and state civil servants. The 
loggers bribed officials of the government's Indian foundation Funai 
and befriended Indians with gifts such as cars, motorcycles and 
chain saws, a Mato Grosso police spokeswoman told Reuters. 
 
Source - Reuters 
 
¶8. Brazil to Set Up Amazon Protection Fund 
 
May 29, 2008 - Brazil's state-run development bank will set up an 
international donations fund for the preservation of the Amazon as 
the country fends off criticism for not doing enough to preserve its 
rain forest. Luciano Coutinho, president of the National Economic 
and Social Development Bank (BNDES), told reporters the first 
contribution was already being negotiated with the Norwegian 
government and could be up to $200 million. The BNDES, which has the 
Environment Ministry's mandate to manage the fund, already has 
credit lines to help companies that respect the Kyoto protocol on 
greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment. Brazilian 
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has dismissed foreign concern 
over Amazon preservation on several occasions in the past few days 
after the resignation of Environment Minister Marina Silva. He said 
countries that had already chopped down their forests and were among 
the worst polluters should not be giving Brazil environmental advice 
or talking about the Amazon as if it belonged to the world. 
 
Source - Reuters 
 
¶9. Brazil Environment Agency Seizes Amazon Soy, Corn 
 
May 21, 2008 - Brazil's environmental agency Ibama seized some 4,740 
tons of soy, corn and rice grown on illegally deforested land in the 
Amazon, as the country struggles with its environmental image 
abroad.  Very little of Brazil's production of grains and biofuels 
occurs anywhere near the Amazon, but the price of beef has risen to 
levels that make ranching in the Amazon profitable.  Loggers, 
shadowy real estate companies, and squatters account for most of the 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  006.2 OF 017 
 
 
illegal deforestation in the region.  With the recent seizure, IBAMA 
agents took over the fields of a farm in the southeast of Para 
state.  Although the owner of 500 hectares (1,235 acres) in the town 
of Dom Eliseu had previously been fined for illegal deforestation, a 
second inspection showed crops were planted there.  The owner was 
fined an additional 8 million reais ($4.8 million). The fields that 
are beginning to harvest contain 1,740 tons of soy, 2,640 tons of 
corn and 360 tons of rice. The owner has 20 days to present his 
appeal in defense against the fine.  The seized soy, corn and rice 
may go toward the government's Zero Hunger program that subsidizes 
food for Brazil's poor. 
 
Source - Reuters 
 
¶10. Colombian Drug Cartels Blamed For the Destruction of Rainforest 
 
May 23, 2008 - Drug cultivation is the biggest cause of 
deforestation in Colombia with 741,000 acres of rainforest cleared 
every year, the country's vice-president has said.  So far, 
Colombia's coca producers have destroyed 5.5 million acres of 
rainforest with slash and burn cultivation.  About half a ton of 
pesticides, fertilizers, sulphuric acid and other chemicals are then 
used to turn every acre of coca into pure cocaine. Francisco Santos 
Calderon, the vice-president of Colombia, stated that the 
environmental "devastation" caused by drug producers had gone 
largely unnoticed.  Colombia's controversial, US-funded policy of 
eradicating coca fields is also inflicting immense environmental 
damage. Last year, the authorities destroyed about 400,000 acres, 
mostly with indiscriminate aerial spraying.  Colombia's peasant 
farmers grow coca alongside normal food crops. Aerial spraying 
destroys everything, forcing them to move to new land and clear more 
forest. 
 
Source - The Daily Telegraph 
 
¶11. Brazil Announces Plan for Sustainable Amazon Development 
 
May 9, 2008 - Brazil's government unveiled new eco-friendly 
development plans for the Amazon rain forest, including low-cost 
loans to farmers and emergency measures to combat illegal logging. 
The Sustainable Amazon Plan will grant farmers 1 billion real 
(US$600 million) loans at 4 percent annual interest, well below the 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  007.2 OF 017 
 
 
country's benchmark 11.75 percent rate, to adopt eco-friendly 
farming methods and encourage reforestation.  In a bid to reconcile 
economic development with conservation, the government is also 
offering food, social security and unemployment benefits to 40,000 
families once involved in logging, as it develops other programs to 
help them find new sources of income. The plan also aims to improve 
Amazon highways and river transport, expand ports and broaden access 
to electricity.  NOTE:  Long-term Planning Minister Mangabeira Unger 
was given the lead of this program, causing discomfort between 
President Lula and Environment Minister Marina Silva and eventually 
leading to her resignation. END NOTE. 
 
