SAN JOSE – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that it will donate 195,000 dollars to shore up Costa Rica's National Forest Development project.

The FAO resources will allow the protection of forests in this country of just 51,000 square km, home to 0.5 percent of the planet's biodiversity.

Foreign Relations Minister Roberto Tovar expressed appreciation for the efforts of the UN agency and Costa Rican diplomats for achieving this agreement.

JOHANNESBURG – The Center for Tropical Agriculture for Research and Higher Education (CATIE) urged the Central American countries present at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to step up investments in science and technology as a means to achieve their development goals.

CATIE assistant director Markku Kaninen invited the countries of the isthmus to dedicate more economic resources to their research budgets, which, he pointed out, are currently very limited.

Costa Rica and El Salvador spend only 0.37 percent and 0.08 percent of their respective gross domestic product (GDP) on science and technology, according to CATIE figures.

This stands in stark contrast to the industrialized countries, which spend an average of 2.5 percent GDP on research, according to data from 2000.

GUATEMALA CITY – Environmental organizations are demanding the resignation of Guatemala's environment minister, Carlos Cáceres Ruiz, in the wake of his appearance before the nation's Congress.

Independent lawmaker Olga Camey de Noack said the official had not even proposed any legislative bills.

"It's inconceivable that the top government representative on the environmental issue does not know anything about the ministry's policies," commented Yuri Melini, director of the Environmental Legal Action Center.

Carlos Albacete, head of Trópico Verde, another environmental group, said the country lacks a true environmental policy.

The minister responded that the ministry has drawn up several projects, such as the water act, and vehicle emissions regulation. The Executive Branch is still studying these.

The ministry is meeting with various civil society groups about a law to modify the environmental impact statements required for any industrial project, added Cáceres Ruiz.

MANAGUA - The Nicaraguan Army will begin deactivating the anti-personnel mines along the banks of the Coco River, which runs along the Honduran border, and were planted with the devices during the civil war of the 1980s.

The work will start at the end of August under the supervision of experts from the Organization of American States (OAS) and will benefit the indigenous communities of the Bilwi, Wasán, Leimus and Prinzapolka.

Spiro Bassi, head of the army corps of engineers told Tierramérica that this is the beginning of the second phase of the mine removal plan fro the autonomous North Atlantic region.

During the war between the U.S.-financed "contra" and the government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (1979-1990), the army planted 135,643 mines in at least 70 of the country's 151 municipalities. With the support of the international community, nearly 80,500 of these explosives have been removed and destroyed.

SAN SALVADOR - The municipal government of the Salvadoran capital is debating a proposal to impose fines of up to 571 dollars on individuals or companies that produce noise that disturbs the city's peace.

The initiative proposes a list with tolerable levels of noise for fixed and mobile sources, based on times of day and areas of San Salvador.

For example, in residential or hospital areas, noises of up to 55 decibels would be allowed during the day, and 45 decibels at night. In public spaces, noises of up to 100 decibels would be allowed for bus engines, and 118 decibels for their horns.

The city statute would punish repeat offenders by seizing the noise-producing item or closing the noise-producing business.

TEGUCIGALPA - Honduran fishing communities have presented the government with a plan for the rational use and management of the resources in the Gulf of Fonseca, a natural maritime border shared with Nicaragua and El Salvador.

United in the Committee for the Defense and Protection of the Gulf of Fonseca, the fisherfolk maintain that the deterioration of the mangroves in the area is due to the lack of a coordinated plan for sustainable forms of using the natural resources.

"We are proposing that the states execute a joint policy, because the fishing communities, the people living in the border areas of the three countries are aware of the damage, but ongoing monitoring is needed," said Jorge Varela, president of the Committee.

An estimated 25,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador fish the waters of the Gulf of Fonseca, and although there are treaties on fishing limits, "there is always someone who violates the rules, and we are worried that the mangroves are disappearing, as are the giant turtles, crabs, iguanas and other species," Varela said.

TEGUCIGALPA - Communities in the Marcala region, in the central Honduran department of La Paz, created the first indigenous corporation for growing and selling organic coffee, in other words, free of agricultural chemicals, which can be harmful to the environment.

With support from FUNDER, a foundation for rural business development, small farmers of the Lenca community, one of seven indigenous groups in Honduras, began producing organic coffee two years ago.

The recently created company Funder-Café Orgánico will process and market the coffee beans grown on small family-owned plantations in Marcala, one of the leading Honduran coffee growing zones.

Coffee is the principal national export, producing 300 million dollars in revenues per year. But the decline in international coffee prices is forcing the country to seek alternatives, like organic production, which adds value to crops like coffee.

The indigenous-led endeavor promotes democratic participation and solidarity with small farmers, who tend to be isolated and would otherwise lack power to negotiate export prices.

MANAGUA - The government of Nicaragua is attempting to mitigate a drop-off in exports and reduce its 600-million-dollar fiscal deficit through the promotion of six industries, including sustainable forestry.

The idea is to make sustainable use of lumber resources, creating finished wood products, and "quit selling mere boards", Franklin Bordas Lowery, an official from the Nicaraguan Agricultural and Forestry Ministry's forestry project, told Tierramérica.

According to official figures, the country has 2.6 million hectares of forest plantations, which constitute more than 80 million cubic meters of wood.

The forestry industry provides 3.5 million dollars annually to Nicaragua's gross domestic product, says the Central Bank.

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.

TEGUCIGALPA - A report by the Swiss Foundation for Development Aid warns that the Honduran capital has the worst air pollution of Central America, which explains why there has been an increase in respiratory illnesses there.

