Solar panels shine in darkest Amazon, the 'last frontier'

Yahoo – AFP, Paula RAMON, October 11, 2017

Remote communities in the Amazon, such as here near Labrea, are being encouraged
to use solar energy to power their villages (AFP Photo/CARL DE SOUZA)

Ituxi Extractive Reserve (Brazil) (AFP) - In the darkest reaches of Brazil's Amazon, solar panels are bringing light -- and could help save the rainforest.

Aurelio Souza is working to install solar panels in villages along the remote Purus and Ituxi rivers in the western Amazonas state.

"The Amazon is the last big frontier for electricity in the country," says the consultant for a joint program of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Brazil's environmental agency ICMBio.

"You have at least two million people (in the Brazilian Amazon) without access to modern energy."

Bringing power to millions might not sound like an obvious way to preserve the world's greatest forest, already under constant pressure from loggers and farmers.

But consider what the solar panels are replacing.

In tiny communities of the Ituxi nature reserve, west of the city of Labrea, small scale farmers almost universally depend on noisy, smoky generators for light and refrigeration -- and frequent trips to buy more fuel at higher than usual prices.

To keep fish they catch in the rivers fresh they also use large quantities of Styrofoam, another environmental menace.

"The reduction in the consumption of diesel cuts greenhouse gases and reduces the dependency of communities on fossil fuels," Souza said.

The project was launched in July in a neighboring nature reserve, called Medio Purus, home to about 6,000 people who subsist on fishing and family farms. And without the din of generators drowning out the deep silence of the forest night, life is already changing.

In Cassiana, in the Amazon's Medio Purus Reserve, night classes have benefited

from solar energy (AFP Photo/CARL DE SOUZA)

Silence

At the community school in the Cassiana community, part of Medio Purus, night classes taught by satellite link have already become a whole lot more rewarding now that the generator is no longer needed.

"We couldn't concentrate with the noise of the motor and a lot of our classes were cancelled because there wasn't enough fuel," said Francisca de Almeida, 30, who is in her second year of studies.

Further up the river in the settlement of Jurucua, neighbors are using solar power to run a cassava mill, while Maria Francisca de Souza, 54, is finally able to have river water pumped to her house. She hopes to build her first bathroom soon.

The community association for the Ituxi reserve, with a population of barely 600, has hooked up to solar power to run a water well pump. There's even a refrigerator for special occasions that used to cost $400 a month in fuel.

These might be small steps but innovation is the best bet for Brazilians in remote communities. Despite an official state policy of bringing power to the entire country, "the cost is very high in these places," Souza said.

Solar panels donated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Brazilian government
are carried by boat to the village of Volta do Bucho in the Western Amazon (AFP Photo/
CARL DE SOUZA)

For Irismar Duarte, vice president of the Ituxi association, the solar panels open the door to more progress.

"Everyone is looking for ways to innovate and people are adapting to the changes. That's what we're trying to do here," she said.

The association hopes to get a freezer next and ability to power equipment to ramp up production of acai, a potentially valuable fruit which so far is only grown for domestic consumption.

When Duarte hears the solar panel-powered pumps fire up, almost noiselessly, she still can hardly believe the change.

"It's a dream, something I thought would never happen," he says.

Indigenous Bolivians flash new wealth with colorful mansions

Yahoo – AFP, Raul Burgoa, 31 March 2015

A crop of new mansions springing up in in El Alto, a poor suburb perched above 

Bolivia's capital La Paz, have become an icon of the new found wealth -- and 

opulence -- of the indigenous Aymara community (AFP Photo/Aizar Raldes)

La Paz (AFP) - Splashed in bright colors, sporting swank ballrooms and lavish apartments, new mansions are popping up in poor neighborhoods in the Bolivian highlands, built by the booming nouveau riche of the indigenous Aymara.

Locals call them "cholets," a blend of chalet and "cholo," a sometimes derogatory word for Bolivians of indigenous origin.

But their growing prevalence is a sign of the changing times in Bolivia, where indigenous people have gone from being a silent majority long marginalized from the worlds of politics and business -- to major players on the national scene.

