SANTIAGO - On Jun. 5, World Environment Day, the eco-watchdog Greenpeace awarded its 2006 Environmental "Condorazo" Prize to magnate Anacleto Angelini, accused of being responsible for ecological disasters caused by pulp mill factories in southern Chile.

An activist wearing a devil costume, accompanied by two little she-devils, presented this "recognition" to Charles Kimberg, head of corporate operations for Angelini's Celco company, in Santiago.

Angelini deserved the award because of the destruction to the Cruces River nature sanctuary in the southern province of Valdivia, and for building another paper mill in the Nuble region that will pollute the Itata River and a farming valley, Monica Infante, communications director for Greenpeace-Chile, told Tierramérica.

The award is named the "Condorazo", and refers to a cartoon character that in Chilean slang is used to describe foolish behavior.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The Amazonian Legal Network of Genomic Research, REALGENE, made up of seven universities and three research centers in the region, deciphered the useful part of the genome of guaraná (Paullinia cupana), a fruit found exclusively in the Brazilian Amazon.

The genome of the plant is three times that of the human genome, and not much would be gained by studying its entirety, because it is very repetitive, project coordinator Spartaco Astolfi Filho explained to Tierramérica.

Guaraná, used in a popular Brazilian softdrink, is a stimulant, anti-carcinogen and memory enhancer. Identifying its proteins, enzymes and molecules could help reveal what produces these effects, he said.

REALGENE is also studying the genes of another fruit, the camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia), and the genetic make up of Amazonian microorganisms.

GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan association Afaguatemala is promoting the use of a low-cost, artisanal filter to purify water, says the inventor, Gernando Mazariegos.

The device, patented in Guatemala, helps reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases and is already being used in 16 countries, among them, Cambodia, Cuba, El Salvador, Ghana, Haiti, Mexico, Nepal and Sudan, Mazariegos said in a Tierramérica interview.

"Its basic components are sand, sawdust and mud, to which colloidal silver is added" as a bactericide, he explained.

The filter, invented by the Guatemalan in 1991, at first glance looks simply like a pot of mud inside a plastic bucket, and costs a little more than 36 dollars in Guatemala's rural areas. But it can filter eight to 10 liters of water a day, which is the average consumption of a family with four or five members.

SAO PAULO - A method developed in Brazil and approved by the southern states of Sao Paulo and Santa Catarina, will produce artificial rains by seeding clouds with potable water, free of chemical products.

They will use "warm clouds, without ice crystals, that can act in places with a semi-arid climate, like the Northeast region of Brazil," research chief Takeshi Imai told Tierramérica.

In each flight, which lasts about an hour, "the airplane can spray 300 liters of water, for a quantity of rain equivalent to 15,000 tanker trucks," he added.

The project was presented in 2002 at the 12th Brazilian Meteorology Congress in the southern city of Foz do Iguacu, and in 2005 won the Gold Medal for Water Science at an international symposium in Cannes, France.

CARACAS - El Avila mountain, which separates the Venezuelan capital from the Caribbean coast and is the center of a national park covering 85,000 hectares, will have 100 million plants cultivated on its slopes as part of the government program known as Misión Arbol (Mission Tree).

The goal is reforest 150,000 hectares across Venezuela, where more than 240,000 hectares are deforested annually, according to environmental groups.

The effort will take five years. Meanwhile, environmentalists "will set up a plant nursery as an educational tool and to repopulate the forest on El Avila, in order to expand the project to 43 national parks" covering 13.5 million hectares, Diego Díaz, coordinator of the Vitalis organization, told Tierramérica.

President Hugo Chávez led a day of planting on Jun. 4 for school children and officials. Two thousand seedlings were planted on one side of the mountain. On another side, the volunteers from Vitalis group and the Metropolitan University did the same.