RIO DE JANEIRO - Mercury in the rivers of the Amazon region is threatening the environment and human health, says the Amazonian Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA), which is discussing action plans for curbing contamination from this heavy metal in the eight countries with Amazonian territory.

In 2002, Brazil's Health Ministry examined 1,666 newborns in Itaituba, a municipality of the northern state of Pará, and found that 1,000 of them, or 60 percent, had high levels of mercury in their blood. Mercury affects the nervous system, the kidneys, and joints.

Brazil's environment minister Marina Silva herself suffers the effects of mercury contamination during her childhood, growing up in the Amazon.

Informal, unregulated gold mining, which was widespread in Itaituba, is the main source of mercury in the rivers, and is concentrated in the meat of fish, a food staple of the human inhabitants of the Amazon Basin.

PUERTO MONTT - The Chilean regional environmental commission, COREMA, resolved to maintain the closure of the Arauco Constitución cellulose plant in Valdivia, in southern Chile, until it complies with four requisites for preventing contamination of the Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary.

The requirements are: an external audit, on-line monitoring, disabling a duct that connected production waste to water supplies, and a contingency plan for dealing with temperatures, acidity and oils beyond the authorized limits.

Moving the factory is ''the only viable solution for ensuring that the nature sanctuary recovers and the return of the swans and other species affected,'' Gonzalo Villarino, Greenpeace Chile director, told Tierramérica.

The yearly average of black-necked swans in the sanctuary has long been 6,000, but in January there were just 942 counted, according to the national forestry agency.

HAVANA - A university environmental project implemented in several Havana schools aims to raise environmental awareness amongst children and adolescents for protecting the capital's bay, an ecosystem contaminated by the city's domestic and industrial waste.

The ''We Believe in Hope'' program includes training of university ''environmental promoters'' and student interest groups in four of the 10 municipalities that make up the Havana Bay watershed, inhabited by some 800,000 people.

Through talks, workshops, community outreach, clean-up campaigns and educational games, children and adolescents will learn about what they can do to reverse the degradation of Havana Bay, environmental education expert Yordanis Puerta de Armas told Tierramérica.

CARACAS - Ten small nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) whose mother was sold by fisherman were rescued off Venezuela's Margarita Island by scientists from the Shark Research Center.

''They are in good condition. This species is resistant to handling and that is an advantage for conducting studies,'' researcher Rafael Tavares told Tierramérica.

In his opinion, populations of other species, like the blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) and the blacknose shark (Carcharhinus acronotus) have decline in the southeast Caribbean due to overexploitation.

There are no restrictions on commercial shark fishing in Venezuela, and the young ones are in high demand for some traditional dishes. ''It is common to see pregnant female sharks caught, particularly during the mating and birth seasons,'' said Tavares.

GUATEMALA CITY - National and city authorities are planning to build a second ''ring'' highway around the capital in a bid to ease traffic congestion.

The aim is also to reduce air pollution produced by the vehicles in Guatemala City, the largest in Central America, deputy communications minister Federico Moreno told Tierramérica.

Construction of the new Metropolitan Loop, to run 64 km and cost some 1.05 billion dollars, is to begin this year, and completed in mid-2007. Taiwan has expressed interest in executing the project, according to Moreno.

On Jan. 12, the Central American Economic Integration Bank signed a cooperation agreement with Guatemala for 500,000 dollars, non-repayable, for studies of three mega-projects, including the new highway.

TEGUCIGALPA - A group of U.S. experts with the environmental group Sustainable Solutions Caravan proposed to government officials and civil society groups in Honduras the use of ''bio-fuel'' for cars as a means to reduce pollution.

They demonstrated the approach with their bus that runs on vegetable oil -- and has been traveling through Central America since December.

Two tanks of vegetable oil and a little diesel to warm the engines is ''all that you need to travel comfortably in a car without hurting the environment,'' Stephen Brooks, one of the 15 promoting the initiative, told Tierramérica.

The group wants to show the world ''that it is still feasible to live on the planet without hurting or destroying it.'' The Caravan also promotes building homes from bamboo and plastic, farming using organic techniques, and using solar energy. The next stop for the bio-fuel bus is Costa Rica.