Letter from Brazil - Stories by Mario Osava / IPS Inter Press Service

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Thursday, August 21, 2008 19:21 GMT

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Small Hydroelectric Dams Not So Green
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO - The combined impacts of numerous small hydroelectric dams in one river basin can be at least as harmful as one large dam, warn experts, environmental activists and indigenous groups, who face a flood of new projects along the rivers of the western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
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Tierramérica Centre Born in Heart of Amazon Jungle
By Mario Osava
MANAUS, Brazil - The Tierramérica International Centre for Sustainable Development and Environmental Defence held its founding assembly Thursday in Manaus, a city in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, during a seminar on the world’s big environmental challenges.
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Biodiesel to Bring Electricity to Amazon Villages
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Oil from native tucuma, ouricurí and murumurú palm trees will be used to provide electricity to isolated communities in the depths of the Brazilian Amazon, which are too remote to supply with power by conventional means.
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Oil Not Costly Enough to Prompt Needed Changes - Experts
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Just about everyone is complaining about the high price of oil, but it does not even reflect the environmental costs and is still insufficient to promote the changes needed to ensure a less catastrophic future for humanity, experts warn.
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Doha Failure a ‘Triumph of Protectionism’, Say Trade Sources
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - "Protectionism has triumphed," said the vice president of Brazil’s Foreign Trade Association, José Augusto de Castro, referring to Tuesday’s collapse of the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks in Geneva.
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Market Access - Key to Autonomy for Rural Black Community
By Mario Osava
IVAPORUNDUVA, Brazil - From the 16th century onward, the densely forested, mountainous terrain of the Ribeira River Valley made it an ideal area for runaway slaves to establish settlements of their own, known in Brazil as "quilombos". But the geographical isolation that once offered refuge has now become an obstacle to the development of these Afro-Brazilian communities.
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Controversy Over DWI Law Despite Reduced Deaths
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Although Brazil’s tough new drunk driving law has been applauded for cutting traffic deaths in its first month, and is bringing about a change in habits, it continues to face opposition by restaurant and bar owners who will challenge it as unconstitutional in order to get it revoked or at least limit its effects.
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Livelihoods Vs. Environment - Afro-Descendants Caught in the Middle
By Mario Osava
REGISTRO, Brazil - "They won’t let us plant our crops," says Leonila Costa Pontes, referring to the laws that require an environmental permit for her to cultivate her small plot of land.
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Afro-Brazilian Communities Recover Juçara Palm
By Mario Osava*
ELDORADO, Brazil - The juçara, a palm tree in danger of becoming extinct due to over-exploitation of its edible heart, is beginning to recover thanks to sustainable management by the Afro-Brazilian communities of the Atlantic tropical forest, Brazil's most deforested biome.
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Bringing Development to Poverty-Stricken Maranhão State
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - The construction of what will be Latin America’s biggest oil refinery and of a large steel mill, as well as the promotion of food production, are among the initiatives aimed at pulling the state of Maranhão in northeast Brazil out of decades of poverty.
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How to Atone for Beef's Sins
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO - The global food crisis and climate change have cast the spotlight on negative aspects of the cattle industry, such as the high consumption of vegetable protein to generate relatively little meat, and the sector’s role in global warming.
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One Hundred Years of Migration
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - One hundred years ago, 781 Japanese immigrants arrived at the Brazilian port of Santos on the steamship Kasato Maru, marking the start of a labour flow that gave rise to the ethnic group with the highest levels of education and per capita income in Brazil -- a migration that reversed direction in the 1980s.
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Delivery Boy Newshounds Show Life in Sao Paulo
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Cleyton Perroni’s motorbike has been a part of his life since he was 12. But 19 years later, its role changed from recreation to an essential working tool as, equipped with a cell phone, he became a reporter of daily life in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.
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Mario Osava, IPS's Brazil correspondent, covers political, economic and social issues, including human rights, labour, environment, poverty, indigenous issues, and sustainable development. He has travelled the corners of Latin America's largest country to bring you these stories.