Щоб переглянути сайт, увімкніть JavaScript у своєму браузері Dozens of people have been displaced and at least 3 fatalities reported Three people from the same family died after heavy rain triggered a landslide which destroyed their home in Aratuba on 16 March 2023 A further 15 homes were damaged or deemed unsafe by authorities “The municipal government deeply regrets what happened and will provide full support to the families of the victims and survivors,” the Municipal Prefecture of Aratuba said in a statement A three-day period of mourning was declared State Governor Elmano de Freitas visited the area on 17 March over 30 families were pre-emptively evacuated from homes in neighbourhoods of Itapipoca City on 17 March due to flood and landslide threats Local governments declared a state of emergency in Guaramiranga the government has declared a state of emergency for 20 municipalities in response to recent heavy rainfall Several communities were left isolated after flooding along the Pericumã River near Pinheiro on 16 March Flooding was reported in Imperatriz near the Tocantins River Municipalities under a state of emergency as of 18 March: Afonso Cunha Richard Davies is the founder of floodlist.com and reports on flooding news Cookies | Privacy | Contacts © Copyright 2025 FloodList The Araripe manakin is a Brazilian bird so unique and so threatened that it has its own national conservation action plan is endemic to the Chapada do Araripe region of Ceará state and despite its beautiful contrasting colors and the red topknot of the males Its range is a very restricted 50 square kilometers (19 square miles) straddling the municipalities of Crato it’s known in the semiarid Caatinga biome as the “Guardian of the Springs.” When the Araripe manakin was formally described as a new-to-science species, it was classified as critically endangered a status in which it has remained ever since just one category away from being considered extinct in the wild Its current population is estimated at approximately 800 individuals That’s why this bird with the fiery crest was one of the highlights in a report presented in 2019 by Qair Brasil a subsidiary of French renewable energy developer Qair Group when applying for an environmental license to build the Serra do Mato wind and solar farm complex The project lies in the border region of the municipalities of Porteiras which means it overlaps with Araripe manakin territory Under Brazil’s current environmental legislation the National Council for the Environment (Conama) requires an environmental impact assessment and environmental impact report (EIA and RIMA) as well as public hearings before a wind farm can be built in “areas of occurrence of endangered species with restricted endemism,” as is the case of the Araripe manakin And it’s not the only species of concern in this particular region The study prepared by Qair’s consultancy identified another rare bird in Missão Velha: the yellow-legged tinamou (Crypturellus noctivagus) The most obvious risk posed by wind turbines close to areas where such birds occur is collision with the blades. In the U.S., it’s estimated that more than 500,000 birds die this way every year Brazil’s Northeast region is prime territory for the country’s wind industry Ninety percent of the companies in this sector are found here mostly in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Bahia states This biome has the ideal conditions for wind energy generation: more constant winds and that don’t change direction frequently The wind power industry is relatively new in Brazil; the first public auction took place in 2009, the first wind park started operating in 2011, and specific licensing legislation was approved in 2014 “Federal law provides guidelines for state governments to enact their own legislation,” says Elbia Gannoum an association that represents companies in the industry have been learning to deal with state legislation and we don’t see it as bureaucratic or restrictive.” But some conservation experts say that while investment in clean and renewable energy is very welcome greater rigor is needed to analyze and monitor the projects renewable energy sources are often seen as solutions But not in the way it has been done in Brazil’s Northeast especially in the Caatinga,” says Paulo Marinho a biology professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte who specializes in Caatinga mammal conservation with very little regulation and concern about the biome and the people who live in it.” The Caatinga is the fourth-largest biome in Brazil — after the Amazon, the Cerrado, and the Atlantic Forest — spanning 860,000 km2 (332,000 mi2). As of 2020, however, barely 2% of its territory was preserved under fully protected conservation units, according to the environment ministry the Caatinga has not been studied enough,” says Sandino Silva coordinator of institutional relations at the Caatinga Association which means that several of its species will not be found anywhere else in the world.” Like the Araripe manakin, another species endemic to the Caatinga is at the center of a controversy involving the construction of a wind farm complex in Bahia. The area is close to the only refuge for the Lear’s macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) an endangered species of which only about 2,200 are left in the wild according to the latest census conducted last year is planning a project near the Raso da Catarina area in Canudos municipality with two farms at an estimated cost of 500 million reais ($102 million) The construction work is