Luxurious new mansions built in Bolivia's 

so-called "Cholet" style -- a combination of

 the words cholo and chalet -- typically have 

six or seven floors with shopping centres,

 indoor astroturf pitches crowned by a luxury

penthouse (AFP Photo/Aizar Raldes)

The cholets have sprung up in tandem with an economic boom presided over by Evo Morales, who took office as Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006. He swore in for a new term in January after presiding over average economic growth of more than five percent a year during his first two terms.

During Morales's presidency, increasing numbers of his fellow Aymara have accumulated fortunes in industries such as mining, retail and transport that they are now using to build sumptuous mansions that are reshaping the country's architecture.

Their fluorescent-colored walls tower for up to seven stories at an altitude of 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) in the city of El Alto, a poor suburb perched above the capital La Paz.

"If I were rich, I'd want to live somewhere warmer, but this is where they made their fortunes and this is where they are from," said Serge Ducroc, a Swiss social worker who lives in Bolivia and has been giving guided cholet tours to foreign visitors for the past two years.

"They're not going to go live in a neighborhood full of white people. Their success was built here, and this is where they show it," he said, chewing on coca leaves to combat the effects of the high altitude.

Cholets are typically mixed-use buildings with a blend of commercial properties on the lower floors -- shopping malls, indoor sports facilities, ballrooms and the like -- crowned by a luxury penthouse for the owner.

Built in a new architectural style that has been dubbed "neo-Andean baroque," they cost up to $1 million.

"Besides being clients, (the owners) are promoters of this new architecture," said Freddy Mamani Silvestre, the Aymara architect behind the cholet boom.

Freddy Mamani Silvestre, the architect behind the boom in Bolivia's "cholet"

 mansions, says their rainbow palette is a way for newly successful Aymara

to "search for our essence, our own culture" (AFP Photo/Aizar Raldes)

'Buildings must have life'

Mamani, 42, grew up herding llamas with his five siblings in the small farming village of Catavi, where he would build mud birdhouses in the hills.

That creativity today drives what he proudly calls an "architectural revolution that transcends borders."

"I've broken the old architectural canon, and yes, I'm a transgressor," said the architect, who does not like the word "cholet" to describe his work.

Like the rainbow Aymara flag itself, the buildings are an explosion of colors, many with two-story ballrooms that look like indigenous-themed Las Vegas casinos.

"They're a polychromatic color gradient. We try to search for our essence, our own culture by applying vibrant colors," Mamani told AFP.

The ballrooms can hold up to 1,000 guests and charge up to $1,500 to host events.

"In Andean culture, we say that everything has life," said Mamani.

"Our buildings must also have life. What does that mean? It means they have to generate income."

Many "cholet" mansions feature commercial properties, including two-storey 

ballrooms resembling indigenous-themed Las Vegas casinos that can hold

1,000 guests and rent for $1,500 a night (AFP Photo/Aizar Raldes)

Bolivian philosopher Boris Bernal evoked the same idea.

"The Uta (house in Aymara) can't be static or dead. It has to have life, dance, move among the community, serve its people, generating interest and accumulating capital for the whole community," he said.

But outside the cholets, El Alto remains largely poor.

Of its nearly one million inhabitants, roughly half live in poverty.

"We heard that El Alto was basically rich," said one visitor on the cholet tour, 28-year-old Canadian teacher Dominick Fortugno.

"But when we arrived, we saw tremendous wealth in the middle of poverty and people begging. It's powerful to see."

Oyster farmers in Brazil embrace sustainability

Deutsche Welle, 17 June 2013

Sustainable oyster farmers have turned Brazil's Bay of Guaratuba into a model of eco-friendly food production. They are producing some of the tastiest oysters in the world and educating locals about how to be green.

In the southern state of Paraná, a large inlet in the middle of dense Atlantic forest forms the Bay of Guaratuba. This is one of Brazil's most biologically rich ecosystems. On the calm waters of the vast bay, the tranquility is only broken by the occasional sound of human activity.

Nereu de Oliveira discovered this place about a decade ago. He liked the area so much that he decided to leave his job as a lawyer and open an oyster cultivation site on the bay. He built a restaurant and environment education center and started to get interested in new ways to protect the environment.

In 2005, he decided to partner with Cultimar, an initiative of the Federal University of Paraná. Cultimar's goal is to support sustainable aquaculture in Brazil.

