ROLAC Media Update 29 May 2006

ROLAC Media Update 29 May 2006

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={6BC54C7B-3CB3-48E1-AC37-A2B13922C534})&language=EN

Havana, May 29 (Prensa Latina) Journalists from the Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic and other Caribbean countries attended the first International Journalists Seminar in Havana Monday, preparing for the hurricane season (June 1 to November 30).

The Caribbean is a zone heavily exposed to these phenomena, and this season is predicted to be quite active.

Cuba has 45 years experience preparing for and combating these natural disasters through its civil defense system, which has proven its effectiveness.

Specialists from the Cuban Institute of Meteorology predicted formation of about 15 tropical storms this year in the North Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.

Nine of the 15 predicted tropical storms may become hurricanes, because of conditions in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean and warming temperatures on the surface of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

One of the sponsors of the conference, International Jose Marti Journalism Institute´s assistant director Roger Ricardo Luis told local media that they were deliberating on climatic changes, natural disasters, hurricanes, prevention and alerts.

The meeting was also convoked by the Cuban Science, Technology and Environment Ministry and the Scientific and Environmental Journalism Department to increase knowledge and experience in the multi-discipline struggle against these phenomena.

UN Environment Program regional director for Latin America Ricardo Sanchez was in charge of the first conference in the event.

www.ipsnews.net

Chile: Clean Air Plan for Santiago a Flop

Gustavo González

So far in 2006, Santiago has seen one day of environmental "pre-emergency" and several days with alerts issued in response to increased air pollution, which result in restrictions on vehicle circulation, shutdowns of boilers and other sources of polluting emissions, and even bans on outdoor sports activities at schools.

The critical conditions brought by the climate phenomenon known as La Niña, with scant rain and low temperatures, brought to the fore the environmental vulnerability of the capital, as warned by at least two reports from international auditors, which pointed to shortfalls in many of the measures of the Atmospheric Decontamination and Prevention Plan (PPDA) of 2000.

According to sources in the business sector, the pre-emergency declared on Friday, May 12, resulted in economic losses of 3.9 million dollars, due to the shutdown of 596 factories and 320,000 vehicles, including 120,000 cars with "green seals", which run on unleaded gasoline.

Businesses complain "about the impact on their pockets, but undoubtedly the pre-emergency status means savings and benefits in health," says Sonia Garrido, whose five-year-old son has respiratory problems and requires medical attention on days of increased air pollution.

Children and the elderly are most at risk in regards to poor air quality in Santiago. The capital's location in a broad valley surrounded by mountains and the lack of winds makes it one of the most polluted cities in Latin America, alongside Sao Paulo and Mexico City.

The environmental "pre-crisis" led Metropolitan Region Mayor Víctor Barrueto to convene a meeting of experts, who presented nine recommendations for a better registry of contaminants and more rigorous regulation of diesel fuel quality.

Barrueto himself announced six additional measures to bring the PPDA up to date, although the authorities had to acknowledge simultaneously a four-month delay in the Trans-Santiago Plan to streamline public transportation, which was to be fully implemented in October of this year, but is now put off until early 2007.

When it comes to who to blame, fingers are pointed at the previous administration, of President Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006), which is accused of failing to provide sufficient funding for the PPDA through the National Environmental Commission. But many of its measures were delayed in implementation by the archaic norms of the Comptroller General of the Republic.

The environmental crisis is consequence of "the lack of political will, given that many of the plan's measures were violated systematically by the government authorities themselves," Luis Mariano Rendón, coordinator of the non-governmental organisation Acción Ecológica, told Tierramérica.

Real estate speculation through converting farmland around Santiago into urban uses is, according to Rendón, an example of how the plan's measures have been violated through "an unnatural alliance between business and politics," in which public functionaries encouraged private investment.

Acción Ecológica, with the support of the Furious Cyclist Movement, the Pro-Cyclist Network and others, convened a bicycle protest on Saturday, May 20, with brigades of cyclists pedalling uninterrupted for 12 hours around the presidential palace in the Plaza de la Constitución in downtown Santiago.

The rally, coming just before President Bachelet's first Message to the Nation, was organised to promote seven measures that the environmentalists say are urgent for reducing air pollution, and which especially aim to discourage the use of cars.

Their proposals come in addition to those of other citizen groups, which call for improved efficiency in the transportation sector, auditing of industrial emissions with stricter rules, and higher standards for fuels, especially diesel, which has seen demand rise in recent years.

"It is citizen pressure that will change things. The plans to clean up the air have failed because they were made from a technical and bureaucratic perspective. But what is needed is a cultural change, in which we all have greater awareness that traveling today by car in Santiago is like smoking in a small room at home," said Rendón.
www.tierramerica.net

Criticism Rains Down on Gas Mega-Pipeline

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO - The South American gas mega-pipeline, which would transport fuel through the Amazon and other ecosystems, is being drowned in criticisms in Brazil, where many say the project is dead, given the recent nationalization of hydrocarbons in Bolivia.