practically ready but it’s now emerged that the Bahia state environmental agency approved the project based only on a simplified licensing procedure Citing the potential impact that the blades of the 80 wind turbines could have on the Lear’s macaw — a bird that embarks on long daily flights of up to 80 km (50 mi) leaving its roosting place at dawn and returning at the end of the day — local organizations and communities have filed a lawsuit challenging the licensing procedure the Federal Prosecution Service called for the annulment of the license a federal court in Bahia suspended all licenses granted to Voltalia The court ordered that “the required EIA/RIMA be presented and approved including a public hearing in compliance with the relevant environmental legislation.” Voltalia said it had conducted “risk assessment based on field observation of the behavior of the Lear’s macaw for a period longer than recommended by the best international practices concluding that wind farms pose no risk to the preservation and conservation of the species.” The company also called the suspension of the licenses inappropriate saying it’s investing in a series of conservation projects for the species in addition to taking actions to avoid possible collisions “The government faces pressure at all levels to speed up the start of these [wind farm] construction works,” Marinho says “And when these projects reach lower levels of government It falls on environmental agencies that often have to produce reports according to the company’s timing rather than the technical criteria.” Warnings about the risks that wind farms pose to birds aren’t new. In 2019, researchers from the Federal University of Pernambuco published a study in the journal Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation titled “Green versus green Adverting potential conflicts between wind power generation and biodiversity conservation in Brazil.” Brazil ranked eighth in the world in terms of installed capacity for wind power generation and had more than 6,300 turbines in operation describes what happened in Pernambuco in 2015: State legislation was amended to change the altitude threshold for permanent preservation areas (APP) in a move aimed at benefiting the wind power industry the minimum altitude at which vegetation could be protected rose from 750 meters to 1,100 meters (about 2,500 to 3,300 feet) land ideal for setting up a wind farm — would be unable to get APP protection “The fact is that the state of Pernambuco changed a protection standard to benefit wind farms It was shoved down our throats,” Melo says “And every time environmental protection is undermined influence from an industry that was not shy about overturning legislation.” he says environmental licensing in Brazil is seen by some companies as a barrier when in fact it should be a fundamental step in any project development process “We need politicians and businesspeople who respect environmental protection as a development strategy for future generations Natural capital is one of Brazil’s major weapons for international negotiation,” he says Yet that doesn’t seem to be the case. A study published in 2021 notes that 62% of the area now occupied by wind farms in the states of Bahia Rio Grande do Norte and Rio Grande do Sul used to be covered in native vegetation and coastal sands The numbers are all positive: According to ABEEólica the sector will have prevented greenhouse gas emissions worth 60 billion to 70 billion reais ($12 billion to $14 billion) in Brazil And each dollar invested in wind farms has a nearly $3 impact on GDP The country’s installed wind power generation capacity is projected to almost double by 2028 “Wind is now the cheapest source of energy in Brazil,” says Gannoum money from a renewable source of clean energy is welcome — but it should benefit everyone especially local communities and the wildlife and vegetation of the area in question “The design of a wind power farm must prioritize preservation from the beginning,” says Silva from the Caatinga Association “And an enterprise that is labeled as clean energy must really mitigate or totally reduce environmental and social impacts When you talk about energy that is too cheap someone else might be paying that price: either biodiversity or local people.” Conservation experts generally agree that licensing processes for enterprises should be more rigorous and fully transparent and that there should be constant monitoring and control over potential impacts and environmental compensation projects carried out by companies after construction is completed “There are 26 million people living in a relatively well-preserved ecosystem,” Melo says “The Caatinga is a major living laboratory of coexistence between nature and man But because the biome is not widely known and not strongly defended — unlike the Amazon — it’s easier for companies to advance through it.” Banner image: Lear’s macaws in Raso da Catarina, Bahia state. Image by Fábio de Paina Nunes via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) This story was reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and first published here on our Brazil site on July 20 Neri, M., Jameli, D., Bernard, E., & Melo, F. P. L. (2019). Green versus green? Adverting potential conflicts between wind power generation and biodiversity conservation in Brazil. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation, 17(3), 131-135. doi:10.1016/j.pecon.2019.08.004 Turkovska, O., Castro, G., Klingler, M., Nitsch, F., Regner, P., Soterroni, A. C., & Schmidt, J. (2021). Land-use impacts of Brazilian wind power expansion. Environmental Research Letters, 16(2), 024010. