Eco-Briefs
Posted 27 June 2011, by Staff, Tierramerica, tierramerica.info
BRAZIL: Wind Power Potential Ignored by Government
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 27 (Tierramérica).- Wind power is an abundant source of energy in Brazil, but it is not given priority in government plans, according to a study by the Institute of Electrotechnics and Energy at São Paulo University.
While there is potential for the generation of up to 143 gigawatts, only one gigawatt of wind power is produced, the equivalent of just 0.88 percent of the energy currently available in Brazil. Projects already underway will expand the country’s wind power capacity to six gigawatts by 2019.
“The potential for wind power was quantified in 2001. Today there are higher towers that could increase it. Limited experience with the related technology is one of the reasons for the lack of investment,” head researcher Juliana Chad told Tierramérica.
“The development of research mechanisms and incentive programs could change this state of affairs,” she added.
The study noted that the Northeast is the region with the greatest potential for the generation of wind power, accounting for half of the total national potential.
MEXICO: Mesoamerican Drylands Project Launched
MEXICO CITY, Jun 27 (Tierramérica).- Marginalized communities in four states in southern Mexico and the central Guatemalan department of Baja Verapaz will be involved in a project to improve natural resource management in areas with scant rainfall.
The Conservation and Sustainable Management of Drylands in Mesoamerica initiative will be executed over the course of three years in Baja Verapaz and the Mexican states of Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca and Chiapas, with almost 1.3 million dollars in funding.
The project is being undertaken by the European Union, the Mexican and UK branches of the humanitarian organization Oxfam, and the Mexican Network to Combat Desertification and the Degradation of Natural Resources.
It is aimed at “strengthening local processes of agricultural production, building technical and empirical knowledge in local communities and promoting the sustainable management of land, energy and water in productive activities and conservation,” Oxfam Mexico campaign coordinator Dolores Rojas told Tierramérica.
ARGENTINA: Schools in Mendoza to Teach Safe Handling of Pesticides
BUENOS AIRES, Jun 27 (Tierramérica).- An Argentine government agency is carrying out a program to teach students in rural primary schools in the western province of Mendoza about the safe handling of pesticides.
The educational program on the safe use of these chemical products is based on the idea that “by educating children we will reach their parents,” Maximiliano Caballero of the National Institute of Industrial Technology told Tierramérica.
The program is being carried out in Mendoza at the request of the Department of Toxicology at the local branch of the Ministry of Health. Of the 103 cases of pesticide poisoning reported in 2010 in Argentina, 49 took place in the province of Mendoza and almost half involved children, explained Caballero.
Children and adolescents are not only exposed to these toxic substances because they live in rural areas, but also because some of them work alongside their parents in agriculture and are therefore handling pesticides.
HONDURAS: Climate Change Adaptation Projects in Indigenous Areas
TEGUCIGALPA, Jun 27 (Tierramérica).- Work will begin in July on four climate change adaptation projects in four primarily indigenous departments in Honduras.
The projects are being carried out in the western departments of Ocotepeque, Copán and Lempira, which are home to the Chortí ethnic group, and the northern department of Atlántida, where there is a large Garifuna population.
They will involve the construction of hydraulic works, retaining walls and bridges in areas frequently hit by flooding, Lisandro Rosales, head of the Permanent Commission on Emergencies, told Tierramérica.
The works will be executed with community participation and financed with a 19-million-dollar loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). There are plans for a total of 55 projects in different regions of the country.
http://www.tierramerica.info/nota.php?lang=eng&idnews=eco&nro=532