The pipeline "was born half dead," with no economic viability, according to Wagner Victer, energy secretary for Rio de Janeiro state. The project "is foolishness," says environmental activist Roberto Smeraldi, director of Friends of the Earth/Brazilian Amazon.

The nationalization of the gas and petroleum industry in Bolivia, decreed on May 1, could be the coup de grace for the South American pipeline, say analysts. The Bolivian move, which especially affects the Brazilian national oil giant Petrobras, has raised tensions between the two countries and revived the controversy about Brazil's dependence on Bolivian natural gas.

The ambitious pipeline, which would be South America's largest physical infrastructure project, is promoted by presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Néstor Kirchner of Argentina, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

It would extend at least 7,000 km, which could be lengthened to more than 10,000 km, depending on what routes are chosen, say experts. The pipeline would transport 150 million cubic meters of gas daily, and construction could have a pricetag of 25 billion dollars.

The project "has no economic coherence," it crosses many rivers and forests, making it impossible to establish its costs precisely, and it would make Venezuelan gas delivered to Argentina very expensive, unless it is subsidized by Brazil, said Victer.

"The gas pipeline would quintuple Brazil's current dependence in relation to Bolivia," he said.

Following the announcement of Bolivia's hydrocarbon nationalization, the Lula government in Brazil hurried to define plans with Petrobras for national self-sufficiency in natural gas supplies, accelerating domestic production and measures to import liquid natural gas.

Despite the new energy panorama in the region, the idea for the pipeline has not been abandoned. On Jun. 7, a meeting of ministers and other authorities in Caracas will assess the project, Venezuela's Energy Minister Rafael Ramírez confirmed in a conversation with Tierramérica.

There are seven work groups studying the economic, environmental, engineering, route path, financing and regulations related to the project. They are following the script laid out by Chávez, Kirchner and Lula in Sao Paulo on Apr. 26. The goal is for the pipeline to be designed and ready to be officially proposed to the rest of the South American governments in September.

Meanwhile, criticisms from environmentalists and energy experts continue to mount. According to Adriano Pires, director of the Brazilian Infrastructure Center, a consulting firm, there are numerous environmental, economic, political, financial and technological risks that make the pipeline nonviable.

The proposal for a "postal rate", which would divide the costs of gas transport amongst the countries involved, means subsidizing the most far-flung consumers -- in southern Brazil and Argentina -- to the detriment of the poorer regions in Brazil's north and northeast, said Pires.

In the political arena, the governments that use energy as a strategic tool, violating contracts and setting prices according to their political interests, contribute to "energy dis-integration," said the expert.

Bolivia, for example, is likely to suffer "a reduction in its natural gas reserves as a result of declining investment" after nationalization, which will affect its export capacity, Pires said.

There are also technological problems inherent in such an enormous project, aggravated by the fact that Venezuelan gas is associated with petroleum, he added. With so many uncertainties, "What bank would finance -- and how -- a project costing 25 billion dollars?" the consultant wondered.

Venezuela holds the largest natural gas reserves in South America -- around 4.2 trillion cubic meters -- but "90 percent is linked to petroleum, and to extract it would mean producing more crude," Elie Habalián, former Venezuelan governor in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), confirmed for Tierramérica.

The investment plans of the government-run Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), of more than six billion dollars by 2012, assure gas supplies for the pipeline, according to energy minister Ramírez. Current production, of 176 million cubic meters, will be nearly double in six years, with gas fields on land and in seabeds.

Integration and the necessary diversification of the energy matrix are the arguments wielded by those who defend the pipeline project. It is a long-term project that "requires more studies, with greater transparency," but would be important for a positive South American integration, maintains Luiz Pinguelli, former chairman of the state-held Eletrobras, which controls electricity production and transmission in Brazil.

Liquid natural gas, an alternative promoted by Pires and Victer as more viable and cheaper than the pipeline, is also the subject of international turbulence, and its price tends to rise with the strong demand in industrialized countries and global conflicts, says Pinguelli, coordinator of post-graduate engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

But not only the situation created by the nationalized fuels in Bolivia conspires against the South American pipeline. It is "nonviable because of its socio-environmental impact," according to Adilson Vieira, coordinator of the Amazon Working Group, a network of 600 organizations and social movements.

The gas pipeline would have "violent social effects," crossing many indigenous areas in Brazil and Venezuela, and requiring detours or "incalculable" compensations, he told Tierramérica.

"Obtaining environmental permits to cross the Amazon would be a huge task. If it all went well, without legal hurdles, it would still take five or six years minimum," estimates Smeraldi, of Friends of the Earth.

Furthermore, it would run into agrarian disputes, especially in northern and central Brazil. It is "extremely difficult that the pipeline would be built," but the debate must continue because "other madness" has become reality in the continent, he warned.

Resistance from environmentalists is intense in Venezuela. The organization Friends of the Great Savannah (Amigransa), which defends a nature park on the country's southeast border with Brazil, says the project would be "the definitive step for the destruction of the Amazon, the Venezuela Guayana and diverse ecosystems of the Caribbean and Atlantic coastline."