Source - Associated Press 
 
----------------------------- 
Fishing & Marine Conservation 
----------------------------- 
 
¶12. Guyana Gets Go-Ahead for the Export of Shrimp 
 
June 05, 2008 - Over the past decade and one half, Guyana has been 
witnessing a thriving shrimp industry. The success of the shrimp 
industry has called for several important measures to be taken 
before the Seabob variety of shrimp could be exported to the United 
States.  In an attempt to save and protect sea turtles, it has 
become mandatory for shrimp trawlers to install The Turtle Extractor 
Device (TED), on their shrimp nets. This device is a safety 
mechanism that prevents the turtles from being trapped in the shrimp 
nets.  Because of the importance of the Seabob market in the United 
States, the Guyana Fisheries Department, Ministry of Agriculture and 
the Guyana Association of Private Trawler Owners and Seafood 
Processors, have been constantly monitoring the wharves where the 
trawlers off-load their catch.  This constant and increased 
monitoring by competent authorities in Guyana has achieved positive 
results for the country's fishing industry, resulting in Guyana's 
re-certification for shrimp exportation to the United States of 
America as of May 1, 2008. 
 
Source -Guyana Chronicle 
 
--------------- 
Protected Areas 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  008.2 OF 017 
 
 
--------------- 
 
¶13. Colombia to Add More Land to Its National Park System 
 
May 2008 - Hoping to curb problems including illegal logging and 
mining, Colombia gave itself an Earth Day gift, announcing it would 
create 11 national parks and expand five existing ones.  Juan 
Lozano, Colombia's minister of the environment, housing, and 
territorial development, says the move will add 370,000 acres 
(150,000 hectares) to the nation's 28.2-million-acre 
(11.4-million-ha) park system and help "guarantee the environmental 
sustainability of the nation".  By the end of 2009, new parks will 
be designated in locations including Portete Bay on the Caribbean; 
the paramos of the Pinche mountains in southwest Colombia; and in 
the Pacific Coast's Malaga Bay, the world's principal breeding and 
calving ground for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeanglaie).  Among 
the five parks to be expanded are two on the Caribbean-Isla de 
Salamanca, a Ramsar site, and Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a Unesco 
World Heritage site that includes the world's highest coastal range. 
Environmentalists call the decision long overdue, citing the damage 
being done to Colombian ecosystems by logging, mining, and the 
voracious expansion of the agricultural frontier. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
¶14. Oil and Gas Exploration Plans Rile Argentina's Tourist 
Destinations 
 
May 2008 - A government call for bids on oil and gas exploration 
near Argentina's oldest national park has touched off debate in 
Bariloche, one of the country's foremost tourist destinations.  At 
issue is a decision by the government of Rio Negro, the Patagonian 
province where Bariloche is located, to include the 
4,000-square-mile (10,000-sq-km) Nirihuau basin among the last of a 
total of 18 oil and gas concessions it has leased since early 2006. 
The province has been looking to attract exploration projects amid a 
decline in Argentine oil and gas reserves that has generated fears 
of domestic energy shortages. The effort has not gone down well in 
the Andean mountain city of Bariloche, where concerns about the 
effects of energy projects on the environment and the tourism 
industry run strong.  A portion of the proposed concession area 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  009.2 OF 017 
 
 
comes within three miles (five kms) of the 1.7-million-acre 
(700,000-ha) Nahuel Huapi National Park, which was created in 1934, 
and lies 16 miles (25 kms) from Bariloche.  All five of the 
principal candidates in Bariloche's mayoral campaign opposed the oil 
and gas exploration, pledging that, if elected, they would ask the 
province to cancel it. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
-------------------- 
Science & Technology 
-------------------- 
 
¶15. Brazil Biotech 'Held Back' By Regulatory Barriers 
 
June 9, 2008 - Brazil has the "building blocks" for an innovative 
health biotechnology sector, but is held back by regulatory barriers 
and poor coordination between the public and private sectors, say 
the authors of a new study.  The authors, from the McLaughlin-Rotman 
Centre for Global Health (MRC), based at the University Health 
Network and the University of Toronto, Canada, used case studies 
from 19 domestically-owned private biotechnology companies and four 
public sector research institutions to draw their conclusions, 
published last week in the June issue of Nature Biotechnology. 
Development of products like vaccines, medicines, and diagnostic 
kits has made considerable progress in Brazilian companies in recent 
years, the authors found.  Products have been developed to deal with 
local health problems that are often ignored by larger international 
pharmaceutical companies (e.g., malaria, Chagas disease, and dengue 
fever). But barriers remain, say the authors.  For example, it can 
take seven years to process patent applications, and there are often 
long delays in the ethics approval process for clinical trials. 
 
