BARRANQUILLA - Around 100 young people paraded Feb. 25 at the start of Carnival in this northern Colombian city, wearing costumes representing animal species that are threatened or on their way to extinction.

Darío Morreo, artistic director of this "Faunival", told Tierramérica that the idea was to raise awareness and promote conservation of endangered species, like the cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), red howler monkey (Alouatta seniculus) and the jaguar (Panthera onca).

"I chose the iguana because it is one of the most mistreated animals in this area. They cut them open alive to remove the eggs to sell, and then leave them to die," Elkim Pineda, who will join five friends inside a six-meter iguana costume for the parade, told Tierramérica.

The program is organized by the Cultural Park of the Caribbean in association with the Autonomous Regional Corporation of the Atlantic, the Barranquilla Zoological Foundation, the Barranquilla Carnival Foundation and Conservation International.

TEGUCIGALPA - The European Union will launch a program in March to protect ecosystems in the Caribbean, including the coral reefs shared by Honduras, Guatemala and Belize, said a government source.

The Honduran Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing, Bayardo Pagoada, told Tierramérica that Spanish experts will be arriving here to inventory the marine resources these countries hold in the Golf of Honduras, with sights on designing a program to prevent environmental deterioration of the marine ecosystems.

"They will also make recommendations on how to manage disasters caused by oil spills from tanker ships and will focus especially on the coral reefs," he said.

The Honduran Caribbean is home to some of the world's most beautiful coral reefs, but they are deteriorating as a result of heavy rains and hurricanes, according to officials.

GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan government plans to build bridges and paths in the Cerro San Gil Spring Reserve, in the eastern department of Izabal, to promote ecotourism.

The idea is for Guatemalan and foreign tourists to learn about the diversity of fauna and flora in the area, Evelyn Picón, spokeswoman for the National Council on Protected Areas (CONAP), told Tierramérica.

In the 47,434 hectare reserve -- which Congress declared a protected area in 1996 -- is the only source of water to supply more than 100,000 people in 36 surrounding communities.

It also holds one of the largest tropical rain forests in Guatemala, with great biodiversity of endemic species, including the O'Donnell climing salamander (Bolitoglossa odonnelli), said Picón.

According to CONAP, 66 reptile species and 49 bird species in the reserve are endangered.

BUENOS AIRES - Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay have agreed to draw up a joint program for evaluating the impacts of climate change in the Rio de la Plata basin and preventing potential natural disasters.

The Framework Program for Sustainable Management of Hydric Resources was presented Feb. 22 in Buenos Aires by the inter-governmental committee of the countries that share the basin, which covers 3.1 million square km.

"We're estimating that between September and October implementation can begin," the committee's leader, Marcela Gasparrini, told Tierramérica.

For the program, the representatives from the five countries studied the region's vulnerabilities to a variable climate, with swings between flooding and drought.

These abrupt changes could affect the populations along the rivers, but also have a serious impact on fishing, hydroelectric energy and water transportation.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The international small farmers' group Vía Campesina has pledged to stage a broad protests against genetically modified crops at the world conference on agrarian reform to be held Mar. 7-10 in Porto Alegre, and another on biosecurity, Mar. 13-17 in Curitiba.

In addition to the environmental risks of transgenic crops, also at stake is the right of farmers to produce their own seeds, as genetically modified seeds are usually the monopoly of a handful of transnational corporations, Joao Pedro Stedile, coordinator of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), one of the Brazilian Vía Campesina organizations, told Tierramérica.

The peasant farmers' movement criticizes the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), organizer of the agrarian conference, for considering transgenic products a key factor in agricultural development.