Infrastructure
Costa Rican community struggles to stop an airport ‘destroying our country’
PALMAR SUR, Costa Rica — “Once, we were digging to build a fence for the animals and we discovered by luck some archaeological artifacts,” says Ana Isabel Vargas Ortiz, a 55-year-old farmer. She lives in Finca 9, a village close to the Diquís Delta archaeological site in the Puntarenas region of southeast Costa Rica. “It […]
Ecuador-China free trade agreement poses serious environmental risks, critics say
Ecuador’s new free trade agreement with China is getting backlash from critics worried about public health risks and potential damage to the environment. The agreement, which was signed last May but still needs approval in Ecuador’s National Assembly, has come under fire for policies that could overwhelm the country’s waste disposal systems, increase deforestation and […]
Indonesia’s Mandalika project a litany of violations for Indigenous Sasak
JAKARTA — Activists have called on the developers of a major tourism project on the Indonesian island of Lombok to immediately remedy the rights violations alleged by local Indigenous communities who have had to be moved from the land. The resettlement phase of the $3 billion project in the coastal Mandalika region was supposed to […]
El Salvador women’s group takes a stand for river system targeted by development
A group of women in rural El Salvador is standing up against a major infrastructure project that threatens to clear hundreds of hectares of forest and cut off access to rivers that provide the community with clean drinking water. The project, known as Ciudad Valle El Ángel, involves the construction of thousands of stores, hotels […]
UNESCO reiterates road project’s dangers to Papua park as Indonesia doubles down
JAKARTA — UNESCO has renewed its call for the closure of a road running through Indonesia’s Lorentz National Park after the nation’s environment minister said shutting it down would be impossible. The park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, encompasses a variety of biodiversity-rich ecosystems on the western coast of the island of New Guinea. BirdLife […]
Indonesia’s flip-flop on zero-deforestation pledge portends greater forest loss
JAKARTA — Indonesian officials have backtracked on the country’s pledge at the COP26 climate summit to end deforestation by 2030, calling it unfair and inappropriate to demand that it stop clearing the world’s third-largest swath of tropical rainforest. The flip-flop has prompted concerns among environmental activists that Indonesia — one of the world’s largest greenhouse […]