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Press Clippings

Countries take action to boost IIRSA through private investment promotion

by Business News America Regional government authorities are taking action to boost the South American infrastructure integration initiative (IIRSA) Read more...

Civil society groups propose change in annual IDB-civil society meeting

by Bank Information Center (BIC) Senior IDB officials have made it a practice to meet with civil society representatives in a special meeting once per year then again during the Bank’s Board of Governors meeting. Despite having direct access to the IDB president Moreno at these meetings, their quality and in turn civil society interest has declined precipitously. Read more...

Brazil:Legal block on Estreito river diversion work

by www.waterpowermagazine.com River diversion work for the Estreito project in Brazil has been stopped by a court in Maranhao state but the rest of the construction activity is unaffected, IWP&DC has learned. Read more...

Twilight for the Forest People

by John Noble Wilford The world is closing in on the few remaining people who live in such remote isolation as to seem not of this world. Read more...

"Systemic" Human Rights Abuses Dominate Chevron Annual General Meeting

by Amazon Watch Chevron’s Victims from Burma, Ecuador and Nigeria Confront CEO David O’Reilly at Shareholder Meeting Read more...

ConocoPhillips Warned Amazon Operations Could Kill Off Isolated Indigenous Communities

by Amazon Watch Shareholder Meeting Told Houston Oil Major’s Rainforest Plans Would Also Lead to Deforestation and Exacerbate Global Warming Read more...

Brazil's building spree in Amazon draws protests

by Alan Clendenning The Belo Monte dam will swallow thick rain forest and harm rare fish, as well as the livelihoods and homes of roughly 15,000 people who live in this remote area of northeastern Para state, critics say. Read more...

Minc steps into Brazil deforestation controversy

by Jonathan Wheatley Brazil’s new environment minister takes office on Tuesday in the middle of a spat over an apparent recent increase in deforestation in the Amazon region Read more...

Tax reform seen as priority for Latin America

by The Financial Times Latin America should be looking to European-style tax reform rather than subsidies or export bans to help manage the inflationary threat posed by the global food crisis Read more...

Brazil: Tensions Boil Over at Altamira

by Glenn Switkes I was on the panel discussing the impacts of Belo Monte Dam, when about eight Kayapó Indians incensed at the defense of the project by state company Eletrobrás' project manager Read more...

European Banks Financing Damaging Agrofuels in Latin America

by Friends of the Earth Many major European banks are funding the rapid expansion of agrofuel production in Latin America, leading to large scale deforestation, increasing human right abuses and threatening food sovereignty, according to a new report Read more...

Brazil: Suez consortium wins Jirau auction with US$43.30/MWh bid

by Guilherme Monsanto The Consórcio Energia Sustentável do Brasil (CESB) group led by France's Suez has presented the winning bid to build and operate Brazil's 3.3GW Jirau hydro plant on the Madeira river. Read more...

Brazil's environment minister quits in protest

by BBC News Marina Silva's resignation is linked to her opposition to many of the major megaprojects planned and underway in the Brazilian Amazon, including two large hydroelectric dams on the Madeira River Read more...

Brazil "soy king" sees Amazon as food solution

by Stuart Grudgings More of the Amazon rain forest should be cut down to make way for farmland to help ease the global food crisis, the governor of a big Brazilian farming state was quoted on Friday as saying. Read more...

Brazil to rein in foreign groups in Amazon

by Reese Ewing Brazil's military will regulate environmental, religious and other foreign groups working in the Amazon region under a law. Read more...

With Guns and Fines, Brazil Takes On Loggers

by Alexei Barrionuevo Brazilian agents have caught loggers in Alta Floresta, in central Brazil. Read more...

Environmentalists urge IADB to end biofuel loans

by Michael Christie Environmental groups urged to stop lending money to big companies piling into the booming ethanol business. Read more...

IDB criticized for some energy projects

by Jane Bussey and Jim Wyss Environmental groups accused the bank of pumping billions of dollars into projects that harm the environment. Read more...

