SOUTH AMERICA ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HEALTH NEWSLETTER

207 t h issue, September 20, 2012 AMAZON: Development and Conservation, Which Way Forward? By Gabriela Ramírez Galindo

Conservation concerns have gained important ground in policy decision making in the Amazon region, but mainstream policy goals to stimulate food and energy supply still need to be more effectively harmonised with environmental policy, a CIFOR expert said ahead of the IUCN World Conservation Congress which begins next week. Pablo Pacheco urged decision makers in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela — the nations that share the five million square kilometre forest — to more aggressively address issues causing tension between economic growth and forest conservation in the Amazon. Issues dominating the development agenda in the Amazon include agricultural expansion (soybean crops and beef cattle), extraction of natural resources (timber, oil and gas and, most recently, minerals) and infrastructure development. “These different issues have been identified in one way or another in the policy debate about development and conservation in the Amazon, and significant progress has been made in different sectors such as biodiversity conservation, forestry development or agricultural expansion. Nonetheless, these sectors still compete with each other and policies are not fully harmonised,” he said. “This harmonisation can be improved through supporting policy innovations to tackle such problems and sharing lessons learned on what works for forests and the people.” While agricultural expansion and the development of associated economic activities in the Amazon are justified by their contribution to state earnings and regional development, they have long-term social and environmental implications. Furthermore, large-scale investments often do not favour the wellbeing of local populations, and tend to negatively affect the integrity of the environment.

“It is not justifiable for agribusiness to place additional pressures on forests when there are more suitable lands for agriculture elsewhere. Some of these lands are degraded, but they may be restored and be suitable for more intensive uses needed to meet market demands,” Pacheco said. Inequities in benefit sharing also need to be seriously addressed, said Pacheco, who heads CIFOR’s research on globalised trade and investment. Read more at: http://blog.cifor.org/10616/development-and-conservation-in-the-amazon-which-way-forward/

The information contained herein was gathered from news sources from across the region, and the views expressed below do not necessarily reflect those of the Regional Environmental HUB Office or of our constituent posts.

Addressees interested in sharing any ESTH-related events of USG interest are welcome to do so.

For questions or comments, please contact us at quevedoa@state.gov.

* Free translation prepared by REO staff.

Amazon: Development and

Conservation, Which Way Forward?

Climate Change: 8th Meeting

of Foreign Affairs Ministries of the CPPS Country Members.

Conservation: Why

Biodiversity Increase From Global Warming is Not Good News.

PERU: Environment Minister

Hails “Landmark” Mining Reforms.

PARAGUAY: Damning Report

of Science Met With Optimism.

Clean Energy: Spinach With

Silica Produces More Energy Than Solar Cells.

ARGENTINA/CHILE: Glacial

Thinning Rapidly Increasing.

USAID: ICAA Announces the

Research Contest Winners.

SCIENCE: Gravitational Waves

Spotted From White-Dwarf Pair.

September 29, 2012

World Heart Day

October 15, 2012

Global Handwashing Day

October 23-24, 2012, Ecuador

International Congress on Innovation and Development http://www.utpl.edu.ec/congresoinnovacion/

October 31-November3, 2012,

Maryland-U.S. Summit on the Science of

Eliminating Health Disparities, U.S.A. http://bit.ly/KWIuT0

November 12-15, 2012, Israel

Fourth International Conference on Drylands, Deserts and Desertification: Implementing Rio+20 for Drylands and Desertification http://www.desertification.bgu.ac.il/

Next events:

In this issue:

Photo by longan drink (flickr user). Under Creative Commons License.

