RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil recycled nine million aluminum cans in 2001, 85 percent of the country's total production, thus achieving second place to Sweden, which recycled 90 percent of its cans, according to Brazil's CEMPRE, a private sector recycling program.

In 2000, the proportion of metal containers recycled was 73 percent. In addition, the recovery of plastic beverage contains rose from 15 to 33 percent in the last three years, and a similar growth in recycling was recorded for glass and cardboard waste.

Recycling employs 500,000 people in collection of these materials, and 240,000 in dealing in scrap metal, said André Vilhena, CEMPRE director.

It is a growth industry that will soon surpass 3.0 billion dollars annually in Brazil, four times last year's total, said Vilhena.

CARACAS - Great Britain will finance the Venezuelan project "Managing Impacts on Climate Change at the Municipal Level" as part of an agreement through which the British government will contribute plans for counteracting the effects of global warming.

The 18-month project will be implemented in the Baruta district of Caracas and will receive technical support from the Simón Bolívar University and from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

PANAMA CITY - The Audubon Society has launched an educational campaign aimed at protecting Panama's national bird, the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja).

The program involves 11 indigenous and peasant farming communities in the Ngobe-Buglé district of Veragua province, in western Panama, and in the eastern provinces of Kuna Yala and Panama, say Audubon sources.

The harpy eagle, whose wingspan can reach two meters, is in danger of extinction in Central America, as is the plumbeous kite (Ictinia plumbea), "pavo grande" and "poruela".

The campaign has the support of the governmental National Environmental Authority, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Golden Gate Audubon Society, the Meso-American Biological Corridor project, and Sony-Panama, among others.

GUATEMALA CITY - An unknown pest is killing the casuarina trees (Casuarina equisetifolia), also known as Australian pines, that have long beautified the streets and avenues of the Guatemalan capital.

At least 600 trees, of the 5,000 found throughout the city, are infected by what is presumed to be a species of pine weevil, says Evelyn Reyna, director of the Guatemala City municipal environment department.

In addition to cutting down the diseased trees, the authorities will begin an urban reforestation plan, which involves planting 35,000 trees of various species.

SAN SALVADOR - An environmental organization will present the Central American Water Tribunal with three charges of contamination against the government and several companies of El Salvador.

The first claim the Salvadoran Ecological Union will file is against the Salvadoran government for its intent to build a superspeed highway that the group claims would cause serious environmental harm in the capital's outskirts.

The two other claims are against industries that pollute the Frío River, west of San Salvador, and against a project to build a hydroelectric plant on the Torola River.

At least 10 Costa Rican and Salvadoran experts are to meet in the coming days to study the evidence that the environmentalists are presenting in the three cases.

The Costa Rica-based Central American Water Tribunal is a non-governmental organization that carries out "moral trials" against governments and companies that commit environmental crimes. The Tribunal's rulings are of a symbolic nature only.