"The mere planning of this monumental project, which hasn't consulted everyone, violates agreements on economic, social and cultural rights," Amigransa spokeswoman María Eugenia Bustamante told Tierramérica.

For now, in response to the nationalization of hydrocarbons in Bolivia, Petrobras announced that it will build two regasification plants in Brazil in order to import liquid natural gas, with a capacity for processing 18 to 20 million cubic meters a day. They will be on rented floating craft, the quickest and cheapest way to create the conditions for use of this alternative.

Brazil has also decided to speed up national production of natural gas in the three maritime basins in the southeast, adding 24.2 million cubic meters daily to the supply by the end 2008.

Petrobras aims to maintain the contract that calls for importing 30 million cubic meters of Bolivian gas a day until 2019, but has ruled out the previously forecast doubling of that volume.

www.tierramerica.net

SANTIAGO - Eucalyptus trees resistant to drought have been cloned -- reproduced through genetic manipulation -- for reforestation plans and forestry development in Chile's arid zones.

On May 22 came the announcement of the project's success in Los Vilos, a town 225 km north of Santiago, the gateway to the semi-desert region of Coquimbo, where the main economic activities are mining, fishing and small-scale farming.

Mauricio Cañoles, of the Foundation for Agrarian Innovation, explained to Tierramérica that forestry productivity has been increased in arid and semi-arid lands planted with two types of eucalyptus (Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Eucalyptus cladocalyx).

The governmental forestry institute will soon make these trees available for widespread cultivation.

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Brazil Office Media Update 29 May 2006

O secretário de Desenvolvimento do Estado do Espírito Santo, Júlio Bueno, disse que o governo local vai "apelar" à ministra-chefe da Casa Civil, Dilma Rousseff, por uma interferência direta na questão envolvendo o Ibama e áreas potenciais de exploração de petróleo e gás natural no Estado. Na semana passada, o Ibama criou um Parque Nacional Marinho em uma região ao norte do Espírito Santo, considerada importante para a expansão das áreas exploratórias. A região do novo parque nacional não abriga nenhum local em produção hoje, mas compromete, por exemplo, um campo de gás arrematado pela americana Newfield em rodadas da Agência Nacional de Petróleo (ANP). Além disso, o secretário lembrou que a criação do parque naquela área impede novos investimentos no local, em futuras rodadas da ANP.

"É preciso pesar na balança o nível de proteção ambiental exigido para determinadas áreas e o que elas poderiam nos dar em troca. É preciso que haja uma avaliação bastante precisa sobre este tema", afirmou Bueno em palestra no Seminário "O Mercado de Gás no Brasil". Segundo ele, o pleito à ministra deverá ser feito ainda nesta semana. A expectativa é de reverter a decisão do Ibama, ou mesmo reduzir a área protegida, preservando os direitos adquiridos da empresa americana.

http://www.estadao.com.br/ciencia/noticias/2006/mai/29/169.htm
Folha de São Paulo: Governos superestimam área de manejo florestal, afirma relatório

Para diretor de organização, madeira não consegue competir com soja e boi

A ministra do Meio Ambiente, Marina Silva, participou neste sábado, em Ilhéus, na Bahia, das comemorações do Dia Nacional da Mata Atlântica (27 de maio). As atividades, organizadas pelo Ministério do Meio Ambiente, em parceria com o Ibama, Rede Mata Atlântica, governo da Bahia, prefeitura de Ilhéus, acontecem durante todo o dia no auditório da Ceplac, no centro da cidade, com a realização de seminário que vai debater sobre o bioma e o Sistema Nacional de Unidades de Conservação (Snuc).

Em seu discurso, Marina Silva lembrou que há 14 anos o projeto de lei de Mata Atlântica tramita no Congresso Nacional. "A cada ano se perde 100 mil hectares da mata enquanto o projeto tramita. É preciso que o projeto entre com urgência em votação". A ministra salientou o empenho do governo federal pela aprovação do projeto. "A sociedade brasileira quer o projeto aprovado para proteger os 7% que ainda restam da mata atlântica", disse.

Marina Silva lembrou que uma política consistente é a melhor forma de ajudar um governo e o desenvolvimento de um país. Ela citou que a política ambiental do país orientada pelas quatro diretrizes: controle e participação da sociedade, desenvolvimento sustentável, fortalecimento do Sisnama e política ambiental integrada fez com que o Ministério do Meio Ambiente trabalhasse com todos os segmentos e diferentes níveis da federação. "Hoje podemos celebrar a redução do desmatamento na Amazônia e na Mata Atlântica graças ao envolvimento dos setores e das parcerias", ressaltou.

O isolamento de várias comunidades na Amazônia – indígenas ou não – sempre favoreceu todo tipo de crime ambiental, do tráfico de animais, aos garimpos e explorações madeireiras ilegais.

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