Oliveira left his carreer as a lawyer
to pursue a life in aquaculture

Oliveira told DW that he farms oysters in a sustainable way, instead of extracting oysters from the wild population. This way, the shellfish continue to fill their place in the ecosystem.

In order to encourage oyter farmers to support sustainable practices, Cultimar has created a health certificate. This gives local oyster farmers - who are so proud of their world-famous oysters - an official standard to aim for.

Lab certification

Scientific testing of oyster quality is done at a university in Paraná's capital city Curitiba. Within the laboratories, water gurgles and bubbles in basins where ocean organisms are kept for examination. Researcher Karin Yamashiro explained how the oyster testing works.

"We open them up, collect the oyster as well as the intervulvar liquid, put it in sterile machines that homogenize the samples, then extract the liquid - one milliliter to test for E. coli and staphylococcus, another milliliter to identify salmonella," Yamashiro said.

Ostrensky says environmental education
has shifted thinking in this region

In addition to scientific monitoring, the Cultimar project works to distribute new knowledge and practices in local coastal communities. Antonio Ostrensky heads the university's aquaculture research institute. "The fact is, you can't just talk science to the oyster producers. They're not going to understand the science. You have to translate it for them. Simplify," Ostrensky told DW.

The health certificate is something any oyster farmer can understand and appreciate. The technical process adds value to the oyster and the certificate provides an easy tool for marketing sustainable practices.

And consumers like the extra safety measures. Oysters are ocean organisms that filter water and can carry disease. So consumers are willing to pay more for oysters they know are certified as safe for consumption.

Food security

As Brazil's economy expands, mariculture is becoming more important, especially because it has a lower impact on the environment than other food production activities. Communities involved in new sustainable oyster production also have an opportunity to generate stable income. They are also able to stay on their land. In nearby coastal regions, developers have looked to exapnd high-rise residential communities with waterfront views, instead of finding ways to preserve the environment and support local industry.

Small-scale production of oysters is a sustainable alternative to
traditional fishing

Oyster cultivation is a good alternative to the overfishing o that used to take place in Guaratuba before Cultimar came into the picture. Ostrensky says the project has shifted peoples' thinking.

"Nowadays if you go there, you see a culture that involves much more than production; it involves environmental education, restaurants, tourism," Ostrensky said. "I think the scale we've been working on has brought about a great transformation."

Guaratuba oysters are considered
some of the tastiest in the world

Oliveira says that a continued focus on oyster cultivation will help preserve the region, because healthy oysters demand water free from impurities. He agreed with Ostrensky that the project has transformed the region.

"You see an evolution in the people of the region. Altogether, it ends up improving the people's lives," Oliveira said. "The world needs protein for human consumption. Fish, oysters, shrimp and other seafood can all contribute to a healthy diet."

Oliveira even believes that sustainable fishing practices in Guaratuba could be replicated in other regions of Brazil, and around the world.

Taxis light up remote airstrip in Peru for medevac flight

Google – AFP, 4 April 2013

Mototaxis drive along a street of Iquitos, in the northern jungle of Peru,

on January 15, 2009 (AFP/File, Ernesto Benavides)

LIMA — Their lights blaring in the night, hundreds of taxis lined an unlit airstrip in a jungle region of Peru so an emergency medevac plane with three very sick patients could take off.

All three survived after the 300-odd drivers of motorcycles fashioned into small taxis with compartments for passengers heeded a call Wednesday night from a radio station to race to the 800-meter airstrip in Contamana, in one of Peru's poorest regions, Peruvian media reported Thursday.

The airstrip is not equipped for nocturnal flights because it has no lights.

The patients were a woman and her newborn, both with serious problems after delivery, and a man with a tropical disease.

"We have always been people with a heart," said Adolfo Lobo, the radio presenter who put out the call for help.

Contamana, a town of 26,000, has a hospital with no equipment for emergency situations and the airport is rudimentary.

BBC News, Aida Parados, BBC Mundo, 22 March 2013

The billboard serves a dual purpose, acting to draw students to the newly
established engineering university UTEC

Related Stories

• Bug inspires self-filling bottle

Just outside Lima, Peru, a billboard provides drinking water to whomever needs it - mainly, its neighbours.

The panel produces clean water from the humidity in the air, through filters.

