SAO PAULO - The proportion of environmentally certified forests in Brazil nearly doubled in the past two years, while worldwide it increased 70.25 percent, according to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The global status of sustainably grown forest products will be studied during the 2nd Certified Brazil Fair, to be held in Sao Paulo Apr. 18-20.

The event will include buyers and producers of raw materials and products from the forests -- representatives from sawmills, paper and pulp industries, artisans and community growers -- all certified by the FSC.

"The principal novelty of this edition of the fair is the great variety of certified products and companies. It will be seen that many productive networks in the forestry sector are wholly certified, linking the forests with the final consumer," Luis Fernando Guedes Pinto, director of Imaflora, the institute overseeing the initiative, told Tierramérica.

BUENOS AIRES - The Rural Reflection Group (GRR) in Argentina has criticized its government for defending the dominant model for producing genetically modified soybeans and maintaining positions in line with the biotechnology corporations, during the biodiversity summit that ended Mar. 31 in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba.

Against the stance of the biotech industry, the 8th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity maintained a moratorium on the so-called genetic use restriction technologies (GURT), in force since 2000, and which activists say produce sterile or "terminator" seeds.

GRR president Jorge Rulli told Tierramérica it was "scandalous" how Argentina and Paraguay defended the policies of the corporations that sell genetically modified seeds.

This rural and environmental organization challenges the intensive farming of soybeans because of its negative impacts on biodiversity, the accelerated concentration of landownership, and the increase in rural poverty.

GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan capital's municipal government approved the "Metropolitan Ecological Corridor Conservation" project, to preserve the forests that surround the city.

The project also aims to ensure a minimum of 20 square meters of green space for each of the capital's nearly 2.5 million inhabitants, city spokeswoman María José Salas told Tierramérica. The World Health Organizations calls for nine square meters per person for a "healthy city".

In the metropolitan area's forests and ravines there are some 1,500 types of plants, 750 kinds of insects and 115 species of birds, Salas said, in addition to 76 amphibian, 50 butterfly, 40 mammal and 12 spider species.

In the city's ravines alone, there are 5,000 hectares of forest, according to a report by the Foundation for Eco-Development and the Conservation of Nature (FUNDAECO), she added.

TEGUCIGALPA - The Honduran government will promote the cultivation of 200,00 hectares of African palm over the next five years to produce the alternative fuel known as biodiesel.

Government adviser Moisés Starkman told Tierramérica that this measure "will lower the costs and the pressure that we face due to the hike in petroleum prices."

The palm plant, which as of next year will be cultivated in the country's northern and Caribbean region, "will be the raw material for producing some 200 million gallons of biodiesel," said the presidential adviser.

Currently the country generates some 9,000 gallons of biodiesel, but with the free trade agreement with the United States, known as CAFTA and in effect since Apr. 1, the government will promote this energy sector, he added.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil is less urbanized than what official statistics indicate: the total urban area (with pavement, basic infrastructure services, telephone systems, homes and businesses) covers just 0.25 percent of the country, according to a study by the satellite monitoring center of the Brazilian agricultural research agency, Embrapa.

The new measurements will help correct public policies and planning. The investment needed for basic sanitation in Brazil, estimated at more than 55 billion dollars, is likely exaggerated, study coordinator Evaristo de Miranda told Tierramérica.

In Brazil it is the municipal governments that define the urbanized areas. As such, the census considers more than 80 pecent of the national population to be urban dwellers, surpassing the portion of many industrialized countries -- which suggests the figures are distorted.

The acceptable limit of urbanization of a municipality is 25 percent -- above that there is environmental degradation, lower quality of life and frequent flooding, said Miranda.