CARACAS - Venezuela will set up the first of eight meteorological radars by the end of June, the initial step to enable the Environment Ministry to collect data on precipitation and weather throughout the country.

The pilot radar will be installed in Colonia Tovar, a mountain village 30 km from Caracas. The others will be set up in the northeast and northwest of the country, along the southwestern border with Colombia, in the southern state of Amazonas, and in another southern watershed, says program director Tirso Carballo.

Venezuela sees dramatic shifts between dry season (November to April) and rainy season (May to October). This month heavy rainfall caused mudslides, which killed at least 17 people in the Andes region in southwestern Venezuela.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The Brazilian government is preparing its first National Conference on the Environment, Nov. 28-30 in Brasilia, where a "new environmental policy" will be designed, with input from all sectors of society.

This month, commissions were set up to carry out preparatory conferences in the country's 27 states. National, state and local authorities, representatives from the legislative and judicial branches, and delegates from business, universities and civil society groups are to participate.

Environment Minister Marina Silva says it is "a process of articulation and mobilization" that will gather the experiences of sustainable development in Brazil over the past 20 years.

SANTIAGO - The portion of automobiles with unleaded gas catalytic converters expanded in the Chilean capital from 36 percent of the total in 1992 to 59 percent last year, says the National Institute of Statistics.

In 1993 there were 180,000 unleaded gas-burning cars in Santiago, while in 2002 the figure rose to 525,700.

Emissions of pollutants by engines with catalytic converters are 80 percent lower than conventional motors that burn leaded gasoline.

Since 2000, cars with the "green stamp" are free from the traffic restrictions implemented when states of environmental pre-emergency and emergency are announced as a result of the city's chronic air pollution problem.

HAVANA - The prolonged drought affecting the eastern Cuban provinces of Las Tunas and Holguín is due to weather fluctuations caused by the phenomenon of El Niño-Southern Oscillations (ENSO), say meteorologists.

This interaction between ocean and atmosphere is repeated every three to seven years, when a warm current travels from the southeast Pacific to the South American coast.

"A series of factors, including ENSO, has caused considerable climate change, with an increase in dry periods, which are now occurring with greater frequency and persistence," said expert José Piña Silva.

Specialists from the Holguín Meteorological Center also point to the high incidence of deforestation and the rise of the mean temperature -- reaching 30 degrees centigrade -- as factors contributing to the drought.

MANAGUA - Nicaraguan scientists are testing ground water in a northwestern area of the country to determine if aquifers contaminated with pesticides are related to the presence of DDT found in breast milk.

A study by the Autonomous National University of Nicaragua conducted in the departments of Chinandega and León detected DDT in the milk of mothers in that area, which is characterized by high exposure to pesticides used in cotton farming, scientist Adela Cruz Granjas told Tierramérica.

Now the aim is to study the vulnerability of aquifers in the region and determine whether the mothers were contaminated by drinking water from surface sources or wells, said Cruz.

TEGUCIGALPA - The governmental Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Research (FHIA) began a program this month in sustainable forest management aimed at preserving 10,000 hectares in the eastern region of Aguán, along the Atlantic coast.

Over the next 30 months, 350 small and medium farmers in the Aguán Valley, one of the country's most fertile zones, will receive training, says project coordinator Jesús Sánchez.

The plan is to protect 10,000 hectares of the valley's remaining forests, as well as the micro-basins of the Tocoa and Tijuica rivers. Honduras loses 80,000 hectares of forest a year.

GUATEMALA CITY - Some 100 officials from the ministries of the environment and natural resources of Mexico and Guatemala sat down for the first time on Jun. 19 in the Guatemalan capital to outline a binational agenda on environmental protection.

Delegates from the neighbouring countries discussed water, air quality, biodiversity, sustainable management, and forest fire prevention, Sergio del Aguila, spokesman for the Guatemalan Environment Ministry, told Tierramérica.

This first meeting, the result of an accord signed by the two countries in 2002, also focused on designing prevention mechanisms for illegal trade in lumber and wildlife, and establishing conservation measures for their shared biodiversity and ecosystems.