Latin America has its biodiversity at risk

Deforestation and water pollution by toxic waste are part of the environmental problems plaguing the region, which has 70 percent of the planet's biological diversity.

Latin America, home to eight of the 17 countries that hold up to 70 percent of the planet's biological diversity, held on Saturday the World Environment Day in the midst of serious threats such as deforestation, pollution and drought.

According to experts, countries like Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru or Venezuela, which are part of the group of nations with the greatest variety of fauna and flora of the world, have serious environmental problems which, in rare cases, has responded appropriately.

The United Nations Organization (UN) has warned in particular that a third of global deforestation occurs in this region, which accounts for 22 percent of native forests, which means 860 million hectares.

In Brazil, the most biologically diverse country, from August 2008 to July 2009 were devastated 7464 square kilometers of the Amazon, according to official figures.

In Colombia, which remains in the list of biodiversity, it is estimated that about 300,000 hectares of forest are destroyed each year by direct cause of drug production. For a gram of cocaine is just about four square meters of forest, say authorities.

Deforestation for charcoal (30 million copies a year) threatens to turn into a desert to Haiti today with a forest cover of only 2 percent.

This phenomenon is added other dramas environmental pollution generated especially by mining and toxic waste, or lack of water.

Cuba, for example, faces a severe and prolonged drought in much of the country. According to experts, by 2009 it was one of the four less rain in the last 109 years on the island.

In Argentina, the Matanza-Riachuelo, on the southern edge of Buenos Aires has been, for decades the most polluted waterway in the country, receiving approximately 88,500 meters of industrial waste cu.

National Park of Laguna del Tigre, Guatemala and considered the largest wetland in Mesoamerica, dying by invasion, oil extraction and penetration of drug trafficking.

Chile, in turn, still lives the consequences of pollution by lead and arsenic in Arica, on the border with Peru, where 80 were deposited 20,000 tons of toxic waste.

Peru is a critical event in the region

This country is experiencing an acute situation in La Oroya, a town considered the most polluted city in A. America, where Doe Run operates. American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2007 gave precautionary measures on behalf of 65 residents, after finding that his health was at risk from high levels of contamination due to metal particles released by this industry.

Thanks to eltiempo.com