Researchers at the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) in Lima and advertising agency Mayo Peru DraftFCB joined forces to launch it.

UTEC says it wanted to put "imagination into action" and show that it is possible to solve people's problems through engineering and technology.

"A billboard that produces drinking water from air," says the billboard up high. And it does what it says on the tin: so far, the billboard has produced over 9,000 litres of drinking water - 96 litres a day.

The panel is strategically located in the village of Bujama, an area south of the capital city that is almost a desert, where some people have no access to clean water.

Access to all

Despite tough conditions with little rain, air humidity reaches 98%, says UTEC.

"The panel traps humidity in the air and transforms it into water. It's that simple," said Jessica Ruas, a spokesperson from the university.

"There is a lot of water. It is right there in the sea, but it is not suitable for drinking purposes, and costs a lot of money to process it."

Ruas says the system might become a wider solution for the problem.

The billboard has become something of
 a local attraction as well as a local
resource

"It Doesn't have to come in the shape of a billboard, but ingenuity is keyto development"

Internally, the panel consists of five devices that extract water vapour from the air using a condenser and filters.

Water is stored in tanks at the top of the structure. Once filtered, it flows down a pipe connected to a tap, accessible to everybody.

The internal system costs some US$1,200 (£790) to set up.

On the publicity side, the panel itself seeks to attract the "creative minds that Peru needs" to the young UTEC, which was founded only a year ago.

"We want to change the minds of future engineers and inspire them," said Ms Ruas.

The neighbours have given the billboard a warm welcome. It has become a local attraction for and motorists and an indispensable part of life in the local village.

"We hadn't realised how big the impact would be," said Ms Ruas.

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"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

Ecuadorean tribe will 'die fighting' to defend rainforest

Kichwa villagers from Sani Isla vow to resist oil prospecting by state-backed company Petroamazonas at all costs

The Guardian, Jonathan Watts, Latin America correspondent, Sunday 13 January 2013

Ecuador's Yasuni national park – seen by many as the most biodiverse
 place on Earth – is at risk from rising extinction rates globally and local
economic pressures to exploit the oil beneath the forest Link to this video

In what looks set to be one of the most one-sided struggles in the history of Amazon forest conservation, an indigenous community of about 400 villagers is preparing to resist the Ecuadorean army and one of the biggest oil companies in South America.

The Kichwa tribe on Sani Isla, who were using blowpipes two generations ago, said they are ready to fight to the death to protect their territory, which covers 70,000 hectares of pristine rainforest.

Petroamazonas – the state-backed oil company – have told them it will begin prospecting on 15 January, backed by public security forces.

Community members are launching a last-ditch legal battle to stop the state-run firm assisted by a British businesswoman, who is married to the village shaman, and who was recently appointed to run the local eco lodge.

Mari Muench, who is originally from London, said the community decided at two meetings late last year to reject a financial offer from the oil firm because they were concerned about the long-term environmental impact of mining.

They recently learned, however, that the chief of the village has signed a contract giving the go-ahead for the oil exploration, even though they say he was not authorised to do so.

Earlier offers of a new school, university places for village children and better healthcare were dropped in the document, which provides compensation of only $40 (£24) per hectare, according to copies that the Guardian has seen.

The community secretary, Klider Gualinga, said more than 80% of the village is opposed to the oil deal, but a minority are pushing it through against their wishes and local rules.

"People think it is dishonest and the oil company is treating them like dogs. It does not respect the land or the planet. There is no deal, nothing is agreed. The people do not want the oil company. They're very upset and worried," Gualinga said. "We have decided to fight to the end. Each landholder will defend their territory. We will help each other and stand shoulder to shoulder to prevent anyone from passing."

If there is a conflict, their chances of success against the better armed and trained military are slim. The Sani Islanders say they scared but determined.

"If there is a physical fight, it is certain to end tragically," said Patricio Jipa, the shaman and former community chief. "We may die fighting to defend the rainforest. We would prefer passive resistance, but this may not be possible. We will not start conflict, but we will try to block them and then what happens will happen."

"It makes me feel sad and angry. Sad because we are indigenous people and not fully prepared to fight a government. And angry because we grew up to be warriors and have a spirit to defend ourselves. I wish we could use this force to fight in a new way, but our mental strength is not sufficient in this modern world. If the laws were respected we would win. But our lawyers have sent them letters and they won't even talk to us in Quito."