Source - SciDev 
 
¶16. Lula Tries To Build South American Antarctic Research Program 
 
May 12, 2008 - Representatives of Brazil and six other South 
American nations met in Rio de Janeiroto discuss a joint strategy 
to pool resources fo research in Antarctica.  According to 
BrazilianScience and Technology Minister Sergio Rezende, th 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  010.2 OF 017 
 
 
meeting aims to "measure the needs" of South American scientists to 
organize a multilateral science program in the South Pole. The other 
six countries which participated in the meeting are Argentina, 
Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and Ecuador. 
 
Source - Folha de Sao Paulo 
 
-------------- 
Climate Change 
-------------- 
 
¶17. Scientists Probe Chile's Coast for Climate Change Factors 
 
June 18, 2008 - An international team of scientists began delving 
into the mysteries of Chile's coastal waters, hoping to unlock the 
secrets of the deep - particularly as they might relate to global 
climate change.  Experts from some of the world's leading research 
universities headed out from the Region II city of Iquique aboard 
the research vessel Armada Vidal Gormaz. The 10-day oceanographic 
cruise is serving as the base for pioneering research in "oxygen 
minimum zones" found only off the coasts of northern Chile and 
southern Peru. These masses of water with extremely low oxygen 
content - and with the microorganisms that inhabit them - could 
serve as a crystal ball for what some ocean waters could be like in 
a warmer world. 
 
Source - Santiago Times 
 
¶18. Brazil's Amazon Conservation Efforts worth $100 Billion 
 
May 29, 2008 - A plan to protect large expanses of the Amazon 
rainforest could reduce carbon emissions by 1.1 billion tons by 
2050, according to a study presented in Bonn, Germany at the UN 
Convention on Biological Diversity. Assessing the carbon stored in 
forests protected under the Brazil's Amazon Region Protected Areas 
Program (ARPA) -- a program created in 2003 that seeks to preserve 
some 40 million hectares of Amazon rainforest by 2012 -- researchers 
at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and the Woods 
Hole Research Center in Massachusetts estimate that areas protected 
by the initiative hold some 4.6 billion tons of carbon. Forecasting 
the expected forest loss if the designated areas were not protected, 
the researchers calculate that the program will avoid some 1.1 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  011.2 OF 017 
 
 
billion tons of carbon emissions. By some estimates, including the 
British government's Stern Review, the emissions reductions could be 
worth more than 100 billion dollars. The Stern Review's estimates 
calculated the long-term cost of one ton of carbon dioxide at $312 
per ton of carbon (using present value of $85 per ton). 
 
Source - Mongabay 
 
--------- 
Pollution 
--------- 
 
¶19. Brazilian Court Ruling Targets Impact Fees 
 
May 2008 - Four years ago, Brazil's leading business lobby - the 
National Industrial Confederation (CNI) - asked the country's 
Supreme Court to overturn a 2000 law establishing environmental 
impact fees for industrial projects, levies that promised to become 
a significant source of conservation funding in Brazil.  In April 
2008 however, the Supreme Court ruled the case and removed parts of 
the statute. Most importantly, it ruled that government authorities 
cannot-as has been their practice-fix a minimum impact fee based on 
0.5% of a project's initial investment, saying this unfairly 
penalizes companies that spend on pollution control. The high court 
said impact fees are allowable if calculated according to each 
project's expected environmental impacts. Analysts agree that this 
could mean delays in the licensing of industrial projects since the 
government must complete and implement a methodology for such 
calculations. And once the methodology is in place, they say, it's 
possible impact fees might wind up higher than they would have been 
under the system of minimum charges used initially. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
---------------------------- 
Waste Management & Recycling 
---------------------------- 
 
¶20. Argentina Approves Recycled Plastic for Food Containers 
 
May 05, 2008 - Argentina's National Industrial Technology Institute 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  012.2 OF 017 
 
 
(INTI) has approved a technique for manufacturing food containers 
from recycled plastic bottles.  The institute advised the Ministry 
of Health in adapting an internationally accepted technology that 
has never been used in Argentina, INTI engineer Alejandro Ariosti 
told Tierramerica.  Now, plastic containers that have been thrown 
out will be sanitized, melted, and sold to be mixed with "virgin" 
materials to manufacture new containers for food and beverages.  In 
Argentina, bottles from soft drinks and cooking oils made with 
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were rendered and used to make 
textiles, but only now has its safety for re-use as food containers 
been proved. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
------------------------------------ 
Mining & Other Extractive Industries 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶21. Venezuela Halts Two Gold Mining Projects 
 