CLIMATE CHANGE: 8th Meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministries of the CPPS Country Members*

The 8th Meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministries of the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific (CPPS according to its inititals in Spanish) was held on August 17, 2012, in the Galapagos Islands. This meeting included Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and special invitees. The ceremony took place at the Galapagos National Park, where the foreign affairs ministries signed the "Compromiso de Galápagos" (Galapagos Compromise). This document recognizes the Southeast Pacific Ocean as a privileged space to promote peace, solidarity, cooperation, and integration among Pacific countries. Also, it declares the countries’ commitment to face the new challenges to achieve sustainable development, to fight together to mitigate climate change effects, and to strengthen action to struggle hunger and poverty, in order to contribute to food security in our countries. The "Compromiso de Galápagos" recognizes the important role of coastal communities, particularly fishing communities, by promoting

their development to assure a sustainable management of marine environments and their resources. This document recognizes the problem of ocean pollution and its impact on ecosystems. It promotes initiatives to protect and preserve biodiversity to assure that present and future generations benefit from these ecosystems. At last, it contains an explicit commitment to strengthen the CPPS to pursue its new strate-gic orientation, aimed to generate a quantitative change in society and its relationship with the environment towards the 21th century, not only within the sovereignty zone and juris-diction of the member countries, but also within the Pacific Basin. Read more: http://www.cpps-int.org/

Periods of the earth's warming are associated with an increase in biodiversity, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While this may sound like good news, the timescales involved cancel out any benefits they might experience from the rising temperatures. The team behind the study, led by Dr Peter Mayhew at York University, examined the earth's geological history and fossil records using improved data sets that looked at pat-terns of marine invertebrate biodiversity over the last 540m years. They found that biodi-versity increases over periods of warming in the earth's climate with many new species emerging, although these are simultaneously accompanied by extinctions of existing spe-cies. Mayhew said: "What seems to be happening is that when we get a warming, this coincides with an upward shift in biodiversity in groups of organisms. So it looks like warm periods are boosting the generation of new species and that's improving biodiversity. However a bit later, and when I say 'a bit', I mean several millions of years later, you get extinctions occurring." "It's a kind of a mixed picture," he added." We get an improvement in diversity but we also get extinction in new groups. It's just that overall the origination tends to out-do the extinction so biodiversity improves, generally." But Mayhew doesn't think this changes what we currently understand concerning the loss of species as a result of today's man-made global warming. "I don't think that there is any good news here", says Mayhew. "If what we need for diversity to improve in these warm climates is time for those organisms to evolve, then that time is going to be much longer than the lifetime of the human race. The lifetime of a species tends to be 1-10m years in the record. So that's how long we can expect humans maybe to survive ... if we get a fair chance at life. "But I'm afraid it's not good news in terms of what we might experience from global warming in the next few decades. Because obvi-ously extinction can happen rapidly, but speciation [the generation of new species] can't happen rapidly. So unfortunately we're quite likely, simply because of the rate of climate change today, to see extinctions occurring. And we're unlikely to see the benefits that might go along with that, which is the generation of new species." Therefore despite of the possibility that climate change sceptics might takes these latest findings to suggest that the current warming of the planet is a good thing, Mayhew is very clear about what should be taken away from this study. Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/sep/04/climate-change-biodiversity?newsfeed=true

CONSERVATION: Why Biodiversity Increase From Global Warming is Not Good News By Klint Finley

Foreign Affairs Ministries of Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru signed the “Compromiso de Galapagos”. Photo courtesy of the CPPS.

Photo by Bas Boerman (flickr user). Under Creative Commons License.

PERU: Environment Minister Hails 'Landmark' Mining Reforms By Jonathan Watts / Dan Collyns

After a deadly wave of anti-mining protests, Peru's congress will vote on re-forms aimed at restoring public confidence in the govern-ment's efforts to manage a lucrative and polluting rush for minerals that has made the coun-try one of the fastest growing economies in South America. There were 168 protests over natural resources in July, according to Peru's human rights ombudsman, La Defensoria del Pueblo, down from a peak of 293 in 2009. Official figures shows 17 people have been killed in such con-flicts since President Ollanta Humala took office in July 2011, compared with 191 who died in similar circumstances between 2006 to 2011 under his predecessor, Alan García. The government is belatedly trying to strengthen oversight of mining pro-jects as it prepares for $50bn worth of investment in the sector over the next decade. It will take a major step forward with the submission of an adminis-trative reform bill that will create a powerful new body to carry out environmental impact assessments. Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/04/peru-environment-mining-reforms?newsfeed=true

