SANTIAGO - The government of President Michelle Bachelet has taken up a proposal from environmental organizations for a law on native forests that frees up a legislative measure, paralyzed for the past 13 years, of a framework law for protecting Chile's rich autochthonous forest resources.

Flavia Liberona, coordinator of the Native Forest Network, applauded the new law, adopted Apr. 19 following meetings between government authorities and environmentalists.

"The new officials (Bachelet's administration took office in March) fortunately understood that the previous bill was not viable. These changes send a political signal of greater openness than what we saw in the previous government" of president Ricardo Lagos, Liberona told Tierramérica in an interview.

The immediate objective will be to regulate the promotion of forestry plantations and recovery of native forests, postponing the debate on substituion of autochthonous forests, which pitted environmental groups against logging interests.

CARACAS - The Andean development agency CAF, the financial arm of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), finalized an agreement with the Brazilian company Jalles Machado, which produces alcohol from sugarcane, for the purchase of 110,000 tons' worth of carbon credits, as established by international efforts to curb climate change.

"In 2002 an agreement and fund was set up between the Dutch government and CAF for the purchase of reduced emissions of greenhouse gases, as outlined by the Kyoto Protocol, which commits industrialized countries to reducing emissions or purchase reductions in countries of the South," Jorge Barrigh, representing the CAF carbon program, explained to Tierramérica.

The co-generation of energy by Jalles Machado produces carbon credits because it reduces the need for fossil fuels at thermoelectric plants. The sum of the trade was not revealed due to a confidentiality clause in the contract.

HAVANA - Cuba has started manufacturing alcohol from sugarcane juice -- somewhat of a novelty for this island nation, which had focused on producing sugar from the juice, and only used the byproducts to make alcohol.

With this new mission, the Heriberto Duquesne company, in the central province of Villa Clara, will make the necessary adaptations to its sugar mills and distilleries, which proved successful in an experimental phase.

Experts see this diversification as the right way to go. "Alcohol is the fuel of the future, considering the high prices of petroleum, which is on its way to depletion," economist Armando Nova told Tierramérica.

Used alone or mixed with gasoline, this derivative of sugarcane is less costly and less polluting than other types of fuels.

TEGUCIGALPA - For the past three months, some 2,000 soldiers from the Honduran army have been guarding the principal ecological preserve locations around the country to prevent illegal logging. They also have been dismantling illegal sawmills and starting a program of reforestation.

Gen. Romeo Vásquez, commander of the army, spoke with Tierramérica, explaining that, under presidential mandate, environmental protection is one of the new roles to be performed by soldiers.

So far this year, they have participated in fighting 258 forest fires and have closed down 583 clandestine sawmills. In June they will begin reforestation efforts, which will include "the planting of five million trees countrywide," Vásquez said.

President Manuel Zelaya Rosales announced a week ago that he will be "unyielding" with those who harm the forest, who he threatened to bring in "chained and shackled" from the country's interior mountainous areas.

RIO DE JANEIRO - In the next few days Brazil will be sending to foreign patent and trademark offices a list of the traditional names of Brazilian flora and fauna so that they cannot be registered as commercial trademarks.

The initiative is an effort to prevent a repeat of the case of cupuaçú (Theobroma grandiflorum), an Amazon fruit that the Japanese company Ashai Foods made into a trademark, but was annulled in 2004. A study found another 84 names of Brazilian plants and animals registered in other countries.

"It is an important step," but fighting biopiracy requires broader measures, Eugenio Pantoja, coordinator of antipiracy campaigns for the group Amazonlink, told Tierramérica. Amazonlink led the legal efforts on cupuaçú and works to train Amazon indigenous peoples to protect their lands and their traditional knowledge from biopiracy.

Brazil's Interministerial Group on Intellectual Property has already approved 2,954 names for the list, including the trees açaí (Euterpe oleracea), andiroba (Carapa guianensis Aubl) and umbú (Spondia tuberosa).