Samples for measuring air quality revealed particle concentrations seven times greater than the limit established by the World Health Organization of 75 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

According to the regional study, the atmosphere of Tegucigalpa presents the highest concentration of particulates on the isthmus. The pollution comes from construction, forest fires, vehicles and industrial emissions.

One of the effects of the air pollution has been an increase in cases of asthma and bronchitis, which jumped from 20,000 in two years ago to 32,000 in 2001, according to Health Ministry figures.

SAN SALVADOR - Ecologists in El Salvador denounce the use of the insecticide permithrin in the government's fumigation campaign aimed at eradicating the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits dengue fever among humans.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sharply restricted the use of that pesticide in any form, due to its carcinogenic properties and toxicity for aquatic organisms, while Britain's Pesticide Action Network says the chemical alters the glandular functions of living beings, says the independent Salvadoran Ecological Union.

"Pesticides have never been the solution. What we will end up with will be super-mosquitoes," ecologist Mauricio Sermeño told Tierramérica, referring to the possibility that the insect will develop resistance to the chemical.

The Salvadoran government declared a state of emergency as a result of the dengue epidemic, which has already caused eight deaths among the thousands who have been infected with the disease.

SAN JOSE - Central America could cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 200,000 tons in the next 10 years through a plan encouraging the use of renewable energy sources, financed by the Global Environment Fund and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The project "Strengthening renewable energy capacity for Central America" has backed 21 initiatives for clean production of electricity, such as solar panels, small hydroelectric dams and the combustion of farm waste, in the seven countries of the region.

Launched with the backing of the Biomass Users Network, the program is in the phase of result analysis.

HAVANA - Cuban technicians are receiving training in Germany to recover an arid zone in the southeastern province of Guantánamo, one of the Caribbean island's most fragile ecosystems.

The initiative is part of a program financed by the Cuban government and the European Union to convert that part of Guantánamo into a regional model for sustainable development.

Beginning next year, the program is to ensure the self-sufficiency of families in supplies of vegetables and animal-based foods, and to create jobs for more than 30,000 of the area's residents.

More than a sixth of Cuban territory, of 110,000 square km, is partially or totally desertified, a phenomenon the National Program against Desertification and Drought, created in 1995, seeks to reverse.

PANAMA CITY - The presence of African bees led to a 25-percent increase in the production and weight of two varieties of coffee grown in the western Panamanian province of Chiriquí, according to a study by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

The African bees, which arrived in the country in the 1980s, have sporadically attacked and killed humans, and have hurt the bee-keeping industry, particularly in Chiriquí, where a large portion of Panama's honey is produced.

But entomologist David W. Roubik conducted a five-year study that links those bees to the rise in production of caturra and catimor coffees. The area of study encompassed a 30 square km zone along the Costa Rican border.

Roubik's study was published in June by the science journal Nature and included in the book "Panama: Biological Bridge", edited by Panamanian anthropologist Stanley Heckadon-Moreno.

GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan government is negotiating an agreement for the sale of oxygen to the Netherlands, giving the European country a larger quota for the emission of greenhouse gases and the Central American nation resources to preserve its natural wealth.

The accord establishes that the Netherlands can purchase from Guatemala greenhouse gas reduction credits worth a total of 10 million tons of carbon dioxide until 2012.

The Dutch government is committed to investing the credits in Guatemalan projects and providing technical assistance.

Guatemalan officials state that this represents a major step towards the conservation of natural resources, though agree it is premature to talk about economic benefits.

Criticism of the deal came from Carlos Albacete, director of Trópico Verde, an environmental organization. He says the sale of oxygen is unethical because it allows industrialized countries to continue polluting.

SAN JOSE – Costa Rica must invest 1.6 billion dollars to modernize its potable water and sanitation services, according to a recent study by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

The country spends 0.7 percent of its gross domestic product on water programs and has not invested in water infrastructure works for the last 25 years, says the report.

Ninety-six percent of the urban waste water in Costa Rica flows untreated into water sources and the rates charged for public water services do not even cover costs, according to PAHO.

HAVANA – Cuba and Guatemala will now be able to develop joint projects for natural resources management and protection under a new environmental agreement signed by the two governments.

The Guatemalan embassy in Cuba confirmed that the accord signed in late June will be in place for the next five years, and is “renewable for additional five-year periods if the two parties wish.”

The agreement calls for an exchange of information on environmental monitoring, promotion of seminars and masters degrees in ecological education and scientific research.

SAN JOSE – In the countries of Central America, 170,000 police and military troops will receive training to protect natural resources and nature preserves in the region.

Their education covers agricultural, forestry and ecological matters and is part of the Central American Environmental Defense Program of the Meso-American Biological Corridor (CBM), a plan encompassing the countries of the isthmus and southern Mexico.

The Tropical Agronomy Research and Teaching Center is in charge of the effort, in collaboration with the environment ministries of the Central American countries, to train 35 officers and 240 soldiers and police, who will then go on to teach the rest of the security personnel.

The Center will also serve as advisor for eight military and two police academies in the region.

GUATEMALA CITY – The Guatemalan Constitutional Court put a 15-day halt on the transfer of a portion of the protected Sierra de las Minas to a logging company.

The high court ruled that there is a risk of irreparable harm to the reserve’s natural resources and gave the parties involved 15 days to present their arguments.

Covering 236,000 hectares, the Sierra de las Minas has been protected since 1992, and UNESCO declared it a biosphere reserve in 1992. Nearly half of the area is a cloud forest, home to numerous plant and animal species that are in danger of extinction.

The National Protected Areas Council agreed in March to grant the Maderas el Alto logging company the right to exploit 4,000 hectares of the reserve.

But the Defenders of Nature organization and mayors and communities of nine municipalities demanded that the court annul the permit because Sierra de las Minas provides the freshwater supply to those areas.