Paraguay's investment in science is the lowest in South America, and has remained at the same proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) for a decade, according to a new report. However, insiders say there are signs of improvement that could lead to better times for science in Paraguay. The 2011 Science and Technology Indicators Report, published by the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) last month (19 August), shows that the pro-portion of Paraguay's GDP dedicated to science and technology (S&T) is only 0.06 per cent. This is far lower than in other countries in the region: Argentina and Uruguay invest between 0.5-0.6 per cent and Brazil 1.2 per cent. "Investment has remained constant because successive governments didn't include — or didn't consider — re-search and innovation as a variable for change and development, due to [the govern-ments'] short-term vision," Sergio Duarte, director of the National Incentive Program for Researchers (PRONII) at CONACYT, told SciDev.Net. The report shows that Paraguay actually has ten per cent fewer researchers than it did in 2001; furthermore, out of 1,039 researchers, only 225 are full-time, and just 177 have PhDs. The proportion of local patent applications by Paraguayan residents has remained the same for a decade (19 out 335 applications in 2011). Juan Carlos Rolón, research director at the National University of Asunción's faculty of engineering and CONACYT's former president, said the country's

science investment is "insufficient". "We lack modern lab facilities, a good quality certification system and enough qualified re-searchers to make profound transformations in the research and development system," he said, adding that the country needs to triple current researcher numbers. The report comes in the wake of Paraguay's recent suspension from two regional economic blocs, which have played an important role in boosting science in Paraguay through regional projects and financial support. Read more at: http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/news/damning-report-of-paraguay-s-science-met-with-optimism.html

Photo by Lou Gold (flickr user). Under Creative Commons License.

PARAGUAY: Damning Report of Paraguay's Science Met With Optimism By Daniela Hirschfeld

Photo by Leigh Jay Temple. Under Creative Commons License.

CLIMATE CHANGE: World Bank Unveils 10-Year Environmental Strategy By Lisa Friedman

Researchers of Vanderbilt University have developed a way to combine the photosynthetic protein of spinach with silica, the element that turns light into electrochemical energy. The result is an electrical current larger than the one generally registered by hybrid solar cells. This mix produces levels almost a thousand times higher that those we were able to reach by depositing protein in metals. “It produces also more tension” says David Cliffel, one of the authors of this study. Thus, if we continue to increase current levels, we will be able to reach in three years, a wide range of solar energy conversion technology. According to scientists, one hypothesis to succeed in this experiment is the adaptation of silica electrical properties to help the protein. This is done by implanting atoms electrically loaded to alter element property.

The next step is to create a silica solar cell which uses this property. A 2-meter high panel employing this technology could generate at least 100 milliamps per volt. That is enough to supply various types of small electrical devices. More than 40 years ago, scientists discovered that proteins involved in photosynthesis continue to work even if they are from plants such as spinach. They discovered also that their efficiency to generate electricity is 100% with regards to the 40% less obtained by using artifi-cial devices. Since then, researchers from all over the world have been using them to create more efficient solar cells. Read more at: http://oglobo.globo.com/ciencia/espinafre-com-silicio-produz-mais-energia-que-celulas-solares-5995107

For the last 40 years, scientists have monitored the growing and shrinking of the ice fields in the southern most stretch of South America’s Andes Mountains, detecting an overall ice loss as the climate warms. A new study, published in the September 5 is-sue of Geophysical Research Letters, finds that the rate of glacial thinning has in-creased by about half over the last dozen years in the Southern Patagonian Icefield, compared to the 30 years prior to 2000. The Southern Patagonian Icefield is located between Argentina and Chile in the Pata-gonian Andes. It is the world’s second largest contiguous extrapolar ice field. “Patagonia is kind of a poster child for rapidly changing glacier systems,” said Michael Willis, lead author and a research associate at Cornell University. “We are characteriz-ing a region that is supplying water to sea level at a big rate, compared to its size.” The Southern and Northern Patagonian Icefields are the largest icefields in the southern hemisphere excluding Antarctica. The results of this study show that the icefields are losing ice faster since the turn of the century and contributing more to the rising sea levels than ever before. Previous studies showed that between 1970 and 2000 both icefields together raised global sea levels by an average of 0.042 milli-meters each year. Since 2000, that number increased to 0.067 millimeters on average per year – about two percent of total annual sea level rise since 1998. Willis and his team focused on the Southern Icefield, which loses around 20 billion tons of ice every year, which is roughly 9,000 times the volume of water stored by Hoover Dam annually. Over the last 12 years, the Southern Patagonian Icefield has lost enough water to cover the entire United States with 2.7 centimeters of water. Combined the two fields lost enough to raise that level to 3.3 centimeters. To map the changing Southern Patagonian Icefield, Willis and his colleagues from the Center for Scientific Studies (CECs) in Valdivia, Chile, collected data from two separate satellite missions; NASA’s Advanced Spacebourne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). ASTER is an imaging instrument onboard Terra, the flagship satellite of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) which is used to create de-tailed maps of land surface temperature, reflectance and elevation. SRTM obtained elevation data on a near global scale to generate a high-resolution digital topographic database of Earth during an 11-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in February of 2000. The team compared 156 satellite images taken over a 12-year period from ASTER to data from the SRTM to map how the Southern Pata-gonian Icefield changed in height and overall size between February 2000 and March 2012.

