Central and South America

A new constitution has been approved in Ecuador, and among its amendments are specific articles that grant inalienable rights to nature.

In an agreement with fellow socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone has accepted a position in Caracas to advise the city on improving its transportation and crime issues.

Anthropologists have discovered traces of highly organized and gridded cities in the Amazon rainforest dating back to the 1200s.

Urban gardening is spreading to Mexico City, resurrecting an ancient history of growing produce in the city.

Globalization has spurned a renaissance in the formerly crime-ridden Colombian city of Medellin. But some worry that the city's improvements may only be temporary.

As part of a new strategy to prevent deforestation in the Amazon, government officials in Brazil have begun seizing livestock that graze on illegal ranches.

Urban farms in Cuba have proven successful at feeding the country and providing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Understanding and improving the Brazilian informal settlements known as favelas will require more information about the slums -- especially in the field of mapping.

A group of Indians from the Amazon attacked a government engineer at a recent meeting where he was discussing a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River that could displace 15,000 indigenous people and destroy traditional fishing grounds.

Under a bold plan from the city's Mayor, the 11 million residents of Sao Paulo, Brazil, are enjoying a city free from outdoor advertising.

This article from the Harvard Design Magazine looks at slums in Latin America and discusses the important role they play in their cities. Preserving the positive qualities of these communities is increasingly preferred over slum clearance.

The first high-speed train in the Americas -- which will be built by a consortium led by France's Alstom -- will cut travel times between Buenos Aires and cities of Rosario and Córdoba by more than two-thirds.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, planners are challenged with untangling traffic jams that stretch for over 120 miles.

Drug traffickers, growers and drug law enforcement agents are wreaking havok on the forests of Central America, where large plots of forest are clear-cut for drug crop growing and sprayed to eliminate illicit substances.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is pushing plans to create "21st century socialist cities" -- communities based on public participation and cooperation -- juxtaposed next to fiercely capitalist developments in the rest of the country.

A groundbreaking deal recognizing the economic value of intact forests will not only preserve a million acres of rainforest in Guyana but establish a precedent for future such arrangements.

During the last decade, bus rapid transit (BRT) has revolutionized regional transportation planning in much of the developing and developed world.

This article from Progressive Planning looks at the communal councils being set up in Venezuela and the progress they have made in local planning efforts.

Crippling violence and dangerous streets in the Rose Town area of Kingston, Jamaica, have motivated Prince Charles to bring his Foundation for Architecture and Urbanism to the island ghetto to attempt a rebirth.

This report from NPR looks at how climate change may affect the future of the Panama Canal.