BUENOS AIRES - International environmental organizations gathered in Argentina are exhorting governments around the world to ban the inclusion of transgenic tree plantations as possible ''carbon sinks'' to capture greenhouse gases.

During the 10th Conference on Climate Change, which ended Dec. 18 in Buenos Aires, Friends of the Earth and the World Rainforest Movement denounced the negative effects of genetically modified tree plantations on the environment.

The activists noted that Conference on Climate Change's permission that transgenic tree plantations could count as carbon sinks under the Clean Development Mechanism was obtained in 2003.

The CDM is a provision of the Kyoto Protocol to allow industrialized countries to invest in clean development in developing countries as a means to compensate for their own excess emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

BOGOTA - Communities neighboring the 49 nature preserves in Colombia this month presented a show of artisan work that uses natural resources, but are developed through environmental sustainable processes.

The exposition, coordinated by the parks division of the Environment Ministry and by the communities involved, took place as part of the 2004 Colombia Crafts Fair.

Ministry spokeswoman Carolina Ramírez told Tierramérica that among the works shown were coconut carvings from the environmental education group of the Corales National Nature Park (northern Colombia), marmalades and other preserves from the Association of Women Workers from Cerrito (located near Los Colorados Wildlife Sanctuary, north), and ceramics from the Bora-Miraña communities, located along the Cahuinarí National Park (central Colombia).

LIMA - Ozono Radio, an environmental broadcaster that targets youth audiences, won first prize in the communications category of the Business Creativity 2004 contest, promoted by the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC).

The radio station succeeded in ''differentiating itself from others by promoting care for the environment, a factor that gave personality to its programming and opened a new niche in the audience,'' explained UPC rector Luis Bustamante.

Ozono Radio broadcasts from the coastal city of Trujillo, 560 km north of Lima, and its target audience are youths 15 to 25 years old. Its programming includes popular music, as well as shows on environmentally related news.

The station created the first Ecological Youth Brigade, made up of 160 young people who participate in tree-planting efforts, urban clean-up and environmental education.

GUATEMALA CITY - The ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal, one of the main tourist attractions in Guatemala, require urgent conservation efforts, say experts.

Critics charge that the government is failing to keep up with the so-called master plan for restructuring the tourism complex. The plan is in effect until 2008.

They denounce the neglect of most of the monuments, which are covered by vegetation, the authorization of public events, such as rock concerts, and the lack of appropriate management of the flow of tourists.

In the Tikal area are 252 species of birds, of which 60 are considered rare. The park, declared a national heritage site in 1955, is also home to 105 reptile, 100 mammal and 535 butterfly species.

TEGUCIGALPA - The Honduran Ecologists Network announced that it would invest 200,000 dollars to protect the Honduran emerald hummingbird (Amazilia luciae), an endemic species that faces extinction.

Network member Ricardo Steiner told Tierramérica that the funds were granted by the World Bank and will be used to delimit a protected area, hire forest rangers and conduct educational activities.

The World Bank ''has provided the Hondurans with a lesson by being the only institution committed to preserving this species, and it is making the construction of a highway conditional on areas of protection for the emerald hummingbird. It is granting those funds to ensure the bird's habitat,'' he explained.

The emerald hummingbird inhabits the northern department of Yoro, part of the Honduran dry tropical forest.