SANTIAGO - The burro, or donkey, the faithful beast of burden associated with the biblical image of the Christian Holy Family, or with Sancho Panza in 'Don Quixote,' or which served as the inspiration for 'Platero and I' by Spanish author Juan Ramón Jiménez, is at risk of extinction in Chile.

The burro population in this country declined by 40 percent over the last 30 years, and there are just 22,213 of these animals left, according to counts by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Burros are mostly concentrated in the semi-arid Fourth Region of Chile, some 450 km north of Santiago, where they are used for carrying harvests on chili and paprika farms.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Saving Brazil's rivers is a top priority this year, says Environment minister Jose Sarney Filho. With that goal in mind, a program is underway to clean up the river basins under the authority of the National Water Agency (ANA).

The basic approach is to encourage sewage treatment and sanitation. Municipalities or private firms will receive resources based on the final outcome, not financing for works that often are left unfinished, explained Jerson Kelman, ANA president.

Every 'real' (Brazil's currency) invested in clean water saves five in medical assistance, he maintains. But less than 10 percent of the country's industrial and urban run-off is treated before it reaches the rivers or the Atlantic Ocean. The program's current budget is 8.8 million dollars.

SAN JOSE - The National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio) of Costa Rica, a non-governmental organization of conservation scientists and activists, is preparing to open an interactive garden of tropical butterflies in April.

INBio, winner of Spain's Prince of Asturias prize for its environmental research, will give the public the opportunity to observe the formation of a chrysalis and its metamorphosis into a butterfly.

The garden, located in the INBio Park of Santo Domingo de Heredia, 11 km east of San José, serves as a recreation and biodiversity center as well as a tourist destination.

CARACAS - Animals and plants originating in other countries and ecosystems can transform their new environment and even displace local species, warns Venezuela's National Office of Biological Diversity.

Venezuela is ranked sixth in the world for greatest biodiversity.

But some foreign species, such as trout, have reduced the populations of native fishes in the country's Andean mountain rivers.

Another case is the 'mojarra,' a small fish native to the Maracaibo lake in the west, and now found in nearly all rivers in northern Venezuela.

The aquatic 'pipa parva' frog, originating from the same lake, has become a plague for aquiculture because it feeds on young fishes, diminishing the population that reaches full size.


*Source: Inter Press Service.