Venezuela Recognized for Protecting the Amazon

Venezuela is the nation with the 10th-largest amount of biodiversity in the world. Efforts to protect that biodiversity are highlighted in a new study by RAISG, or La Red Amazónica de Información Socioambiental Georreferenciada.

According to the study, Venezuela has the second-highest proportion of its Amazon region protected. The Amazonian basin covers an astounding 3 million square miles in South America, overlapping several different countries and encompassing a population of perhaps 33 million. Venezuela has already protected 71.5% of its share — second only to Ecuador’s 79.7%, and far ahead of Colombia, Brazil, and Peru.

RAISG measured Indigenous territory and other protected lands, which are generally the best conserved. Venezuela has 43 national parks. A respect for nature is enshrined in the constitution of Venezuela under a chapter that guarantees all citizens the right to a safe and healthy environment.

Since the Amazon Rainforest is often called the “lungs” of South America, we can breathe a little easier thanks to Venezuela.

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Venezuela to Help Bolivia Build Recycled ‘Petrocasas’

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales announced today that Bolivia will soon begin building recycled “petrocasas” with the help of Venezuela. These low-cost plastic dwellings are built with waste generated by oil refining, and are providing a solution to economic and environmental pressures. Tens of thousands have already been erected in Venezuela as well as Cuba and Peru. It was in Peru where Morales first saw the petrocasas and the role they played in the country’s recovery after a 2007 earthquake.

With an investment of $80 million, Bolivia will open a factory to produce petrocasas in Oruro. The first recipients will reportedly be the relatives of the victims of Bolivia’s “gas wars” of 2003. The eco-friendly houses will go up in low income areas, including El Alto and Trinidad. The project was announced at an event commemorating the 228th anniversary of the first uprising against the Spanish colonists.

See our last post on petrocasas here. For coverage in Spanish, see Reuters.

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Winds of Change Bring Renewable Energy to Venezuela

Venezuela may be known as an oil country, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t taking steps to explore the renewable energy sources of the future.

News came today that the state oil company PDVSA is beginning to invest in wind power. A Spanish company called Gamesa has been contracted to install and maintain machinery that will deliver 100 megawatts of wind power to Venezuela.

The country’s first wind farm will be located in the state of Falcon, an area of the country which juts out into the Caribbean with its arid Coro peninsula. This land mass is so desert-like, it has sand dunes that are protected as part of the Medanos de Coro National Park (pictured here).

According to Reuters, 76 wind turbines will be installed. The pricetag: almost $150 million.

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Venezuela on the Road to Clean Energy

The Associated Press announced recently that “Chavez will swap gas-guzzlers for clean cars.”

The news may seem surprising coming from an oil producing country that claims what may be the largest reserves of crude in the world. Gas prices are subsidized by the state in Venezuela, and — as in the US — cars are a big part of local culture.

Things are now beginning to change. The state oil company PDVSA has opened a conversion center to turn regular, gas-burning cars into cleaner vehicles that run on natural gas. Bloomberg reported that nearly 1,000 cars will be converted by the end of the year, and automakers will be required to have 30% running on natural gas by April 2009.

The issue of environmental sustainability has caught on in Venezuela in recent years. Part of the constitution is dedicated to the environmental rights and responsibilities of citizens. The law states: “It is a fundamental duty of the State, with the active participation of society, to ensure that the populace develops in a pollution-free environment…”

Looks like things are moving the right direction.

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Finding Venezuela’s “Lost World” in Canaima

If you can’t go see the wonders of Venezuela’s “lost world” in Canaima National Park yourself, do the next best thing: watch this video from Public Television’s “Wild Chronicles.”

The five-minute documentary follows a group of Venezuelan biologists and researchers to one of the most delicate and diverse parts of the world to collect specimens. Along the way, they discover a new species of catfish, climb up into the forest canopy to check out plants, and delve into the dark world of bats.

All of this is part of a multi-disciplinary attempt to measure local biodiversity and use that knowledge to create policies for environmental preservation. Venezuela’s wild spaces are home to a vast amount of flora and fauna, a natural patrimony that is definitely worth saving.

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Venezuela’s Citgo Delivers Energy Efficiency to U.S. Cities

For many low- and middle-income people in the U.S., helping the environment can take a back seat to the everyday demands of simply making ends meet. Citgo, the Venezuelan-owned gas company, is helping to address this problem through its new Energy Efficient Lighting Program.

The program donates energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs to families in cities across the U.S. It is based on a successful initiative in Venezuela that oversaw the nation-wide switch to eco-friendly bulbs. Also, it marks a second phase of the Community Assistance Program by Citgo, which has donated discounted home heating oil to more than 1.2 million U.S. residents since 2005.

At the launch in Washington DC on Tuesday, neighbors watched Shirley Braxton (pictured above) install the first free light bulbs in her home. Speeches were made by the CEO of Citgo, the Venezuelan Ambassador, and Joe Kennedy of the host charity Citizens Energy.

By distributing nearly half a million energy efficient bulbs, Citgo will help recipients in 23,000 households to save $14.9 million and cut their energy use by 165 million kilowatt hours.

The lighting program is taking place in DC and everywhere Citgo refineries operate, in Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas; Lemont, Illinois; and Lake Charles, Louisiana. Other cities set receive the aid include New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Madison, and Minneapolis. To see figures for each city, click here. For information about how you can participate, call 1-800-315-7682.

UPDATE: Read news articles from the AP and the Houston Chronicle.

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Venzuela’s Petrocasas Featured in BBC News

We love petrocasas, the eco-friendly houses that are taking poor families out of the crumbling barrios in Venezuela and also in Cuba.

That’s why this new coverage from BBC News is so exciting!

The petrocasas program is setting new standards for how developing countries can address poverty and related housing issues in a way that is affordable and effective. Not only that, but petrocasas are far better for the environment than hodgepodge slums are. They are made from recycled waste generated by oil refining!

BBC correspondent James Ingham reports. Click here to watch.

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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: 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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