By saying that vast tracts of deforested, uncultivated land in the Amazon jungle will be sold rather than awarded in concession, the Peruvian president is not solving anything, because there is no regulatory or institutional framework to supervise investment in those areas.

The Peruvian Congress plans this week to debate a draft law pushed by the government that would authorize the sale of vast tracts of deforested, uncultivated land in the Amazon jungle to private companies that invest in ’reforestation’ efforts.
But critics say there is no land registry showing which natural areas could be sold off without hurting the region’s rich biodiversity or affecting local residents who do not hold formal title to their land.
The proposed modification of the “law for the promotion of private investment in reforestation and agroforestry“, which was to be discussed last week, was postponed on the pretext that the chair of the Agriculture Committee, ruling party lawmaker Franklin Sanchez, was not present, Ipsnews.net reported.
But the underlying reason was that some legislators who support President Alan Garcia are dubious about voting for the amended law, because of the criticism it has drawn from experts, opposition parties, and social organizations, like organized campesinos (small farmers) in the northeastern province of Loreto. Under the current law, areas authorized for reforestation are granted in concession. But Garcia argues that if the land were sold to them instead, companies would enjoy greater security and more jobs would be created.
“Taking advantage of our timber and reforesting is a way to generate jobs and attract investment. We live in an ideological world that says the Amazon cannot be touched, because it is part of the idyll of primitive communism,“ the president said in an interview published January 21 by the Spanish newspaper ABC.
The government’s interest in selling off land in the Amazon jungle had already been announced by Garcia in an op-ed piece in the local daily El Comercio. Experts argue that the president is focusing on profit and investment without taking into account the Amazon’s great natural wealth or the local inhabitants of these areas, many of whom are indigenous people.
There are 1,450 indigenous communities representing 65 different ethnic groups in Peru’s Amazon jungle region, according to the 1993 census.
“The problem is that the draft law that the government has introduced does not clearly define what kind of land we are really talking about, because there is no land registry,“ Luis Capella, the head of the non-governmental Peruvian Society on Environmental Law’s forestry program, said.
“That means a plot of land ’without forest cover’ could actually contain primary forest, which would be destroyed as soon as it was sold,“ he said.
The draft law vaguely states that “untilled land without forest cover“ in the Amazon region could be sold.
But a source at the Agriculture Ministry acknowledged to IPS that a land registry reflecting the status of property would not be ready until the end of the year. However, the official said an estimated 9.5 million hectares in the jungle have been deforested.
Capella, on the other hand, said it was highly unlikely that such a vast expanse of deforested, uncultivated land exists in the Amazon jungle, as the government claims, and insisted that a detailed land survey is indispensable.
“By saying that land will be sold rather than awarded in concession, the president is not solving anything, because there is no regulatory or institutional framework to supervise investment in those areas,“ added the activist.
Currently, oversight of reforestation initiatives and plantation forestry is carried out by the government agency Proinversian, as if it were just another economic activity, instead of by a specialized body that could study the environmental, social and cultural aspects that should be taken into account when selling land in an area like the Amazon jungle.
Garcia’s proposed legal reform has already been approved by the Agriculture Committee, headed by ruling party legislator Sanchez. The draft law would extend the upper limit on the size of property that can be sold, from 10,000 to 40,000 hectares, and fails to create a regulatory framework to enforce reforestation commitments. Nor does it include regional governments in decision-making.
“In a context of uncertainty, when it is not clear what the conditions of the sales will be, nor is it clear what rights the purchasers will be granted or what rights of local inhabitants will be affected, how can we say that this law will guarantee investment and generate employment?“ asked Capella.
The governor of the Amazon province of San Martin, Cesar Villanueva, said the draft law would be inapplicable because in the Amazon jungle, there is no ownerless land available for sale, since the property either forms part of protected nature reserves or belongs to indigenous communities or settlers who have come in from outside to clear farmland.

40% of NamibiaÕs two million people currently live below the poverty line of one dollar per day.

