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April 9 · Issue #7 · View online
We monitor hundreds of bilingual publications and organizations from across the sustainability and climate policy sectors in Latin America. Our human editors vet this content for quality and hand-pick the most stimulating and pertinent policy-related content. We have strong interests on climate adaptation and mitigation, SDG's, water and climate justice, indigenous rights, and gender equity.
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Our new bilingual newsletter includes analysis and summaries of articles, events, and informational content we are curating for you bi-weekly . Our aim is to guide our reader’s through ongoing developments on sustainability and climate change policy in Latin America. Send us your comments at [email protected]
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In This Issue: the Central American migrant crisis; land and forest governance and the role of Indigenous People; plus news, analysis articles, and upcoming events (and event recaps).
Migration from Central America is not a recent phenomenon yet we often hear terms like “surges” and “crisis” at the border. In this issue, we are featuring The Latin America Working Group’s Migration News Brief, which invites us to think of migration in terms of “cycles.” Cycles of socio-economic instability, US politics, and the ever-more present cycles of extreme weather events, amongst many others, that drive people to migrate. As more intense weather events, compounded with the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbate food insecurity and poverty, these cycles of migration have been more frequent and pressing. We are also featuring the article Stopgap methods won’t fix migration challenge, by the People’s World, which highlights the US’s complex history of intervention in Central America and the critical importance to adopt a new approach to policymaking. While devastating weather events (which are expected to become more intense with future climate change patterns) are one of many determinants contributing to increased migration, a new UN report titled Forest Governance by Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, makes a promising case for policymakers to protect Indigenous and Tribal Peoples land rights as a way to accelerate conservation, mitigate climate change, and fight food insecurity. This could aid in stemming the flow of migration through policy that actually supports the long-term well-being of Latin America and the Caribbean’s most vulnerable communities. The articles Mining, a Latent Threat to the Amazon and Victims and Deforesters, part of a series of five articles focusing on threats to the Amazon, by the Center of Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America explore the devastating effects of uncontrolled land grabbing for exploitative mining and cattle ranching activities that are displacing local communities and destroying economic opportunities. Cuzcatlán Mine–With License to contaminate by Avispa Midia is yet another investigation of unregulated exploitative mining and the contamination effects this has on local communities. The common denominator of these stories is how a lack of land protections is creating unsuitable environments for living. This begs us to question if policies focused on protecting peoples’ land rights could play a critical role in mitigating migration. Please also see the Economic Commission for Latin America’s event on utilizing Earth Observation Solutions to monitor and calculate SDG indicators in Latin America. For a multi-layered analysis of the challenges to development posed by COVID-19 and a discussion of possible solutions, please see FLACSO’s series of conferences on development alternatives in the face of the pandemic. Finally, for a good-feel read, check out Recipes with a Taste of Sustainable Development on the Coast of El Salvador to learn about a small grants program that has provided solar ovens and energy-efficient cookstoves to 18 villages, promoted sustainable agricultural practices, and preserved and restored hundreds of hectares of mangroves and marine ecosystems, showing how small, community-level investments can have transformative, and delicious outcomes. Happy Reading! Melina Smith, Research Associate, Region360.org Additional Events and Reports:
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Agua Salud: an online talk focusing on water management and conservation.
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FLACSO conferences: Alternativas para el desarrollo–América Latina y el Caribe frente a la pandemia
- See below the recording for the book launch The Water Defenders: The David and Goliath story of ordinary people in El Salvador who rallied together with international allies to prevent a global mining corporation from poisoning the country’s main water source.
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Central America, migration: LAWG's Migration News Brief
A compilation of recent top articles and reports related to issues of U.S. immigration and enforcement policy and migration from Central America and Mexico (articles in English and Spanish).
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Migrant crisis, food security: stopgap methods won't fix migration challenge
As of September 2020, 2.8 million Guatemalans were “ severely food insecure. Now 80% of Guatemala’s Indigenous population are malnourished, and 59% of Guatemalans live in poverty. According to the World Food Program, “The number of households that did not have enough to eat during COVID-19 nearly doubled in Guatemala compared to pre-pandemic numbers. In Honduras, it increased by more than 50 percent .”
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New FAO report, forests: Indigenous and Tribal Peoples are the best guardians of the forests of Latin America and the Caribbean
Deforestation rates in Latin America and the Caribbean are significantly lower in Indigenous and Tribal territories where governments have formally recognized collective territorial rights, and improving the tenure security of these territories is an efficient and cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions. That is among the key findings of a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC).
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Amazon, deforestation, five-part report: Amazonia, una selva que arde
Fundamentados en información científica sobre la Amazonia, El Tiempo y el Centro de Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de la Universidad de los Andes, con el apoyo de la Fundación para la Conservación y Desarrollo Sostenible, la Fundación Gaia y la Red Amazónica de Información Socioambiental Georeferenciada, se unieron para investigar cómo ha avanzado la deforestación en los últimos años y qué actividades promueven esta devastación.
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Mexico, mining: minera Cuzcatlán--con licencia para contaminar
La empresa de capital canadiense Compañía Minera Cuzcatlán es la sexta mayor productora de plata en México. En 2018, debido a un derrame de desechos, una de sus minas afectó un arroyo de Oaxaca. El suceso desató una intensa controversia, documentada por los medios de comunicación, sobre si los residuos mineros habían contaminado o no el suelo y el agua de las comunidades. Esta investigación periodística devela los informes originales, que apuntaban presencia de materiales tóxicos en niveles que superaban las normas mexicanas hasta 1845% en algunos casos. Además, muestra cómo autoridades y empresa relegaron esos documentos para dejar a Minera Cuzcatlán libre de responsabilidades sobre los efectos de la contaminación en esta región del sur mexicano.