"We are now fighting against a signed contract. We must make people realise it is invalid but there is huge concern the oil company will move quickly to clear the land. When that happened elsewhere, they used armed troops, beatings and abductions to remove those who stood in their way."

The members of the Kichwa indigenous group are custodians of swaths of the most biodiverse areas in the world. Their land is close to the Yasuni national park. Scientists say a single hectare in this part of the Amazon contains a wider variety oflife than all of North America.

Community members are appealing for outside assistance in their legal battle and efforts to find economic alternatives through their eco lodge.

Petroamazonas has yet to respond to the Guardian's request for comment.

German's solar ovens make sunbaked tortillas in Mexico

Yahoo – AFP, Pierre-Marc Rene, 5 December 2012

German Gregor Schappers shows a bread oven heated with solar energy at

 his home in El Sauz, Hidalgo state, Mexico, in November 2012. Schapers 

designed and installed giant circular solar panels in the small town of El Sauz

to show that the sun's rays can cook up a storm.

Under a blazing sun in Mexico's central mountain range, a clutch of large dish-shaped solar panels suck up the light and beam the heat into a kitchen, cooking tortillas.

Forget coal, gas or electric ovens. German entrepreneur Gregor Schapers designed and installed giant circular solar panels in the small town of El Sauz to show that the sun's rays can cook up a storm too.

Schapers, who has lived in this town 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Mexico City since 2003, hopes that this environmentally-friendly solar cooker can ultimately slash energy bills in Mexico's poor rural communities.

"You can cook for a group of up to 60 people per reflector," Schapers told AFP, wearing a checkered shirt, sunglasses and a wide straw hat under a clear sky in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range.

He adapted solar energy-harnessing technology created by the Austrian Wolfgang Scheffler.

But the parts for his oversize solar cooker were all built in Mexico, by the company he founded, Trinysol.

"It's good for social and economic development in rural communities," he said of his cooker and the business of building it.

The glass and aluminum panels are either 10-square-meters or (107-square-foot) or 16-square-meters (170-square-foot) in size. Some are placed at a 45-degree angle while others rest almost horizontal, facing the sky.

The reflectors can generate temperatures hotter than 1,020 degrees Celsius (1,868 degrees Fahrenheit).

Once the powerful heat reaches the cooker, it is shared between a cauldron, a griddle to make tortillas, and an oven. The solar panels can be used in restaurants or bakeries.

The solar cooker system is costly to build, between $4,000 and $5,000 depending on size. But once it's set up, it produces free energy, Schapers said. Each reflector saves the equivalent of 60 liters (16 gallons) of gas each month.

And the oven is environmentally-friendly, using renewable energy and creating zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Schapers said his design makes some significant improvements over other existing models.

"The beauty of our system is that one can cook directly in the house," he explained. Other solar ovens require a cook to brave the outside elements.

Like sunflowers, his solar panels automatically turn toward the sun with the help of a light sensor.

In addition to heat, the solar reflectors can produce steam and Schapers is testing three other uses for his giant panels: a greenhouse project; honey production; and a system for steam baths.

"At first people here in the region were very skeptical about the usefulness of my project," Schapers said.

But he said the finished product has won them over.

"Once they saw the facilities and what we can do with these reflectors, they realized that they work."

Child's Play: Indian street youth develop model banking system

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"The New Paradigm of Reality" Part I/II – Feb 12, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)  (Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Dictators, Global Unity,..... etc.)


"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Lose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Pedal wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.)

Creating sustainable communities in the Amazon

Deutsche Welle, 12 June 2012

The small municipality of Ilha das Cinzas in Brazil has shown that sustainable cultivation can benefit locals and protect nature. The community has only recently gained ownership over the land they now work to preserve.

For generations, the inhabitants of Ilha das Cinzas, in the northern Brazilian state of Para, have been living on what nature provides them with. The rainforest and the Amazon river supply them with fish, crab, nuts and berries. But they've only just started to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

These days, all 60 families in the municipality own their own boat. Their houses are equipped with satellite dishes and there are shared computers with a satellite internet connection. Shortages in diesel fuel used to shutdown their electric generator, but this too is a thing of the past.

