QUITO - Environmental and social organizations in Ecuador are staging protests against a project to build a heavy crude-oil pipeline, which would transport the fossil fuel from the Amazon region to the Pacific coast.

The demonstrations are being organized along the length of the planned pipeline route by local residents and environmental activists who are demanding that the German government withhold loans meant to pay for construction. The protesters charge that the pipeline would threaten the ecological reserves it crosses because they are areas at high risk of landslides.

Westdeutsche Landesbank, one of Germany's largest public banks, authorized a 900 million-dollar credit to OCP Consortium, the group behind the construction project, saying that it complies with standards set by the World Bank. The budget for building the pipeline is 1.1 billion dollars.

But George Ledec, of the World Bank's Environmental Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean says he is not convinced the OCP Consortium uses ''the best environmental practices available.''

HAVANA - A regional conference on mountains slated to be held in Cuba next May will allow experts from Latin America and international organizations to exchange experiences about the socio-economic role of these high altitude areas.

The site of the conference will be Las Terrazas, located in the sierra of Rosario, a biosphere reserve in the northeast of Pinar del Río province, 176 km from Havana.

The organizing committee for the event says the Rosario area can be used as a role model because it holds 800 species of flora, 100 bird and numerous amphibian and reptile species, and because sustainable development based on eco-tourism has been successful there.

The United Nations has designated 2002 the International Year of Mountains.

BUENOS AIRES - Next year 26 Japanese ships will be allowed to take 100,000 tons of squid from the waters off southern Argentina, according to a decision by the Fernando de la Rúa government, which has come under fire from officials, lawmakers and ecologists.

De la Rúa signed a letter of intention with Japan's fisheries bureau to authorize the captures in exchange for five million dollars. But Argentina's own under-secretary of fishing, Juan Melgarejo, criticized the decision, saying the presidential decree violates national fisheries laws.

The legislation calls for the protection of natural resources and requires vessels in national waters to operate with Argentine crews. Lawmakers who seek the annulment of a fishing license system in place also question the decree, suspicious that the tonnage, valued at 65 million dollars, was authorized through bribery of officials.