News stories by Daniela Estrada* - IPS/IFEJ

Cactus, bushes, flowers and countless other plants are taken out of Chile daily to be studied, improved, marketed and patented. Due to the lack of regulations, the country can only stand by and watch them go.

Young Chilean designers are turning their creative energy to recycling, natural fibres and working with disadvantaged groups as they produce clothing and accessories - but it is an effort that is not free of tensions.

A working-class neighbourhood on the outskirts of the capital, which stood united against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 1980s and today is doing so against climate change, is launching the country's first 'ecobarrio' project.

El Tatio geyser field, a tourist destination in the northern Chilean region of Antofagasta, is at the heart of a controversy over a geothermal energy project being developed four kilometres away. The entire area is claimed by Atacama indigenous communities, who now stand divided.