Green Options

Condors are native to California, and their numbers there are dropping, but San Diego Zoo is sponsoring a condor reintroduction programme based in Colombia.

Trouble in various kinds of paradise is the theme of this week’s environmental protest round up. Often, this kind of protest seems to happen in areas where low rates of employment and lack of other natural resources means that local residents are ‘forced’ to accept environmental projects that might be unacceptable in richer regions. But this week there is evidence that even Edens have their devils.

Scientists from Conservation International and the Ecotropia Foundation have discovered ten new amphibian species.

Their discoveries took place in a mountainous area near Panama called Tacarcuna. The newly identified species include three transparent, or ‘glass’ frogs, three poison dart frogs, and one frog with spiky skin and orange legs. Glass frogs have a partly transparent skin which makes some of their internal organs visible. Frogs with this type of smooth, absorbent skin are seen by some as indicators of ecological health because they are very sensitive to toxins. They live mainly in forests, except during the breeding season.

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.

Just kidding. We aren’t running out of coffee. But Colombia now says worldwide demand will exceed production next year.

Will this mean more habitat destruction as farmers rush to clear land to help meet the demands of coffee drinkers?

Colombia is the world’s third largest producer of coffee and according to Bloomberg News, a growers group in the country now says that there will be less coffee produced than is desired next year. Oddly, while there will be a probable international surplus of 6-7 million bags this year, the extra supply will soon be made irrelevant by a 10 million bag deficit next year. We aren’t talking about the bags of coffee you buy in stores: we are talking about 132 lb. bags.

If you drink coffee, then you soon might be drinking less than usual.

Unlike the debate occurring over exploration in the ANWR, the Western Amazon is located in a remote part of the South American continent, rather than in one of America’s states. As a result, while there is immense pressure on local leaders to open the region up for drilling, as these can be important sources of government revenue for nations that are part of the global South, there rarely is the same level of pressure to avoid actions with potentially huge [...]

Several days ago, I read a story about how Peru’s butterfly exports had increased 43% from January-April of this year. These are the butterflies that are pinned into glass frames for sale as gifts and souvenirs. I wondered if all of these butterflies included those that are exported illegally and those that are endangered. Questions of this kind were on my mind as just several days earlier my family had passed by a street vendor who sold animals illegally.

One of the animals was a baby monkey, caged and frightened. We live in the highlands region of Peru, so the monkey was far from its former home in the rainforest. My wife, who in the past worked as a biologist throughout Peru, told me that she thought this was an endangered monkey. As we walked home, I wished I had brought my camera. This I thought, is a story that needs to be pursued.

Scientists on a Conservation Leadership Programme expedition have recently discovered a critically endangered frog species that hasn’t been seen in nature for 14 years. The Carrikeri Harlequin frog was found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains of Colombia.

Photo courtesy of the Conservation Leadership Programme.