Green Options » Antonio Brack

Japan Loans Peru $120 Million to Conserve Amazon Rainforest

Levi Novey — Tue, 12 May 2009 10:15:36 +0000

Japan has agreed to supply Peru with a $120 million loan to help protect approximately 136 million acres of the Amazon Rainforest from deforestation.

The loan will have an annual interest rate of 0.1% and won’t need to be repaid for 40 years. It is part of a plan to help Peru reach a rate of zero deforestation in the next 10 years. Peru’s Minister of the Environment says that the amount of forest that will be protected help store 20 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, aiding in efforts to combat global climate change.

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How Did Peru React to the Election of Barack Obama?

Levi Novey — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:57:06 +0000

What do Peruvians think about Barack Obama’s exciting victory? If you are an American, it’s not quite what you might think.

LIMA (EcoWorldly) - After having successfully negotiated a free trade agreement with the United States, Peru is now strategically positioned to become one of the U.S.’s key allies and trade partners in Latin America. Given the American media’s substantial touting of international interest in the U.S. presidential election, I decided to go out the morning after Obama won and see what I could find out about the reactions among Peru’s newspapers and citizens.

What I found out surprised me. While newspapers wrote articles that I would have expected, the reaction I got from people was different.

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Peru’s Entire Presidential Cabinet Fired Over Oil Scandal, is President Next?

Levi Novey — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:57:10 +0000

A gigantic political scandal has rocked Peru in the past week. During the confusion and charges of corruption, the President’s cabinet has been forced to resign.

The scandal emerged last week when a Peruvian TV station played audio recordings it had obtained from an anonymous source. The conversations involved high ranking members of Peru’s government discussing bribes they would receive from the Norwegian Oil Company, Discover.

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Peru to Create Environment Police Force to Protect Amazon Biodiversity

Andrew Williams — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:13:06 +0000

The environment and interior ministries in Peru have announced plans to set up a special task force to safeguard forests and monitor the rivers in the Amazon basin. The special force will be made up of around 3,000 officers to be known as the Environment Police.

The force will oversee 373,000 sq km of Amazon rainforest and patrol rivers to combat illegal logging and the unauthorised clearing of forest. Peru’s Environment Minister Antonio Brack said that until now the issue, “a problem of organized crime, morality and oversight,” has not been adequately addressed due to a severely understaffed police force running to just 240 men.

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Highlights from the EU-LAC Summit

Levi Novey — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:08:13 +0000

This past weekend, a major summit was held in Lima, Peru between leaders of European Union countries and also Latin American and Caribbean countries. Numerous agenda items were on the table, but the overall focuses of the meetings were upon the global food crisis, climate change, poverty, and potential trade agreements. Of course, what would an international summit be without some

good, old-fashioned name-calling to put everyone on edge before hand
a President attending a “rival summit” and taking time to go play some football! (Soccer for Americans.)
and an uninspiring finish where seemingly little got accomplished, but yet we can hold onto hope because there are plans to keep the conversation going.
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