MEXICO CITY - Environment ministers from around the world will meet Feb 13-15 in the Caribbean city of Cartagena, Colombia, to fine-tune their preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+10), to take place in South Africa in August.

Under the leadership of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the ministers will discuss several proposals, including an initiative for protecting the world’s population and the environment from toxic chemicals.

UNEP has sounded the alarm that there is a tendency to shift chemical manufacturing away from the industrialized world to developing countries, where there is generally a lack of adequate safety mechanisms to handle the dangers involved in their production.

BOGOTA - The National Fishing and Aquaculture Institute (INPA) of Colombia imposed a two-month ban on Jan 20 for the Pacific region on the capture, marketing and consumption of shrimp in a bid to protect this endangered local species.

The ban affects some 17,000 fisherfolk and shrimp boat operators, whose vessels will be closely monitored by port and municipal authorities.

Some fishing operations use illegal methods and capture the shrimp before they have reached the minimum size allowed by species-protecting rules, said Iván Valderrama, INPA director.

HAVANA - Cuba aims to open a space in the world market for a broad range of biotechnology products developed by its laboratories, some of which have already been tested abroad.

Twenty years ago, the challenge was to make modern biotech viable in Cuba, now the goal is to achieve success in the market of the industrialized North, said Luis Herrera, general director of Cuba’s Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB).

Among the island’s top biotech products are a recombinant vaccine against hepatitis B, recognized by the World Health Organization, and recombinant streptoquinase, used for treating heart attacks.

QUITO - Environmental and civil society organizations in Ecuador have expressed concern about the announced privatization of the forestry service, saying it will lead to an increase in deforestation.

The Environment Ministry’s new “authority transfer agreement” establishes that the administration and management of natural preserves will be in the hands of provincial and municipal councils, while forestry control will be entrusted to a private company through a bidding process.

According to figures from the Ecuadorian Institute of Forestry, Natural Areas and Wildlife, there were 16 million hectares of forests in 1960, but just 11 million hectares today.