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El Salvador, food security: recipes with a taste of sustainable development on the coast of el salvador
After Tropical Storm Stan hit Central America in 2005, a small emergency fund reached El Salamar two years later, which eventually became the start of a much more ambitious sustainable development project that ended up including more than 600 families. Solar ovens and energy-efficient cookstoves emerged as an important component of the programme.
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The Union of Land Workers is Creating a New Food Paradigm in Argentina
The Union is connecting people in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area with fresh, organically-grown fruits and vegetables.
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El Salvador, SDG 5: underreported and unpunished, femicides in El Salvador continue
In one of the most dangerous Latin American countries to be a woman, lockdown measures exposed longstanding challenges in combatting gender violence.
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Indigenous Communities in Mexico Take up Arms to Defend the Monarch Forest
Caught between organized crime, avocado cultivation, and international conservation, Indigenous towns are organizing autonomously to defend themselves.
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Regional, policy: in battle against climate change, courts become a new frontier
People are turning to the courts and litigation to compel governments and businesses to respect and accelerate commitments on climate change, says a new UNEP report.
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Argentina: principios para una recuperación con justicia ambiental, social, de género y económica
Sabemos que la crisis actual producto de la pandemia del COVID 19 afecta a todos los habitantes del planeta, adopta una dimensión que va más allá de lo sanitario y se convierte en una arista más de las crisis estructural que provoca el sistema de acumulación capitalista, íntimamente vinculada a la crisis ambiental, social, económica y de cuidados.
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Regional, sustainability policy: European Commission and UNEP set out cooperation priorities to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution in Latin America and the Caribbean
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced common priorities for environmental cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) for the next five years, aimed at tackling the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution in the context of the region’s COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
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Upcoming and ongoing events…
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Talk, water: agua salud--tropical landscape management
for a sustainable future
Join Dr. Jefferson Hall and Dr. Oris Sanjur as they share a fireside chat about Agua Salud, a unique, long term research project on the Panama Canal Watershed. Hear from Dr. Katherine Sinacore and Edwin Garcia as they join the conversation sharing their unique educational experiences at Agua Salud. Date Wed, 04/21/2021 - 10:00 to 11:00 .
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Open seminars, sustainable development: FLACSO dio inicio a su ciclo de conferencias sobre alternativas de desarrollo
El Sistema FLACSO comenzó este 11 de noviembre su ciclo de conferencias “Alternativas para el desarrollo: América Latina y el Caribe frente a la pandemia”, una plataforma que busca contribuir al análisis de la dimensión social, económica, política y cultural de la crisis generada por la COVID-19 en la región.
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Forum: Environmental Leadership--Latin American Perspectives on the Climate Crisis
In anticipation of a newly ambitious multilateral agenda in the United States, the Wilson Center’s Latin American Program is hosting a discussion on the importance of environmental leadership and international cooperation in addressing climate change, with U.S. and Latin American government officials. Monday, April 12 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET.
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Forum, ongoing: El hacer socioambiental durante y post pandemia
La división de Desarrollo Sostenible y Asentamientos Humanos de la CEPAL participará en el Conversatorio Permanente 2021: El hacer socioambiental durante y post pandemia. El conversatorio se desarrollará entre el 31 de marzo y el 8 de diciembre 2021 organizado por la Red de Autoridades para la Gestión Ambiental en Ciudades de América Latina y el Caribe.
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Past event recaps, recordings, and summaries…
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Event recording, water, El Salvador: book launch--The Water Defenders
The David and Goliath story of ordinary people in El Salvador who rallied together with international allies to prevent a global mining corporation from poisoning the country’s main water source.
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Event recap: activism and commitments to accelerate gender equality mark conclusion of the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City
The Generation Equality Forum Mexico concluded with the unveiling of an Action Coalition blueprint and of new catalytic commitments for gender equality. These set the stage to pass the Forum’s torch to its next step in Paris on 30 June, which will be a major commitment-making moment.
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Event recap, Agenda 2030: regional workshop for latin american and caribbean countries presenting their voluntary national reviews in 2021
El taller tuvo como objetivo principal fortalecer el conocimiento y las capacidades de los países de América Latina y el Caribe para la elaboración de los exámenes nacionales voluntarios (ENV), como parte de su estrategia de implementación y seguimiento nacional de la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible.
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Event recap, data for sustainability: earth observations for sustainable development goals in the americas region
El Earth Observations for Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG), es una iniciativa internacional del Grupo de Observaciones de la Tierra que desempeña un papel fundamental para promover el conocimiento global sobre las formas efectivas en que las Observaciones de la Tierra y la información geoespacial pueden respaldar los ODS. La Iniciativa busca promover los beneficios de los ODS a través del uso sostenido y efectivo de las Observaciones de la Tierra. Esta sesión revisará ejemplos de buenas prácticas de los países, en el uso y promoción de soluciones de Observación de la Tierra para monitorear y calcular los indicadores de los ODS en la región de las Américas
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Event recap, ongoing, SDG5: segundo día del foro #GeneraciónIgualdad sigue todas las sesiones aquí
El Foro Generación Igualdad es un encuentro mundial centrado en la sociedad civil y con múltiples partes interesadas en la igualdad de género, convocado por ONU Mujeres y coorganizado por los gobiernos de México y Francia, en colaboración con la sociedad civil y la juventud. A través de la cocreación y de consultas diversas e inclusivas, el Foro reunirá a defensoras feministas de todo el mundo para fomentar la acción y renovar los movimientos por la igualdad de género, así como para lanzar un conjunto de Coaliciones de Acción innovadoras y con múltiples partes interesadas.
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Event recap: forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development 2021
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