BID: Meeting to Focus on Biofuels

by Laura Munoz BID announced an energy initiative to encourage Latin America to pursue sustainable power with an emphasis on biofuels. Read more...

How times have changed since IDB last met in Florida

by Mimi Whitefield This week some 6,000 government finance officials, international bankers and the groups they lend to will converge on Miami Beach for the Inter-American Development Bank's annual meeting. Read more...

China's Hunger; Latin America's Commodities

by Carin Zissis With China’s commodity demand on the rise, analysts see a buffer for Latin America economies from a U.S. downturn through Chinese hunger for products ranging from soya to copper to gas. Read more...

Amazon environmentalist gunned down in Peru

by Rhett A. Butler After reporting a truck loaded with mahogany illegally logged from the Amazon rainforest, Julio Gualberto García Agapito, a local authority, was gunned down by an illegal timber operator. Read more...

Brazil: going it alone in biofuels

by Mario Osava In a nod to Brazil, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said the expansion of the ethanol market could contribute to fighting climate change if trade barriers are minimized. Read more...

IDB Fund Supports Inclusive Business Development in Peru and Ecuador

by Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo The Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank today announced approval of financing for two non-reimbursible technical cooperation projects in Peru and Ecuador, totaling US$1.6 million and US$1.5 million, respectively. Read more...

Latin America Banks on Independence: Bank of the South

by Mark Engler On December 9, standing before the flags of their countries, the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela, along with a representative from Uruguay, gathered in Buenos Aires and signed the founding charter of the Banco del Sur, or Bank of the South. Read more...

IDB launches LNG study

by BNAmericas The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has launched a tender to study the potential of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification plant that would supply Argentina and Uruguay. Read more...

Chavez Names New Finance Minister and Vice President

by Matthew Walter Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez replaced his finance minister and vice president as part of a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle after voters rejected his proposal to overhaul the constitution. Read more...

Troubled Amazon corner - Interoceanica Highway and Complejo Madeira: Grassroots forum attempts to alleviate negative impacts of Interoceanic Highway.

by Barbara J. Fraser. Marcos Chambilla Copari recalls arriving in the of village of San Lorenzo, in the southwestern Peruvian rainforest, in 1986, a refugee from flooding around Lake Titicaca in Peru’s southern highlands. “There was no road to get our products to market,” he said. “Everything rotted in the field.” Read more...

Peru's Camisea LNG project gets key loan from BID

by Reuters BID approved a $400 million loan to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Peru's Camisea field. But environmentalists and indigenous groups have inquired: At what cost? Read more...

Lula's visit to La Paz provokes the detention of Rio Madeira defenders

by Fobomade Five persons were arrested in the breakup of a peaceful protest by a group of activists against the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Madeira River. The detention was justified with the argument that an act of protest harms of Bolivian-Brazilian relations. Read more...

CAF respalda plan de integración y desarrollo fronterizo entre Bolivia y Argentina: Esta entidad lanzó una Convocatoria Internacional para promover el desarrollo de ambas fronteras. Las propuestas deben ser presentadas hasta el 29 de octubre.

by Agencia Boliviana de Información Con el propósito de apoyar al país en la formulación de un plan maestro de integración y desarrollo fronterizo binacional argentino - boliviano, la Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) lanzó este lunes la convocatoria para un concurso público internacional del Programa de Apoyo al Desarrollo y la Integración Fronteriza (PADIF). Read more...

Preliminary License with caveats for the Madeira River Complex

by Mariane Gusan The same obstacles that resulted in the denial of the preliminary license for the project are now 'conditioning factors' to the project, placed by Ibama, which thereby transfers the responsibility for resolving the problems to whoever wins the government concession to build the hydro plants. Read more...

Scarcity in the midst of surplus: Brazil's energy policy

by The Economist Thanks partly to ethanol from sugar cane, Brazil aims to be an energy superpower. But can it keep its own lights on? Read more...