Read full article at: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112688385/southern-patagonian-icefield-melting-090612/

ARGENTINA/CHILE: Glacial Thinning Rapidly Increasing In South America

CLEAN ENERGY: Spinach With Silica Produces More Energy Than Solar Cells*

Photo by NASA.

Photo by Zach Klein (flickr). Under Creative Commons License.

The Initiative for Conservation in the Andean Amazon (ICAA) con-gratulates winners of scholarships for economic research proposals to be applied to Andean Amazon conservation. The winners will receive up to 15,000 US dollars to develop their proposals. In addi-tion, they will receive technical assistance and training in economic theory and environmental economic analysis during their research periods. The following research topics were prioritized: REDD+, climate change and biodiversity, payments for environmental services, analysis of investment projects for road or hydroelectric infrastruc-ture in areas relevant for biodiversity conservation and protected natural areas, gender, and analysis of negative economic incen-tives for biodiversity conservation (mining, hydrocarbons, agriculture). The following proposals won funding:

Bolivia: Why Chestnut Collectors Fail Hunting Regulations?; The Case of the Manuripi Wildlife Reservation; Economic Assessment of Ecoturism Services in Municipal- Protected Natural Areas.

Colombia: Analysis of REDD+ Opportunity Cost of Early Implementation in Sector Ariari-Guejar-Cafre; Perceptions Regarding Scar-city Among Fishermen From Different Generations of a Fish Market in the Colombia Amazon.

Ecuador: Application of the Experimental Economic Game for Forest Resources Conservation in Kichwa Communities; Economic Assessment of Wildlife Hunting for Human Consumption and Illegal Trade in the Amazon.

Peru: Assessment of the Escalera Mountain Range Regional Conservation Area.

Read more at: http://www.amazonia-andina.org/node/4297/

Researchers have spotted visible-light evidence for one of astronomy's most elusive targets - gravitational waves - in the orbit of a pair of dead stars. Until now, these ripples in space-time, first predicted by Einstein, have only been inferred from radio-wave sources. But a change in the orbits of two white dwarf stars orbiting one another 3,000 light-years away is further proof of the waves that can literally be seen. A study to be reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters describes the pair. Gravitational waves were a significant part of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which viewed space itself as a malleable construct, and the gravity of massive objects as a force that could effectively warp it. Catching sight of an actual gravitational wave, however, is a tricky business; their effects tend to be tiny and the have so far eluded discovery in Earth-bound experiments. But the wider Universe provides a laboratory in which the indirect effects of gravitational waves can be measured.

Six-second switch. In principle, any two massive objects orbiting one another can emit gravitational waves, slowly losing the momentum of their orbits into the waves. The effect is to slightly change the size of the or-bits, and the time it takes to complete them. A measurement of a minuscule change in the or-bits of rapidly rotating neutron stars called pulsars garnered the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics. Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19408363

USAID: ICAA Announces the Research Contest Winners*

An artist’s conception of the white dwarf pair shows how they would radiate spirals of gravitational waves. Photo courtesy of D.Berry/NASA/GSFC.

SCIENCE: Gravitational Waves Spotted From White-Dwarf Pair By Jason Palmer

Photo courtesy of ICAA.