Climate change predicted to halve coffee-growing area that supports 120m people
Extreme temperatures and unusual high-altitude rains have also sparked costly waves of pests and disease through coffee farms. In 2012, coffee leaf rust affected half of the coffee across Central America – some producers in Guatemala lost up to 85% of their crop. In 2012-13 the damage in Central America amounted to about US$500m and put 350,000 people out of work. How climate change will impact coffee growers in coming decades will vary by region. Scientists think Nicaragua could lose the majority of its coffee-growing areas by 2050, and in Tanzania, coffee yields were projected to reach “critically low levels” by 2060. By 2080, scientists think wild coffee, which is important for genetic diversity of farmed coffee, could be extinct.
Mexico Suffers More Deaths Than War-Torn Iraq, Afghanistan
Data from the 2016 Global Peace Index Report indicates that Mexico’s internal conflict led to approximately 33,000 deaths in 2015, a figure higher than those of war-torn countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The Institute for Economics and Peace presented itsGlobal Peace Index 2016 report this week, in whichMexico is ranked 140 out of 163 countries regarding the national state of peace. The country holds the lowest score in Central America and the Caribbean and its state of peace is characterized as low, the second worse grade on a five level classification system. Only Venezuela and Colombia are ranked lower amongst Latin American countries.
Amnesty: Honduras, Guatemala Deadliest Countries for Environmental Activists
Cáceres wasn’t alone. An Amnesty International report released Thursday paints a picture of pervasive hostility toward environmental campaigners in both Honduras and Guatemala, calling them “the world’s deadliest countries for environmental activists” on a per-capita basis. Last year eight activists working on environmental and territory issues were killed in Honduras, and 10 were killed in Guatemala. According to the NGO, so-called “precautionary measures” afforded to activists like Cáceres often fail miserably to make any progress in limiting harassment and intimidation.
This Amnesty International report examines the situation faced by defenders of the land, territory and environment in Honduras and Guatemala. It is the first in a series of reports to be published on this group of defenders in several countries in the Americas. Statements that vilify them, coupled with the misuse of the justice system to criminalize the defence of human rights, are violating their human rights and encouraging threats, attacks and assaults against them. Entrenched impunity for attacks and threats against defenders sends a message that such acts will not be punished, exacerbating the situation.
Why Is Nicaragua 7 Times Less Violent Than Honduras?
Police reform is undoubtedly a key element to Nicaragua‘s security success relative to its neighbors like Honduras. And building off the police reform commission’s achievements thus far in Honduras will be vital if the authorities hope to clean up a force that has long been plagued by corruption. But El Heraldo’s narrow focus on police reform underestimates the role of criminal actors in influencing homicide rates. Criminal pacts in El Salvador and Colombia have shownthat agreements between key underworld players can have as big or bigger an impact on insecurity than any government strategy. In other words, effective policing is only one side of the story. The violent street gangs and drug trafficking organizations that pervade Honduras are largely absent in Nicaragua. To understand the contrasting security fortunes in Nicaragua and Honduras, the criminal disparity must be considered alongside the disparity in the quality of the two countries’ police forces.
Haiti’s peanut producers oppose 500-tonne US donation
“Our peanuts are natural, we can use them over and over again,” farmers’ leader Josapha Antonice Guillaume told Al Jazeera. “We don’t modify our crops. We will not accept anyone or any institution that tries to destroy them. We will fight. Peanuts are part of our heritage.” More than 50 groups of farmers and aid workers, both Haitian and foreign, have issued a joint statement calling on the US to stop the shipment. “The dumping of these peanuts will create a big catastrophe, even bigger than the destruction of our rice production,” said Jean Pierre Ricot, an agriculture expert. “Hundreds of thousands of families lost their livelihoods because of those policies. To face the problem, we need a fundamental battle to stop these policies.”
Q&A: Colombia Peace Deal Announced — What’s Next?
While Colombians overwhelmingly support peace, polls show deep polarization over the accords themselves. Most controversial are parts of the special justice system to be used in the transition. The international community has largely embraced the agreements as striking a reasonable balance for all sides, addressing root causes of the conflict; victims’ rights to truth, justice, reparations and non-repetition of the conflict; and the government’s obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Part of the problem is that Santos, who has staked his presidency on ending the war, is unpopular at home, primarily for his handling of the economy. He also faces powerful opponents to the deal in former President Alvaro Uribe, who calls the accord an agreement with terrorism, and Comptroller General Alejandro Ordóñez, who has challenged the agreement’s legality. It will be unfortunate if the plebiscite becomes a political referendum on Santos rather than a vote to move out of the shadows of war.
The three Rs: How Bolivia combats illiteracy
Their group is part of the “Yes, I can” adult literacy campaign which was launched in Bolivia 10 years ago. Most of the students are women over the age of 50 from a poor, rural background. Officials say that it is thanks to the “Yes, I can” programme that illiteracy rates dropped from 13.28% in 2001 to 3.8% in 2014, when the last census was conducted. This means that Bolivia is now among the countries considered to have eradicated illiteracy by Unesco’s standards, which requires countries to maintain a rate of illiteracy of below 4%.