MEXICO CITY - The Mexican and U.S. governments are assessing the viability of the North American Development Bank (NADB), the only binational instrument that finances basic infrastructure to improve the environment along the 3,200-km border between the two countries.

"It would be a shame if the only credit institution for development along the border were to disappear, but I think the bank has had a low profile and perhaps the failure has been in communicating its benefits," Eliseo Díaz, researcher at the Northern Frontier College, in the border city of Tijuana, told Tierramérica.

Created in the framework of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NADB has financed projects worth more than two billion dollars since it began operating in 1995. It is headquarted in the U.S. city of San Antonio, Texas.

The governors of the states on both sides of the border support NADB, and several U.S. lawmakers have announced that they will louldy oppose any effort to shut it down.

BUENOS AIRES - A neighborhood group in the Argentine capital is speaking out against the progress of a new government project to set aside the city's last free public lands for a real estate project.

At stake are 18 hectares along a railroad in the eastern neighborhood of Retiro, where the Corporación Antiguo Puerto Madero -- involving the national and city government -- plans to construct buildings for housing, business, hotels and offices.

"The great negative environmental impact that this would bring would hurt neighbors and visitors," Gerardo Schiopetto, secretary of the Friends of Lake Palermo Association, told Tierramérica.

The association members, residents of Buenos Aires, say the fiscal lands free of construction in this area, one of the most expensive in the city, should be set aside for the public, "preferably for green space," said Schiopetto.

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemala's National Council for Protected Areas (CONAP) has published the country's hunting schedule, with lists of the species that can be hunted legally, which ones are prohibited, and the quota per hunter.

This initiative "modernizes the 1970 Hunting Act," explained Franklin Herrera, head of the wildlife unit at CONAP.

"The dates published correspond to the period that ensures the survival of each species, so there won't be any negative impact on the country's fauna," the biologist told Tierramérica.

The calendar begins in March and runs through February 2007. Anyone who violates the country's hunting regulations can be fined or spend up to five years behind bars.

Among the protected species are the jaguar (Panthera onca), spider monkey (Ateles hybridus), the keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), and all varieties of parrots, parakeets and macaws.

BOGOTA - Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant communities have joined together to create a Colombian network for environmentally friendly production, with the aim of producing native food and crafts to be sold locally as well as for export.

The 70 micro-businesses are financed by the Dutch government and the Fund for Environmental Action and Childhood, which learned of the project through the non-governmental organization Tool Box, which contacts the communities that produce ecological products and facilitates improvement of their working conditions.

Guillermo Rodríguez, director of the Sustainable Development Network, a participant in the project, told Tierramérica it has a four-year budget of 2.98 million dollars.