The world has seen seven global cholera outbreaks since 1817, and the current one seems to have come to stay. Rising temperatures and a stubbornly persistent, toxic bacteria strain appear to have given the disease the upper hand.
The 8th World Wilderness Congress (WWC) will, for the first time ever, bring together as many as 30 indigenous groups – from the United States, Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Africa – with the goal of forming an international Native Lands and Wilderness Council.
Many nations are taking steps to protect the tropical rain forests within their borders by creating parks and nature reserves. But it is clear that this kind of action can protect merely a fraction of the world’s rain forest lands. Maintaining parks and reserves is expensive, especially for governments who are trying to meet the competing needs of other people for income and for land on which to live.
Juan Guevera’s job is to help the farmers who live in the area around the city of Pucallpa, in the part of the Amazon Basin that lies in Peru, meet their needs for food and income.