Did you know that Uruguayan beef is becoming increasingly popular in Japan? Looking at various food review sites, the rich and juicy taste served in thick slices seems to be the reason why the grass-fed Uruguayan beef is popular in Japan.
The use of security personnel to protect the communities and assets related to a project is a common practice in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region where 43% of the population says they are constantly afraid of being victims of a crime.
Latin America and the Caribbean face the triple challenges of COVID, biodiversity loss, and climate change. The region is one of the most affected by the pandemic, facing an economic contraction of 7.4%. Today, we are in the warmest year and the warmest decade humanity has seen. We have seen hurricanes Eta and Iota devastated the lives of more than three million people in Central America.
At the beginning of a project, we ask ourselves how it will improve the lives of beneficiaries. When these beneficiaries will be Indigenous Peoples, we also ask ourselves how development benefits and opportunities should be promoted in a culturally appropriate manner. This is precisely one of the objectives of the Environmental and Social Performance Standard on Indigenous Peoples (ESPS 7) of the IDB’s new
Suriname isundoubtedlyonefascinatingcountry as it is multicultural, multi-lingual,andevenmulti-gastronomic–which presents someexciting decision-making when it comes to food.Butdespitethese assets, the country is also highly vulnerable, especiallyto the impacts of climate changeand natural disasters.
In the country, sea-level riseparticularly exacerbatesthis vulnerabilitysince most of the population, economic activity,critical infrastructureand fertile land are located within thecoastal zone,including the capital city ofParamaribo.
The “debt and death” ailment is well-known to vulnerable Caribbean island states. Intensifying cycles of acute damage and loss from recurrent climate disaster-driven events are increasingly observed. This scenario is often accompanied by a net cumulative increase in sovereign debt, in part to finance resilient recovery and reconstruction, periodically punctuated by intermittent reconstruction-driven growth. When debt to GDP ratios escalate, credit ratings drop, and cost of borrowing increases.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted all aspects of our lives. It has changed our traditional way of doing things and has presented us with unusual challenges that we have had to overcome with creativity, innovation and resilience. The Latin American and Caribbean region has been disproportionately affected. In terms of deaths, with only 8% of the world’s population, we tally almost 30% of global victims.
Forests are the crown jewels of Latin America and the Caribbean’s (LAC’s) ecological endowment. The region boasts roughly half of the world’s tropical forests and a quarter of its mangroves.
But LAC forests face extraordinary challenges in the 2020s. They are being cleared and degraded at an alarming rate. Climate change is altering forest functioning, plant growth, and tree mortality. And managed forests confront increasing competition from Asia, declining global demand, and lagging sustainability certification.
The dramatic images of wildfires in California burning down more than 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) have been spreading in the media all over the world. In Latin America, the fires in the Brazilian Pantanal region have burnt an area twice as big as the Californian fires in 2020 and devasted the world’s largest tropical wetland.
Since the novel coronavirus struck last year forcing countries into lockdowns and social distancing measures, businesses and governments adopted new policies for working remotely. These lockdowns have caused an unprecedented experiment where more people than ever before have been teleworking to reduce the risks of spreading and contracting the virus.