SANTIAGO - A project to extract underground water in northern Chile is threatening the Lauca National Park, one of the world's major biosphere reserves, located on the Bolivian border.

The National Committee in Defense of Fauna and Flora, the country's oldest environmental organizations, warns that the plan endangers bird and llama species.

This Andean location is home to the Chungará Lake, one of the highest altitude lakes in the Americas, which supports a broad range of bird populations. The lake and the Lauca River feed water into the wetlands where llamas, alpacas and vicunas graze. These areas could dry up as a result of the water project.

SAN JOSE - The Costa Rica government is to reinforce its Environmental Services Program with the help of a donation from Germany totaling nine million dollars, earmarked for 43,000 hectares that are currently in private hands, announced Elizabeth Odio, minister of environment.

Through this project, the government pays landowners for the services provided by maintaining their forests intact, including the production of oxygen and water.

Based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Costa Rica hopes that in the near future industrialized nations will invest in protecting forests here as a way to curb global warming.

CARACAS - A plan for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in the Orinoco River region gets underway in March, promoted by the Venezuelan government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The 32.5 million-dollar project is to have partial financing from the Worldwide Fund for Nature, which will also be involved in supervision, Carlos Sánchez, the UNDP representative in Caracas, told Tierramérica.

The objective of the project is to protect the biodiversity of a 22 square-km wetland and achieve the sustainable management of the Orinoco Delta biosphere reserve, which is home to more than 220 species.