Fight for rights 

The people of Ilha das Cinzas
live close to nature

But this modest degree of prosperity didn't come without a fight. "Everyone here used to be very poor. But, we've made real advancement here," said Manuel Malheiros de Oliveira. He's the leader of the workers' association in Ilha das Cinzas.\

In the past, one landowner held control of the entire Gurupa region, which includes the island. The local population had to sell their harvest to him. In addition to that, he taxed them five percent for using "his" land. But in 2000, with the help of the labor union, the community revolted against him.

The "Patrao", as the landowner was known, controlled this land for decades. "But it turns out that the papers with which he documented his land ownership were mostly worthless or counterfeit," explained Manuel Pantoja da Costa. He is the president of the Instituto Gurupa. The group advises local municipalities on legal matters. They receive support from the national NGO Fase, which is an association of institutions that support social services and education.

"For ten years, we've been telling residents about laws and rights," said Fase activist and agricultural engineer Jorge Pinto. "With this knowledge they were able to fight for their rights by themselves." Once the struggle for self-determination began, more and more peasant groups and farmer communities in Gurupa got involved and claimed rights over the land.

Collective use 

The price for crab has risen since
they limited the crab pots

It took four years - from 2002 to 2006 - for the application to local government to be accepted. But eventually, all 60 families on Ilha das Cinzas were given land use rights. There is an agreement ensuring sustainable rainforest use here, which has been in place since 1997. The collective usage plan documents where and when farmers can grow crops, harvest vegetation or hunt.

These days, families limit themselves to 75 crayfish traps. In the past they would laid about 200. "The price of crayfish has risen and working hours have decreased," explained Francisco Barbose Malheiros. Islanders use the extra time to harvest Acai berries, which have become a huge source of income for the municipality. People used to earn minimum wage here, but now earn more than double that - about 650 euros ($813) a month. 

The people of Ilha das Cinzas are
better off now

"The significant improvement in economic status is in direct correlation with the sustainable use of the rainforest," said the former director of the Brazilian Forest Service, Luis Carlos Joels.

Win-win situation

Self-government and sustainable practices have not only helped to reduce poverty, they also helped improve the health of the rainforest. The negotiation process is continuing and should see 99 percent of the administrative area of Gurupa regulated by collective agreements. It's believed this will safeguard the locals newfound economic mobility.

The changes over the past decade have made people feel attached to their homes and confident they can live here more easily than in the cities. "There you need money to survive," said Manuel Malheiro. "Here you only need to work with nature, without destroying it, and you'll never feel hungry."

Author: Nadia Pontes/ sst

Editor: Saroja Coelho

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U.N. sustainable development summit shifts from climate change

Reuters, by Deborah Zabarenko and Nina Chestney, Tue Jan 24, 2012

A man sorts offcuts of fabric that will be sold to textile factories before

 being recycled, in the outskirts of Faisalabad, December 27, 2011.

(Credit: Reuters/Fayyaz Hussain)

(Reuters) - Representatives from around the world gather in Rio in June to try to hammer out goals for sustainable development at a U.N. conference designed to avoid being tripped up by the intractable issue of climate change.

But there is concern in the lead-up to the conference, known as Rio+20 or the Earth Summit, that it risks ending up as all talk and little action.

In an attempt to avoid too much confrontation, the conference will focus not on climate change but on sustainable development - making sure economies can grow now without endangering resources and the environment for future generations.

U.N. conferences over the past decade have begun with high hopes for agreements to compel nations to cut climate-warming emissions and help adapt to a hotter world, but they often ended with disappointingly modest results. That was the case last year in the global climate change summit in Durban, South Africa. Participants at that meeting agreed to forge a new deal by 2015 that would go into force by 2020.

The "sustainable" branding for this year's summit, rather than climate, is by design, said Ambassador Andre Correa do Lago, who headed Brazil's delegation to the U.N. climate talks in Durban and will be a chief negotiator for Brazil in Rio.

Sustainable development is an easier sell globally than climate change, even though sustainable development is a way of tackling global warming and other environmental issues, he said.