The Namibian government, frequently accused of making water unaffordable to the poor, is finally taking steps to address this countrywide problem that threatens to hamper the country’s efforts to meet the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by world leaders at a special United Nations General Assembly meeting in 2000.
The government is considering the viability of including water subsidies for poorer families in a new development plan set to begin in April 2008.
“I first have to buy a card that I put in the meter box to draw out water. I don’t always have money for this and sometimes the money in the card just runs out before I can fetch enough for my family’s daily use,“ Babakie Goreses told Businessweek.com.
Goreses is one of several thousand residents of the ’informal’ Babylon settlement in Windhoek’s sprawling suburb of Katutura who have to buy water--when they can afford it--from a municipal tap.
In other areas where prepaid water meters have not been introduced, households still have to pay for their water in advance.
They pay just under four dollars per month to the national water utility, NamWater, for the right to fetch water during a four-hour window each day.
This amount is barely affordable in a country where poverty levels are rapidly rising according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The latest statistics show that 40 percent of Namibia’s two million people currently live below the poverty line of one dollar per day. Seventy-nine percent of rural households do not have proper sanitation, and 20 percent of the rural population do not have access to safe drinking water.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Forestry has recommended in its third national five-year development plan (NDP3) that $4.3 million be allocated to help people living in informal and rural areas pay NamWater.
“Our ministry does not have the money, but the idea is to hold an investor conference after the development plan is finalised,“ Nickey Iyambo, the Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Forestry told a recent consultative conference on the development plan.
“We are very aware of the plight of the poor, and we are looking into the possibility to introduce a national water tariff,“ Iyambo added.
The government has also approved the National Water Policy White Paper of 2006, and it has resolved that a Water Resources Management Agency be created to oversee the integration of water resources management.
This agency will ensure that more water is made available to the population by finding new sources (especially groundwater), using more water from rivers, better recycling processes, and expanding desalination plants along the Atlantic coast.
In November 2007, the government ordered NamWater to open all water taps in rural areas that had been closed because of non-payment of accounts--giving a temporary reprieve to those households that still owe money to the water utility.
Namibia is an arid country, with only the northern regions and the area served by the Tsumeb-Otavi-Grootfontein groundwater aquifers in the central parts of the country having sufficient water to supply local populations.
The country has access to only three rivers (the Zambezi, Kunene and Kavango) while its largest reservoirs are vulnerable to high levels of evaporation.
Struggling to recover millions of dollars in unpaid debts, in 2000 NamWater introduced a prepaid billing system that is administered by local municipalities.
The revenue generated through the new system is used to cover the costs of water provision as well as cross-subsidizing other basic services such as streetlights and sanitation.
Rates charged by the Windhoek Municipality reveal however, that the new system not only perpetuates old inequalities, but also tends to exacerbate them.
Households in informal settlements, or squatter camps, and rural areas actually have to pay more per liter of water than those living in regular housing.
Many Namibians--unable to pay the additional charges for water--have had their taps disconnected and have fallen back on more traditional sources of water, such as streams and waterholes.

American investors will have to reevaluate their holdings and ensure they still match their long-term goals.

Bob Freedland tries to follow the advice of the pros and keep his money invested for the long term but Wall Street’s latest jitters have left him a little worried.
Like many American investors alarmed by an unyielding parade of triple-digit moves in the Dow Jones industrial average in recent weeks, Freedland, a physician in La Crosse, Wis., tries to set aside emotion but there is always that temptation to dump his holdings and exit the markets.
But while looking past day-to-day gyrations can be hard for even disciplined investors, planning for a distant future doesn’t mean investing and forgetting. So Freedland has scanned his diverse portfolio to plug any holes and shifted some of his holdings.
“One of the things that I do is I certainly pull in my horns,“ Freedland told AP.
Despite his misgivings over whether the US market is headed for a pullback steeper than an ordinary correction, he is leaving the bulk of his investments in mutual funds untouched. But he is putting some of the money he uses for short-term trading toward generally less risky bets--he did transfer some money out of media and telecommunications investments that have done well and into natural resources, a strong performer in recent years.
“I’m going to defer to my managers who manage my funds. I’m going to leave it in there assuming I’m not going to need it for another 10 years,“ he said.
But it’s hard to not look at the some of Wall Street’s largest moves and cringe.
“I’ve actually found that my psychology moves with the market so when the market declines I get very pessimistic and when the market goes higher I get very optimistic,“ Freedland added.
Tim Swanson, chief investment officer at National City’s Private Client Group in Cleveland, said some investors rattled by the market’s pullback haven’t properly considered the chances they’re willing to take. Rather than panic, they should simply re-evaluate their holdings and make sure they still match their long-term goals.
In 2008, the Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which many mutual funds track and are measured against, are each down more than 5 percent, though off their lows. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index has lost more than twice that.
Swanson said he hasn’t made major investment changes since the market began retreating although he is reining in some expectations. He thinks emerging markets investments won’t continue to see the biggest double-digit gains of recent years.
“Our clients have benefited handsomely from that sector. There’s still long-term opportunity there. But should they be as enamored as they were one or two years ago? Probably not,“ he said.
He also contends that areas that have been beaten down such as financials or the consumer discretionary sector, which includes homebuilders, could fall to levels where they look more attractive.
Sean Hannon, a chartered financial analyst at Epic Advisors LLC in Westfield, N.J., predicts commodities will remain strong in coming years amid rising demand from developing countries.
“They’ve done extremely well,“ he said. “I’m confident at some point we’re going to get a very nasty correction in that market but at the same time I think the global growth story is still there.“
It’s wise on occasion to consider selling strong performers, he said.
“An investor who has made their money and is questioning if there is more upside--I think that’s the time to pull the trigger. I’ve got a handful of investors who are nervous about the markets in general. What you really want to do is have a strong view and understand what you want to own and why you want to own it,“ Hannon concluded.