May 2008 - Citing concerns about the environment, small miners, and 
Indian tribes, Venezuela's Environment and Natural Resources 
Ministry on April 30 blocked two large North American gold-mining 
projects in the mineral-rich Imataca Forest Reserve near the border 
with Guyana.  The measure cheered green advocates fearing cyanide 
contamination in the 9.4-million-acre (3.8-million-ha) Imataca 
Reserve, home to five Indian groups and half a dozen important 
rivers. But it irked the mining companies, Canada's Crystallex 
International and Gold Reserve of the United States, which between 
them expected to tap gold deposits totaling nearly 25 million 
ounces.  The conflict between the two mining companies and the 
Venezuelan government reflects the troubled history of the Imataca 
Reserve, with its deposits of gold, diamonds, and copper, and its 
tropical-forest habitat for jaguars, anteaters, and nearly 500 
species of birds. Contradicting his presidential campaign promises, 
President Hugo Chavez in 2004 opened 12% of the reserve to mining 
and another 60% to logging to attract foreign investment. But 
Indians and other locals who worked as small scale miners protested 
that they were being pushed out by multinationals. Protests erupted 
in 2005, when local miners claimed to have been violently evicted 
from the Crystallex concession. In 2005, President Chvez reversed 
course, announcing he would favor small-scale mining cooperatives 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  013.2 OF 017 
 
 
over private companies in granting concessions and would give them 
technical assistance to reduce pollution.  Last month, he took that 
decision to its seemingly logical extreme, stripping the two North 
American companies of mining rights they believed they already had 
won. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
¶22. World Wildlife Fund Guyana Pushing Safer Mining Practices 
 
June 06, 2008 - Even as Guyana's gold mining sector continues to 
attract criticism from environmentalists and host nation lobbyists 
over mining practices considered harmful to the human and physical 
environment, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Secretariat in Guyana 
says that it will continue to collaborate with the Guyana Geology 
and Mines Commission (GGMC), the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners 
Association (GGDMA), the local gold-miners, lobby groups, and mining 
communities to help move the industry towards more sustainable 
mining practices.  Last April WWF met with local miners to sensitize 
them to the impact of mining on the ecosystems, to provide 
information on problems facing the mining comQy, and to work 
collaboratively to develop improved mining practices.  WWF is also 
involved in environmental impact monitoring to determine the effects 
of mining on the environment. "We do a fair amount of monitoring of 
the environment to determine mercury use, suspended solids 
concentrations, and water quality", said WWF representative Rickford 
Vieira.  Meanwhile, the WWF will shortly be providing the Guyana 
Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) with a US$30,000 grant 
to secure the services of a consultant to train miners in how to 
develop tailings facilities to contain mining waste in order to 
prevent the contamination of streams used by the communities for 
domestic purposes. 
 
Source - Starbroeknews 
 
¶23. Guyana, Brazil to Work Closer On Conflict Diamonds 
 
JUNE 06, 2008 - Guyana Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Acting 
Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) 
William Woolford met recently with Brazil's Deputy Minister of Mines 
and Energy Claudio Seliar to discuss the ongoing commitment of the 
 
BRASILIA 00000877  014.2 OF 017 
 
 
two countries to controlling the international trade in conflict 
diamonds.  Guyana and Brazil are signatories to the Kimberley 
Process, a regulatory system backed by the United Nations which 
seeks to track the international production and movement of 
diamonds. The Process stipulates that freshly mined diamonds should 
be sealed in registered containers that certify their country of 
origin and that diamond exporters do not accept unregistered gems 
that might profit insurgents or criminals. 
 
Source - Stabroek News 
 
------ 
Energy 
------ 
 
¶24. Chile to Build Eco-Friendly Dams 
 
May 28, 2008 - Chilean energy company Colbun, in partnership with 
Fondo Independencia, plans to build five small-scale hydroelectric 
dams over the next two years, with two completed in 2008.  Slated 
for Regions VII and VIII, the so-called run-of-the-river dams will 
have a generating capacity of between 10 and 15 MW each.  Together 
they are expected to cost some US$40 million. Colbun and Fondo 
Independencia agreed last year to spend US$100 million on 
non-conventional renewable energy projects. The partners plan to 
construct three more slightly larger dams next year.  Colbun is one 
of Chile's major energy producers. It is currently at the center of 
a major controversy over its plans - together with Spanish-Italian 
electricity giant Endesa - to build five massive hydroelectric dams 
in far southern Chile's Aysen region. 
 
