Taking the high roads to task

Article Abstract:

Much of the massive expansion in Nepal's road system between 1951 and 1993 has been ill-conceived and ecologically unsound. Road building was often funded by foreign governments who left Nepal with the high cost of maintaining the roads. Poor laborers brought in to build roads often stripped nearby forests resulting in excessive erosion during the rainy season. Indiscriminate use of dynamite produced waste which was dumped into gullies and created overflow that then undermined the roadbed. Local labor and indigenous vegetation are being used to build socially and ecologically sound 'green roads.'

Methods, Public works, Road construction, Environmental aspects, Roads, Nepal, Mountain roads

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Nuts, bucks and survival

Article Abstract:

The extractive exploitation of Brazil's rainforests has encountered numerous problems that have prevented it from becoming the economic miracle that was expected at the Rainforest Harvest conference held in 1990. Companies have established relationships with some Indian tribes to extract products such as brazil nuts and medicinal herbs. Rubber and nuts still account for 80% of extractive industries' earnings. Extractivism has been criticized for its impact on the indigenous cultures it relies on for labor, particularly when there are serious price fluctuations for the products being harvested.

Cover Story, Brazil, Natural resources, Rain forests, Cayapos

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Burning oils fuel acid rain

Article Abstract:

Swedish environmental groups are calling on the EU to allow EU member countries that want to go lower than the one per cent maximum sulphur content of burner fuel oils that was set in its proposed directive. Sweden was able to lower the maximum sulphur level in its fuel oil to 0.8% to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions in the country, which is the precursor of acid rain. However, this level would violate the EU's competition regulations. The groups argued that the directive should address the problem posed by burning fuel oils to the environment rather than on free trade.

Laws, regulations and rules, Sweden, Prevention, European Union, Acid rain, Acid deposition, Fuel oil, Fuel oils, Bunker fuel, Bunker fuels

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