BOGOTA - The indigenous community of the Jambaló reserve in southern Colombia, with some 14,000 inhabitants, staged a day of protest Mar. 6 against the free trade agreement the government is negotiating with the United States.

On that day the Indians did not consume any products made by multinational corporations, but instead drank 'chicha' (fermented corn) and ate 'mote' (root vegetable puree) and soups made from corn and vegetables.

They held exhibitions of their arts and crafts, and announced that the signing of the treaty would affect them because many of the natural resources under negotiation are found in their territory, Luis Andrade, president of the Colombian National Indigenous Organization, told Tierramérica.

Furthermore, infrastructure works are planned that would affect indigenous land and which ''surely will be constructed without prior consultation and without due process, as has happened before, for example, with the Emberá Katío people,'' where the Urrá hydroelectric dam was built.

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemalan officials have issued a yellow alert due to the intensity of the 67 forest fires recorded during 50 days so far this year and which have destroyed 500 hectares of forest.

The government is working with Canada to send two tanker aircraft to put out the blazes, presidential spokesman Eduardo González told Tierramérica. Already taking action is a Bell helicopter on loan from the Honduran air force.

Guatemala and Mexico are also coordinating information about fires reported along their shared 960-km border.

From 1998 to Feb. 17 of this year, 1,686 fires consumed 8,853 square miles of forest, or 8.1 percent of Guatemalan territory, according to the National System to Prevent and Control Forest Fires.

The worst fires in the country's history took place in 1998, when 498 blazes devastated 678,000 hectares.

MEXICO CITY - Dozens of youths from the Mexican capital will soon receive training to bring about environmental changes in their communities, all part of the Geo Youth project of the United Nations Environment Program.

Young people ages 15 to 28 from the populous district of Iztapalapa, where more than 400,000 residents live without household potable water services, took part in workshops in February to promote leadership in environmental problem solving.

The program lasts until June, and aims to train 200 youths in Mexico, Luis Betanzos, regional head of the UNEP Geo Youth project, told Tierramérica.

From 1999 to date, under the Geo initiative, more than 3,600 young people in Latin American countries have participated in conducting environmental assessments.

BUENOS AIRES - Artisanal fisherfolk from seven South American countries met in Argentina Mar. 1-4 to discuss small-scale sustainable fishing and to exchange information on fishing stock management.

Organized by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers and the non-governmental Argentina-based Cedepesca, the meeting was held in the coastal town of Santa Clara del Mar, in Buenos Aires province.

Participating in the meet were delegations from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Uruguay, and representatives of the organizing groups and Argentine officials from environmental and fishing agencies.

Ernesto Godelman, of Cedepesca, stressed in a conversation with Tierramérica the importance of debate on the right to access to fishing resources as a condition for sustainable fishing activities in South America.

LIMA - The new National Plan for Reforestation, to be debated in coming weeks by the Peruvian Congress, modifies the existing policy for promoting forestry, which favors major investors, and instead would also promote participation by small and medium investors.

Drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Institute of Natural Resources and the governmental agency Fondebosques, among other institutions, the plan aims to eliminate the minimum of 20 million dollars for forestry investments financed by the pension fund administrator.

It also opens the door to small and medium investors for state-held lands that have been deforested and remain bare, and would support programs for reforestation with marketing assistance and the latest technology, Fondebosque director Enrique Toledo told Tierramérica.

The aim is to reforest 60,000 hectares per year, especially with rapid-growth species, and which would create some 50,000 new jobs a year, Toledo said.