Source - Santiago Times 
 
¶25. Sugar Cane Surpasses Hydroelectric Dams in Brazil Energy 
Complex 
 
May 8, 2008 - In 2007, sugar cane and cane-based ethanol became more 
important energy sources than hydroelectric power plants in Brazil's 
overall energy complex, topped only by petroleum and oil products. 
The government's energy planning agency EPE said sugar cane had a 16 
percent share in the country's so-called energy matrix -- a 
combination of all sources of energy including fuels and electricity 
 
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- while power dams were left behind with a 14.7 percent share. Oil 
and derivatives had a 36.7 percent weighting, dropping from 37.8 
percent in 2006.  EPE President Mauricio Tolmasquim attributed the 
growing role of sugar cane to booming demand for ethanol as a motor 
fuel, but expected more cane and ethanol to be used for electricity 
generation as well.  In February 2007, the consumption of ethanol 
surpassed that of gasoline for the first time in two decades. The 
trend is driven by a drop in ethanol prices and huge sales of 
flex-fuel cars that can run on ethanol, gasoline, or any mix of the 
two. 
 
Source - The New York Times 
 
¶26. Editorial: Challenges of Installing Wind Power in Chile 
 
April 30, 2008 - Lately, wind powered energy has been on the minds 
of many in Chile. Dozens of projects involving this type of energy 
production are presently being discussed and planned throughout the 
country. Experts speculate that such projects could contribute 400 
MW to the Central Interconnected System (SIC) of national 
electricity. However, developing wind powered energy projects is not 
as easy as it may seem, as there are many technical and market 
conflicts that must be resolved before renewable energy can unfold 
in Chile. First of all, it is necessary to clarify that an optimal 
site for wind power (approximately 50 windmills that would 
contribute 75 MW of power) would in reality only contribute an 
average of about 30 percent of its potential to the system. This 
means that the remaining 70 percent of the time, the windmills would 
be inactive due to lack of wind or an excess of wind.  Another 
problem that wind powered energy projects face is land speculation 
for property suitable for wind installations. The third problem 
these projects face is the precarious land ownership situation that 
affects Chile's rural sectors. Finally, one of the most important 
factors to be considered has to do with the distance of the wind 
power site from the plant where the electricity will be received to 
connect it with the rest of the electrical system. 
 
Source - Santiago Times 
 
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¶27. Scientists Monitor Eruption's Fallout in Chile 
 
May 2008 - Palena province, home to some of Chile's most spectacular 
terrain, has literally been under a cloud since the awakening of 
long-dormant Chaiten volcano.  Some experts forecast severe 
environmental damage on account of the eruption, Chaiten's first in 
more than 9,000 years. They say a prolonged eruption could take a 
serious toll on the region's temperate rainforest and cause many 
other problems, ranging from water contamination to worsening of the 
ozone hole.  Chaiten's eruption began May 2, sending ash nine miles 
(15 kms) high in the sky. Hardest hit was the nearby town of 
Chaiten, a community of 7,000 where vegetation, farm animals, and 
buildings were covered daily in thick, white ash. More than 90 miles 
(150 kms) from the volcano, Futaleufu, a popular eco-resort town 
near the river of the same name, was also caked with over 16 inches 
(40 cms) of ash. Those and other communities in the region were 
evacuated.  Pumalin Park, a sprawling, privately owned nature 
preserve whose southern border lies just nine miles (15 kms) north 
of Chaiten, reports minimal damage so far. The eruption has prompted 
the government to announce it will go ahead with the Carretera 
Austral, or Southern Highway, through Pumalin Park. Construction is 
slated to begin in 2011. 
 
Source - EcoAmericas (please contact Larissa Stoner for complete 
article) 
 
¶28. Chile Enviro Groups Give Bachelet Lukewarm Review 
 
May 26, 2008 - President Michelle Bachelet's more than two-hour, 
State of the Nation speech on May 21 received cautious approval from 
Chile's leading environmentalists.  The Santiago-based NGO, Chile 
Sustentable, applauded Bachelet's announcement that she will soon 
send bills to Congress calling for the creation of both an 
Environment Ministry and an Energy Ministry. Other positive signs 
from the president's speech included her promise to convert Chile 
into a whale sanctuary, and her strong endorsement of renewable 
energy sources, particularly solar, according to the environmental 
group.  Chile Sustentable, however, lamented the president's failure 
to outline concrete plans for tackling the challenge of climate 
change, protecting the country's rapidly receding glaciers, 
improving Santiago's notoriously dismal air quality, and for 
 
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managing Chile's watersheds. 
 
Source - Santiago Times 
 
SOBEL