QUITO - The Charles Darwin Foundation, of the Galapagos Islands, received the J. Paul Getty environmental conservation award Nov 27 for its "successful efforts" to protect the Ecuadorian archipelago located in the eastern Pacific.

The Getty prize, awarded by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF, also known as World Wildlife Fund), was created in 1974 to recognize extraordinary contributions to environmental conservation.

The Darwin Foundation began operations in 1959 under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It runs the science station by the same name, based on Isabela Island, and provides information and technical assistance to the Galapagos National Park system.

VICTORIA, Canada - Children from around the world, ages 10 to 12, will meet at the International Children's Conference on the Environment next May in Victoria, Canada.

Organized in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Program, this conference is a result of the Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), where governments were urged to seek the children's opinions on the environment in drawing up policy.

If you know someone 10 to 12 years old who would like to be one of the 800 delegates from more than 115 countries taking part in the meeting, connect yourself to www.iccCanada2002.org for more information. The deadline for registration is Jan 15, 2002.

BOGOTA - The environmental policy of the Colombian government for 2000-2001 was just a project on paper only and achieved very little, the country's Comptroller General told parliament in its annual report.

The national auditing agency states that the government has fallen far behind in complying with its policies, which "do not establish environmental or budgetary goals."

Public spending on the environment last year was 0.37 percent of Colombia's gross domestic product (GDP) of 87 billion dollars, marking a decline from the two previous years, when it was 0.46 and 0.41 percent of GDP, respectively, said Comptroller General Carlos Ossa.

LIMA - The scientific databases of 30 institutions dedicated to the study and preservation of tropical forests will be integrated to form the Biological Diversity and Environmental Information System of the Peruvian Amazon - and will be accessible by Internet.

The system will provide access to data on 17,000 types of Amazon plant species, information from the Zoology Museum of the National University of the Amazon, and even satellite photos of this tropical rain forest.

The system will be managed by the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute, with financing of 1.6 million dollars from the government of Finland and 400,000 dollars from the Peruvian government.