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abd12f The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa, as protected areas become battlegrounds over history, human rights, and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss. Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins, and trying to forge a path forward […] This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. At least 6 people have lost their lives in the state of Maranhão and 3 in in the state of Ceará Authorities in the state of Maranhão report that multiple municipalities in the state have declared a state of emergency in response to the recent heavy rainfall Federal and state governments are distributing relief supplies including mattresses and food One of the hardest hit areas is the municipality of Santa Luzia Firefighters and the Tactical Air Center (CTA) participated in an operation to provide assistance to the population a vehicle was swept away by the flood and three people died Dam failures caused flooding in the municipalities of Barra do Corda and Santo Antônio dos Lopes The municipalities of Marabá and Itupiranga in Pará State declared an emergency on 21 March 2023 due to rising levels in the Tocantins and Itacaiúnas rivers Local authorities in Marabá said more than 400 households were displaced The two rivers have been rising for some time in the state but reached danger levels over the last few days As reported by FloodList on 20 March 15 homes were damaged and 45 people evacuated Thirty families were pre-emptively evacuated from homes in neighbourhoods of Itapipoca City on 17 March due to flood and landslide threats Antonina do Norte and Itapaje were added to the list On 20 March authorities warned that 26 dams in the state were at capacity Heavy rain caused flooding in the municipalities of Caruaru and Santa Cruz do Capibaribe in Pernambuco State on 18 March 2023 Local media reported homes flooded and several families were evacuated Streets of Greater Recife were flooded after heavy rain on 21 March 2023 Dozens of people lost their lives in flooding and landslides in the state, including in Recife, in May last year. Literatures and Cultures has as its main objective to offer foreign language courses to UFRN’s academic staff students and technical staff as well as proficiency exams in order to make their mobility abroad possible The Ágora Institute can also receive all foreign students and researchers from UFRN’s partner institutions in its Portuguese for Foreigners course German and Portuguese for Foreigners courses and works together with Idioms without Borders All the provision of proficiency tests in UFRN is under The Ágora Institute’s responsibility: TOEFL Literaturas y Culturas Extranjeras Modernas tiene como objetivo principal ofrecer cursos de lengua extranjera al personal académico de la UFRN así como exámenes de competencia para hacer posible su movilidad al extranjero El Instituto Ágora también puede recibir gratuitamente a todos los estudiantes e investigadores extranjeros de las instituciones asociadas de la UFRN en su curso de Portugués para Extranjeros El Instituto Ágora ofrece cursos básicos de inglés alemán y el curso de portugués para extranjeros y trabaja junto con Idiomas sin Fronteras el programa del Ministerio de Educación de Brasil para lenguas extranjeras Toda la oferta de pruebas de competencia en la UFRN está bajo la responsabilidad del Instituto Ágora: TOEFL Littératures et Cultures a comme but principal offre des cours de langues étrangères au personnel universitaire aux étudients et également aux personnels techniciens bien que des tests de compétence en langue étrangère pour rendre possible leurs processus de mobilité à l'étranger L'Institut Ágore peut aussi recevoir tous les étudients et chercheurs étrangers issus des universités partenaires pour les cours de portugais pour les étrangers ces étudiants en étant dispensés des frais d'inscription L'Institut Ágore offre des cours d'anglais d'allemand et de pourtugais pour les étrangers aux niveaux basics et travaille auprès du programme du MEC (Ministère de l'Éducation et de la Culture) Langues sans Frontières Tout initiative par rapport aux tests de compétance linguistique est de responsabilité de l'Institut Ágora: TOEFL The main goal of Tropical Medicine Institute is to consolidate The strategic goal is the education of highly qualified human resources in science and technology in the medical area and the generation of a center for the diagnosis especially in the area of the diseases neglected by centers of more advanced regions Those diseases are also prevalent in Africa and Asia El objetivo principal del Instituto de Medicina Tropical es consolidar El objetivo estratégico es la educación de recursos humanos altamente calificados en ciencia y tecnología en el área médica y la generación de un centro para el diagnóstico especialmente en el área de las enfermedades desatendidas por centros de regiones más avanzadas Esas enfermedades también son frecuentes en África y Asia Le but principal de l'Institut de Médecine Tropicale est consolider l'extension (services communitaires) la recherche et l'enseignement en Maladies Infectieuses Le but stratégique est l'éducation des ressources humaines hautement qualifiés en science et technologie dans l'aire médicale et la génération d'un centre de diagnostic spéciallement dans l'aire des maladies négligées par des centres des régions les plus avancées Ces maladies sont aussi prévalentes en Afrique et en Asie.