In Mexico’s Holbox, a natural paradise suffers from its own popularity
HOLBOX, Mexico — The tour I’d arranged in Holbox wasn’t one of the usual packages. It isn’t advertised on social media or sold at the dozens of stalls along the…
Articles by Sandra Weiss
German freelance journalist and political scientist. After working in the Foreign Service, she moved to Latin America in 1999. Since then, she has been collaborating with news outlets and magazines such as Deutsche Welle, Le Monde Diplomatique, ABC (Australia), NZZaS, Zeit, Milenio Semanal, Welt, Geo etc. Since 2014, she is working on innovative multimedia stories with wekomedia.de. Finalist of Grimme online award, Hansel-Mieth-Preis, Media Award for Independent Journalism, Kurt-Schork-Award and in 2019 winner of the Catholic Media Prize for her multimedia project "Death of a nation".
An Asian grass helps Mexican farmers build resilience to climate change
SAN ANDRES TUXTLA, Mexico — "There are not many regions in Mexico that have been used for agriculture for about 4,000 years," says environmentalist Antonio Carrillo as he walks along…
Sargassum surges in Mexico: From nuisance to new green industry?
With 2023 expected to see record amounts of brown macroalgae washing up on Caribbean beaches, green entrepreneurs in Mexico are turning waste into biogas, biofertilizer and even faux leather; all despite big bureaucratic hurdles.
From scarcity to abundance: The secret of the ‘peace farmers’ of Colombia
Farmer and agronomist Roberto Rodríguez first taught the farmers of Lejanías they weren’t poor. Once they learned this critical lesson, they relied on themselves, their neighbors and nature to thrive sustainably.
On a Honduran island, a community effort grows to protect its precious reefs
At seven in the morning, the sun rises over Sandy Bay on the Caribbean island of Roatán, Honduras. The soft light seeps through the mangroves and draws golden lines on…
Cooking with the sun: Entrepreneurs help launch Mexico’s solar revolution
Cooking with firewood, diesel and gas all add to climate change and is harmful to health. So innovators have launched solar cookery enterprises that could transform Mexico’s fossil fuel-dependent businesses.
Biofuel in Mexico: Uphill battle against bureaucracy, organized crime
Combining to hamstring Mexico’s climate-friendly biodiesel industry: a lack of regulatory support, a president favoring fossil fuels, competition from other industries for used cooking oil, and a crime network.
In syntropic agriculture, farmers stop fighting nature and learn to embrace it
MINEIROS/GANDÚ, Brazil — Behind the wheel of his black suburban van, Paulo Borges has to squint to focus on the SUV motorcade in front of him, vanishing in a red…
In the Ecuadoran Andes, protectors of the páramos guard their water source
It's freezing cold. The wind whistles. A gentle drizzle falls from the sky, and the ground wheezes like a soaked sponge with every step. It is an inhospitable and at…
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