Venezuela Participates in NY Indigenous Film Fest

David Hernández-Palmar, a young Venezuelan man from the Wayuu Indigenous community, will be in New York City this Saturday to help present a documentary at the 30th Annual Native American Film and Video Festival.

“Owners of the Water: Conflict and Collaboration over Rivers” was created by Hernández-Palmar together with Caimi Waiassé (a Brazilian Xavante man) and U.S. Anthropologist Laura R. Graham. It chronicles an international campaign to protect Rio das Mortes River Basin in Brazil, a vital resource for the Xavante community that was threatened by soya production and related deforestation. The Xavante blocked a national highway to demand the protection of the basin.

To help tell the story of the Xavante’s struggle, Venezuela’s David Hernández-Palmar lent his talents as an up-and-coming documentarian. For more information about this and other films at the Native American Film and Video Festival, click here.

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Venezuela Gives Cuba Affordable, Eco-friendly Petrocasas

Remember the petrocasas we told you about back in March? These affordable, eco-friendly homes made of waste generated by oil refining are now being used to ease a housing shortage in Cuba. Reuters reports that 40 new petrocasas are being built per day to reach a total number of 14,000 this year.

Petrocasas are donated or sold at a low cost to needy families. They are pre-fabricated, and are made from polyvinyl chloride, a recycled plastic.

The houses are an innovative way to pursue sustainable development and raise the standard of living among poor communities while helping to mitigate the environmental impact of oil refining. They are just one way in which Venezuela is helping Latin American countries achieve a greener future.

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Venezuela: Environmental Concerns Prevail Over Mining

Because its economy based largely on natural resource exports, Venezuela faces particular challenges with regard to environmental sustainability. How can a country draw on the Earth’s riches while ensuring their long-term availability?

One way is to prevent excess exploitation. This is exactly what Venezuela’s Ministry of the Environment has recently done by curtailing gold mining activities in the Imataca Forest in the southeastern state of Bolívar. This region of Venezuela boasts an amazing amount of bird species, and birding is one of the country’s top tourist attractions. Five major Indigenous groups living in and around the Imataca Forest have been adversely affected by the mining.

The Ministry of the Environment responded the concerns of environmentalists and local communities alike last week when it rescinded a permit allowing gold and copper exploitation by the company Gold Reserve Inc. Meanwhile, another firm called Crystallex International was denied a request to expand its own mining operations. Now that sustainability is the goal, many now believe that Venezuela’s natural wealth will last for a long time to come.

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Venezuela Celebrates Earth Day

April 22nd is Earth Day, and Venezuela is gearing up for an entire week of events aimed at honoring the planet and helping to inspire environmental conservation.

In Caracas, “Earth Day Week” begins today with a gathering of university students at the city’s Botanical Garden. The students will voice ideas for saving energy and reducing waste and contamination. The Metropolitan University in Caracas will host various screenings of Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, followed by open discussions.

Venezuelans are taking their concern for the environment to Washington, too; the embassy in the U.S. capital has planned several events in conjunction with environmentalists from all over Latin America. Their work helps us take a step back and consider our impact on the planet.

Want to ‘take a step back’ yourself? The picture above shows Venezuela’s Gulf of Maracaibo as seen from space. Click here for more.

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Venezuelan Scientists Report on the Environment

A group of Venezuelan scientists have returned from a research expedition to Antarctica, where they measured environmental degradation. TeleSur reports that the scientists, who collaborated with Uruguayan researchers, warned that significant environmental shifts documented in Antarctica indicate the accelerating pace of global climate change.

Venezuela’s Minister of Science and Technology reiterated the commitment of the oil-producing nation to issues of environmental protection and conservation. The Minister also heralded the Antarctica expedition with Uruguay as evidence of a “great spirit of cooperation, of brotherhood” between the two countries.

Later this year, Venezuela and Uruguay will jointly launch a satellite called “Simón Bolívar Satellite” in homage to South America’s famed independence hero. The new technology will allow both countries to improve their tele-communications industries.

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Venezuela: Designing a Cleaner Future

An innovative form of eco-friendly housing is taking off in Venezuela.

“Petrocasas” is the name given to a new kind of house built with waste generated by oil production. A plastic derived from the process of refining crude oil is filled with concrete to create durable homes with a high degree of flexibility of design, not to mention a very low environmental impact.

As the world’s fifth-largest exporter of oil — over 3 million barrels per day! — Venezuela faces unique challenges with regard to achieving environmental sustainability. Part of the solution is being found in initiatives like the government-funded “Petrocasas” project, which helps low-income Venezuelans begin to prosper by replacing the precarious homes found in poor barrios with eco-friendly ones that last longer and cost less.

On Sunday, 459 “Petrocasas” were granted to families in the coastal state of Carabobo. There are plans to build 60,000 of these economical and environmentally benign dwellings. This is all part of Venezuela’s “Energy Revolution,” a plan to to develop new industries around the processing of raw materials like oil. Read more about this program here.

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