Santo Antônio auction scheduled for October 30

by Guilherme Monsanto Brazil's mines and energy ministry (MME) has scheduled for October 30 the auction to build and operate the 3.15GW Santo Antônio hydroelectric plant, MME said on its website. Santo Antônio will start selling power in 2012, MME said. Read more...

Bolivia: A quest to save South America's freshwater dolphins

by Sibylla Brodzinsky Read more...

Bolivian parade goes off without scuffle

by Miami Herald Read more...

Cold snap prompts Chile to seek gas deal with old foe Bolivia

by Matthew Malinowski Read more...

'Capital war' is Bolivia's latest battle

by Oscar Ordoñez and Patrick J. McDonnell Read more...

Bolivia: Populism For a Price

by Peter S. Goodman Read more...

Researcher predicts that hydro power plants will incite rural conflicts

by Panorama Brasil Rural conflicts over water will likely increase in the next few years due to hydro infrastructure projects within the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC). Read more...

Move to shift capital exposes rifts in Bolivia

by Helen Popper Read more...

War on the Madeira

by Luís Osvaldo Grossman Dispute between the Camargo Corrêa and Norberto Odebrecht construction companies over the hydroelectric plants leads to heated exchanges of accusations and puts pressure on government institutions Read more...

BNDES disbursements reached a record of R$ 58.7 billion for 12 months until June

by BNDES Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social [BNDES] disbursements reached a new record for the last 12 months ended in June. R$ 58.7 billion was released in the period, representing a growth of 30%. This result, which strengthens the growth trend beginning in the second quarter of 2006, was mainly influenced by the sectors related to metallurgy, trade and services, chemical and petrochemical products. Read more...

Chesf exec: Eletrobrás could be key partner for Madeira

by Guilherme Monsanto Read more...

BNDES to provide full support for Madeira project - Brazil

by Guilherme Monsanto Read more...

Suez SA plans to bid on the construction of Rio Madeira dams

by Chron.com Suez SA, Europe's fifth largest electricity producer, plans to bid on rights to build hydroelectric dams in Brazil's Amazon region. Read more...

Official says Amazon dams on fast track

by By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer The government argues the dams in the western Amazon are needed for Brazil to meet its growing energy needs, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has long complained about delays in granting licenses for the dams.Environmentalists, however, say the dams will destroy a large swath of the rain forest and endanger rare fish. Read more...

IDB seeks to deepen work with civil society in Latin America and the Caribbean : At a meeting with NGO leaders from 25 countries held in San Jose, Costa Rica

by Read more...

Leaky pipes, stingy aid slow Peru gas project: More oversight is needed for the $1.6 billion internationally financed project, say activists.

by Kelly Hearn, The Christian Science Monitor The remote outpost is part of the Camisea Gas Project, a $1.6 billion project for piping Peruvian natural gas 340 miles from the jungle floor, crossing 14,000-foot Andean mountains to markets in Peru and - by 2010 - the US. Supporters say it will be the catalyst for an unprecedented economic boom for impoverished Peru. But environmental concerns have made the flagship project a political football in Washington and Lima. Read more...

New IADB head remains enigma but expectations high

by Gilbert Le Gras Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno shepherded his first annual meeting to a close on Wednesday, with observers still unsure whether he is a careful technocrat or a bold visionary. Read more...

Americas bankers' debt challenge

by The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has said debt relief is possible in South and Central America, but only if the bank can be made more agile. Read more...

Babbit: Megaprojects Threaten Environment, Communities: Former U.S. Interior Secretary warns against "grandiose" projects

by Bruce Babbit The former U.S. Interior Secretary, and chair of the Blue Ribbon Panel on the IDB's environmental policy, warns that “grandiose” infrastructure projects do not guarantee prosperity. Read more...

Citizens ask Peruvian Government to Postpone Inter-Oceanic Highway: Government ignores petition

by Over 175 Peruvian citizens from all walks of life released a petition to the media regarding the construction of the Iñapari-Puerto Marítimo del Sur road. Read more...

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Last updated  25 August 2008
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