SAN JOSE - The Central American Water Tribunal is conducting its second session of hearings Mar. 15-19 in the Costa Rican capital to debate nine cases involving the countries of the region.

The Tribunal is a civil society organization that seeks moral condemnation of individuals and institutions responsible for jeopardizing water resources, biologist Ricardo Valverde, the group's technical advisor, told Tierramérica.

Among the cases to be heard is one involving the Minerales de Occidente company, which engages in open pit mining in Honduras, and another about excessive exploitation of water resources in northern Costa Rica.

The debate will also take up the issue of contamination from radioactive material in the Panama Canal, harm caused by highway construction in El Salvador, and the potential negative consequences for Lake Nicaragua of a tilapia fish farm.

GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock is promoting tilapia fish farming as a productive alternative for communities that have been hit hard by the coffee crisis, especially along the southern coast.

"In Guatemala the conditions exist for raising tilapia, a fast-growing fish. It only requires that the fish farm is not above an altitude of 1,500 meters and that average temperatures are maintained at 26 to 28 degrees (Celsius)," deputy agriculture minister Ramiro Pérez told Tierramérica.

On Mar. 5, with technical support from the government of Taiwan, the ministry set up the Sabana Grande National Center for Aquiculture Production and Training, in the southern department of Escuintla.

The center will serve as a platform for expanding tilapia production, and will sell three varieties of this popular fish, brought from San Luis Potosí, Mexico

TEGUCIGALPA - The national government has left the forestry development agency COHDEFOR without funds for preventing and fighting forest fires, denounced the entity's director, Gustavo Morales.

He said he expects the officials to amend the error, but that for new he is seeking help from the U.S. Agency for International Development and other potential donors.

On Mar. 10, an official commission, including COHDEFOR, firefighting services and the armed forces, met to draft a plan to combat the ongoing problem of forest fires.

Each year, an average of 55,000 hectares of forest are destroyed by fires, many of which are intentionally set, especially during the summer months, according to COHDEFOR.

The agency is pressing landowners to implement fire prevention measures, or face lawsuits for crimes against the environment, Morales told Tierramérica.