"Climate change is an (issue) that has very strong resistance from sectors that are going to be substantially altered, like the oil industry," do Lago said. "Sustainable development is something that is as simple as looking at how we would like to be in 10 or 20 years."

The time seems ripe. Natural resources are at a premium. The global human population tops 7 billion. Traditional economies are failing. And the planet is warming. Leaders may accept the premise that it makes sense to ensure rich and emerging nations can grow without further damaging the environment.

The focus of global meetings has been on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, but the world's biggest emitters, including China and the United States, have balked, arguing it would cripple economic development.

Climate change first claimed the world stage at the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 20 years ago. That first Earth Summit in 1992 ultimately led to the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol and a treaty on biodiversity.

This summit offers a chance to renew political will to make the world's economies greener.

Since the 1992 summit, successive attempts to secure a new binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions have failed to produce concrete results, public interest in climate change has waned, and many world leaders are concentrating on upcoming elections and financial worries.

"A MISSED OPPORTUNITY"

There is concern that this new summit could fall short.

"The most it will manage is to set some voluntary goals with a vague timeline, but it will not be clear what the process is to achieve these goals," said Andrew Light of the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington. Without real goals and a way to reach them, Light said, Rio "will be a missed opportunity."

A U.N. draft document was released this month as a starting point for the June conference, outlining seven issues including jobs, energy, food, water and disasters.

"Without clearly defined goals, the summit will not provide the clarity and certainty that are needed to get the private sector to actively participate and potentially make the investments needed to achieve the goals," said Stephen Starbuck, expert on climate change and sustainability at Ernst & Young.

A narrower climate focus could also put off some countries, such as the United States, where opposition to carbon-capping legislation was so strong from Republicans and the oil industry that it overturned plans for a national emissions cap-and-trade arrangement.

In the past 20 years, the debate has changed as the world has changed, according to Tim Wirth, a former U.S. senator who attended the 1992 Rio meeting and will be at this year's conference as president of the non-profit U.N. Foundation.

"The debate's changed because of China, India, Brazil and South Africa, the very rapid and surprisingly powerful growth of the newly industrialized countries," he said.

In 1992 and in the Kyoto Protocol that grew from events at Rio, these developing countries and others were exempt from curbing carbon dioxide emissions, while rich countries like the United States would have had to cut back. In the end, the U.S. Senate never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which entered into force in 2005.

"Rio was really exploratory," Wirth said. "Nobody knew what this was going to be all about. ... I think Rio+20 becomes an opportunity to be very specific, especially about energy and development."

Although fast-developing economies are eager for this shift, Wirth said there may be resistance from big energy powers like the United States and some oil producers in the Middle East.

"These are the countries that say, 'Hey, this is our sandbox, you can't get into it,'" he said. "But I think that's passing by very quickly."

Rio+20 will have to give the private sector the clarity and incentives they need over the medium term, Starbuck said.

Any goals set in Rio would likely be for the next 20 years, which could be too far in the future for most chief executives whose time in office is more likely to last years, not decades.

Instead, interim goals set along the way to 2030 would make the private sector more likely to engage, Starbuck added.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko in Washington and Nina Chestney in London; Editing by Russell Blinch and Will Dunham)

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GLOBAL WARMING / CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE (THRU CHANNELING)

7. Let us give you another prime example of duality, the controversial issue you call global warming. Those who believe this is a natural occurrence cite Earth’s ice ages as proof that humankind has no hand in today’s record temperatures, the melting of glaciers and the harsh climate anomalies. They believe that there is no need to change manufacturing operations or turn to alternative energy sources because doing so would be cost-prohibitive. Then there are those who believe that science proves climate change is manmade. They point to industrial pollution and the use of biofuels as the cause, and they maintain that unless action is taken to end those practices, the cost will be total destruction of the environment. With the two sides at loggerheads, no large scale efforts are underway to change business as usual.


8. The truth is, both sides have validity even though neither knows that Earth herself is in the process of restoring the moderate climate of Eden times, when her body was pristine and healthy. And pollution, a product of humanity, must stop because it is harming the planet and all of its life forms. Eventually the two sides of the global warming issue will realize that protecting and repairing the environment is essential, and formerly extreme views will be reconciled into effective methods to remedy the present critical state. Read more ..... (Q&A - November 2010 (Matthew Channeling))