CARACAS - An agricultural technical school attended by 400 children and adolescents in the Orinoco Delta, in eastern Venezuela, received 75,000 dollars from the U.S.-based oil giant ChevronTexaco for building repairs and equipment.

The delta is one of the poorest areas of the country and its ecosystem is considered very fragile. A quarter of its 100,000 residents are Warao Indians. ChevronTexaco has been granted two natural gas exploration concessions 150 km off the coast, in the Atlantic.

The Venezuelan government is requiring the beneficiaries of such concessions to set aside funds for social and environmental projects.

"Our operations will produce revenues in 2010, when exploration is complete. But we don't want to postpone these social investment initiatives," said oil company spokesman Carlos Aguilera.

ChevronTexaco faces legal battles as Ecuadorian indigenous communities accuse it of damaging the environment with its oil operations dating from 1967 to 1990, when Texaco had not yet merged with Chevron.

HAVANA - More than 300,000 people suffer water shortages daily in Holguín, one of the six provinces in eastern Cuba hard hit by drought since the 1990s.

The city of Holguín, a provincial capital of 340,000, has been in a state of "intense drought alert" since Jul. 29, 2003.

"It simply does not rain and there is no water. The city's distribution system operates irregularly," says resident Noelia Perdomo.

"The digging of hundreds of wells and the mobilization of tank trucks has brought a certain amount of relief," according to journalist Ardenis Pablo Rodríguez.

Sources from the climate center at the Cuban Institute of Meteorology say that the November 2003-January 2004 period was one of the driest of the past 50 years.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Increasing the height of ocean waves by 80 percent and improving their dynamic to benefit surfers is the goal of a project of the post-graduate engineering program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Oceanography engineer Enise Valentini, head of the project, is studying how to alter the coastal seabed to create a new surfing paradise at a Rio de Janeiro beach, where waves are too frequent and break too early for the taste of experienced surfers.

By creating an artificial floor, made of cement, stones or sandbags, the waves could be taller and longer, according to Valentini.

In addition to promoting surfing, this technology could also be used to benefit tourism, in coastal protection projects, or in creating propitious environments for certain marine species, she said.

SANTIAGO - The Chilean government is creating a Transantiago Financial Administration System to reorganize public transportation and to build bikeways, among other measures intended to reduce pollution in the capital, home to five million people.

The system will collect, administer and distribute the 700 million dollars generated each year by public transportation, reported the Ministry of Public Works on Mar. 15.

Fares are to be regulated, "smart cards" for paying the fares will be used more extensively, and revenues will be redistributed to reward the public transportation companies with best records for ridership and environmental protection.

Operators of microbuses and collective taxis, the main means of surface transport in the city, announced that they will take the issue to court because they see the new system as expropriating their business, and therefore unconstitutional.

TEGUCIGALPA - An initiative to mitigate the effects of drought and to prevent desertification in 10 of the 18 departments of Honduras began two weeks ago with public hearings and the identification of productive projects.

José María Ordóñez, deputy minister of agriculture, told Tierramérica that involving the communities in the effort goes a long way towards achieving positive results in sustainable development.

The departments included in the initiative suffer moderate to severe drought. Environmental groups, like the Committee for the Protection of Flora and Fauna in the Gulf of Fonseca, say that if mangroves and other coastal species continue to decline, Central America's first desert could be formed.

The project is part of a Latin American strategy of creating multi-sectoral committees on drought, said Ordóñez.

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemalan Indians and peasant farmers planned to stage a protest against the Puebla-Panama Plan on Mar. 23, during a visit by Mexican President Vicente Fox, the promoter of the initiative.

"We have prepared several pickets, and are deciding if we will organize a big march in the capital," Daniel Pascual, leader of the Peasant Unity Committee, told Tierramérica.

The Puebla-Panama Plan "will only bring more poverty to the indigenous peoples... and it does not involve any development initiatives for the Mayas or for the great majority of poor people in Guatemala and all Central America," he said.

"They talk about the major infrastructure projects, but do not consult about the harm they will cause the environment. We also denounce plans to bring transgenic products to our markets, because they will destroy our traditional crops like maize and beans," added Pascual.

The stated intention of the Puebla-Panama Plan is to reinforce integration and promote social and economic development in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and nine southern Mexican states.

SAN JOSE - Scientists from the World Conservation Union aim to remove invading species from Costa Rica's Coco Island, in the Pacific Ocean, so that they do not cause further harm to biodiversity.

Alan Tye, Brian Cook, Norm McDonald and Michel Pascal, experienced in eliminating exotic species from local ecosystems in New Zealand, Australia and Ecuador's Galápagos Islands, will attempt to remove cats, pigs, white-tailed deer and two types of rats.

These experts say that pigs are causing erosion on the 24-square-km island, which leads to sedimentation in the coral beds along the coast.

The rats destroy various species of flora and fauna and are a threat to the exceptional biodiversity of the island, which has been protected since 1978 and was declared a Natural Heritage of Humanity site by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).