The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW-www.ifaw.org) today slammed the High North Alliance, a Norwegian pro-whaling group, for boasting that Norway had this year broken its annual record of whales killed. In their statement, the High North Alliance announced that Norwegian whalers killed 634 minke whales in the 2002 whale-hunting season, which are expected to yield 892 tons of meat and 63 tons of blubber for the commercial market.

Norway continues to hunt whales commercially, despite a global moratorium that came into effect in 1986. Norway also sets its own limit for the number of whales it takes each year. Until 2000, Norway claimed that their catch limits adhered to an International Whaling Commission (IWC) sanctioned formula, the Revised Management Procedure, designed to prevent whale populations from being overexploited. Yet, experts note that this year's catch is much higher than would have been allowed by the agreed formula.

"The killing of whales in defiance of a global moratorium on commercial whaling is nothing to brag about," says Vassilli Papastavrou, IFAW Global Whale Campaign Leader. "Each year Norway increases the number of whales it kills while claiming a scientific basis for its calculations. However, Norway turned its back on science long ago and can no longer claim to be using the International Whaling Commission's agreed mechanism for calculating catches," adds Papastavrou.

While whale meat is consumed in Norway, whale blubber is not. For this reason, Norwegian whalers plan to freeze the 63 tons of blubber from this whaling season, in the hope that they will be able to export it as a delicacy to Japan, along with more than 300 tons of blubber currently in storage. Hundreds of tons of old blubber have also been either dumped at sea or burned due to lack of demand in Norway.

In an effort to secure the approval of IWC members for their proposed trade, Japan and Norway have been working on DNA registration systems, which allow the origin of whale products to be determined. The two countries claim that with such testing regimes in place, they can resume a controlled and monitored whale trade. However, despite requests from the IWC, Japan and Norway have not shared this data with other IWC member countries, and have denied international access to and monitoring of this system.

Additionally, citizens groups in Japan have expressed concern that whale blubber contains pollutants and toxins that render it unsafe for human consumption and have protested against the resumption of trade in blubber between Norway and Japan. Minke whale products from the North Atlantic, hunted by Norway, have much higher levels of contaminants than products from Southern Ocean minke whales which are sold in Japan.

BOGOTA - The Colombian government ordered the creation of the National Biosafety Technical Council, the first step in regulating the introduction and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or transgenics.

The new council, a division of the Colombian Agricultural Institute, will be in charge of evaluating the introduction, production, trade, research, development and quality control of GMOs, as well as their potential health and environmental risks.

Transgenics are plant or animal species created in the laboratory by introducing the gene of one species into the DNA of another, usually with the aim to improve its characteristics, such as size, maturity rate, or resistance to pests.

The Council is to be made up of representatives of the Agricultural, Health and Environment ministries, of farming groups and consumers.

BUENOS AIRES - The residents of the Argentine capital can participate, beginning this month, in a voluntary program to partially categorize their household waste, an effort promoted by the Buenos Aires government.

The authorities are to distribute a million green plastic bags in which residents can place their paper and cardboard waste to be recycled.

The initiative aims to facilitate the work of some 35,000 informal collectors of paper and cardboard. If this pilot effort is successful, separating out this waste will be required of the capital's three million inhabitants.

LIMA - The climatic phenomenon known as El Niño, which causes heavy rainfall and flooding along South America's Pacific coast, is accelerating the melting of glaciers in the Andes Mountains, say experts.

In the last 30 years, the Andean glaciers have lost more than 12 billion cubic meters of ice, according to studies conducted by the Andean Institute of Glaciology and Geo-Environment.

The melting threatens the future supplies of freshwater in the Andean valleys and sierras of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, and on their ocean coasts, as the rivers are fed by the run-off from the mountains.

The warm ocean current that triggers El Niño has already begun to have an impact on the weather in this cycle, though is much more moderate than in its last appearance, in 1998.

SAN SALVADOR - The Mariona dump, which from 1991 to 1999 received approximately 3.5 million tons of domestic and industrial waste, will be transformed into a recreation park under strict environmental standards.

A consortium made up of 10 city councils and a Canadian company is promoting the three-million-dollar project.

The garbage at the huge dump, located 18 km north of the capital, has already been covered by a layer of clay, rocks and soil. The next step will be to install pipes to filter rainwater and the liquid from the decomposition of the waste.

The 100 people who subsisted by scavenging at the dump under appalling conditions today work for the cities involved in the park effort.

TEGUCIGALPA - The Honduran government plans to launch an international fundraising campaign to create a marine park around the paradise-like islands of Bahía, in the Caribbean, which form part of the world's second largest coral reef, after the Australian Great Barrier Reef.

Although the islands, 350 km north of Tegucigalpa, could bring in important tourism revenues, "it is essential to seek a balance that protects the marine resources," says Thierry de Pierrefeu, Minister of Tourism.

The government hopes to begin an environmental education plan for the Hondurans living on the islands among the sea treasures. The government of Spain and the Inter-American Development Bank have pledged to support the initiative for three years beginning in 2003.

MANAGUA - An Internet site dedicated to the birds of Nicaragua will soon provide information on the 644 native species and promote the "Adopt-A-Bird" program, the initiative of a group of biologists and ecologists.

The independently run Cocibolca Foundation is backing this project coordinated by four experts in biology, ornithology and ecology.

The Adopt-A-Bird program aims to finance the illustrations of a field guide for all of the species native to Nicaragua. For 20 dollars, the adoptive "parents" cover the cost of illustration and receive a high-quality copy of it.

To learn more about the effort, connect yourself to: http://www.avesnicaragua.org