TEGUCIGALPA - The Honduran Mining Law, whose passage was expected by mid-May, was suspended because mining companies don't want to stop strip mining in the mountains, saying it would discourage investment.

Lawmakers and environmental organizations protested the companies' efforts to continue the "open-pit mining" practices and to expand the 10-year period for exploration and exploitation to 15 or 20 years.

Deputy Doris Gutiérrez, of the leftist Democratic Unification Party, told Tierramérica that the mining companies thus want to eliminate "the consensus process" that has taken four years.

Juan Almendares, of the Madre Tierra group, said some legislators are trying to invalidate the promise made by President Manuel Zelaya to ban open-pit mining practices.

BUENOS AIRES - The Argentine Wildlife Directorate stepped up operations last week against the illegal sales of wild bird species that are endangered or whose populations are very reduced.

Directorate chief Daniel Ramadori told Tierramérica that the birds being poached are traded on the side of a legal wild animal trade fair that takes place in the southern Buenos Aires district of Nueva Pompeya.

"They bring them from various points around the country and sell them there, so we ordered 14 simultaneous operations alongside the police and we were able to seize 400 birds," he said.

In the sting, officials recovered yellow cardinals (Gubernatrix cristata), black-backed grosbeaks (Pheucticus aureoventris) and chopi blackbirds (Gnorimopsar chopi), among other protected species.

"In other operations carried out in the nation's interior we attacked real networks of animal traffickers," said Ramadori.

BOGOTA - Beginning May 30, the Bogotá municipal government will implement traffic restrictions in three sectors of the city, affecting public service vehicles that run on diesel and that are older than 10 years.

Those affected will not be able to travel through the industrial districts of Puente Aranda, Fontibón and Kennedy between 7:00 and 11:00 a.m. Violators will not be allowed to operate the vehicle and will have to pay a fine.

Carlos Escobar, adviser to the Environmental Corporation of the Atlantic, said in a Tierramérica interview that Bogotá, with its million vehicles, is considered the third most polluted city in Latin America.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's Ministry of Environment will promote planting of eucalyptus in order to contain deforestation in the eastern Amazon, where 14 steel mills process iron ore from the Sierra de Carajás using charcoal made from the native forests.

But the idea is running up against environmentalists and peasant farmers, who are launching an offensive against the "green deserts" of the pulp industry, which is based on the fast-growing eucalyptus trees.

The same argument of forest preservation was made for eucalyptus and the iron industry in the southern state of Minas Gerais, but deforestation continued anyway, Winfried Overbeek, with FASE, a non-governmental group associated with the Latin American Network Against Tree Monoculture, told Tierramérica.

The risk is that it will degenerate into forest monoculture, said Paulo Moutinho, of the Amazonian Institute of Environmental Research.

GUATEMALA CITY - A new regulation on discharge of wastewater took effect May 11 in Guatemala, and includes penalties of up to 10 years in prison for contamination of major water sources.

The measure aims to gradually eliminate pollution from some 500 companies by 2024.

"We are going to create a database to determine the degree of water contamination in Guatemala and we will set up a mobile laboratory to conduct testing, which should be ready in four months," Environment Minister Mario Dary told Tierramérica.

Industrial executives warned against focusing only on the private sector. "A few factories are responsible for between 10 and 15 percent of the contamination of water sources; the rest are the municipalities and the residential sector," said Ricardo Sagastume, head of the Chamber of Industry.

MEXICO CITY - Opposition has emerged amongst entrepreneurs in the Mexican capital against a law that would require the use of solar energy by any new business that has more than 51 employees and uses hot water. Their argument is that it is an expensive source of energy and adequate technology is not available.

"The opposition is understandable, because the city authorities have not explained its scope or its benefits," Odón de Buen, secretary of the non-governmental National Solar Energy Association, told Tierramérica.

"I think there is natural resistance against the measure, but in the end we maintain that it is appropriate and will succeed if the city government approaches those who are upset and clarify any doubts and support compliance," he said.

The Mexico City government implemented the new law on Apr. 8, stating that any commercial establishment that begins operations since that date and requires hot water has to use solar energy.