RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 18 (Tierramérica) - The cyclical climate phenomenon known as El Niño will return at the end of theyear, but will lack the strong intensity if had in 1997-1998, when it triggered droughts and devastating fires in Brazil, say meteorologists here.

It will tend to be "moderate" in comparison because the surface waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean will be two to four degrees warmer than average, Epedito Gomes Rebello, a researcher at the National Institute of Meteorology, told Tierramérica.

This is predictable because the water currents at a depth of 100 meters are already four degrees warmer, he said. As a result of the ocean's interaction with the atmosphere there will be drought in the northern Amazon and in northeast Brazil, while there will be heavier rains in the south.

MONTEVIDEO, Sep 18 (Tierramérica) - The reappearance in Uruguay of an "aguará-guazú", or maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), the first one sighted here in 16 years, could help finance a study of this canid species.

The animal, which is more closely related to foxes than to wolfes, was killed by hunters in the eastern departnment of Cerro Largo, and taken in mid-September to the Museum of Natural History and Anthropology in Montevideo, where it was being prepared for study.

Museum director Arturo Toscano told Tierramérica that efforts are being made, alongside the Ministry of Agriculture, to obtain financing for research, which would include a search for more maned wolves in Cerro Largo.

"Based on the animal found, we could make a conservation proposal on the national or municipal level," said Toscano.

In Uruguay, the last aguará-guazú, which can weigh 40 kilograms and inhabits several South American countries, was seen in 1990 in the western department of Río Negro.

CARACAS, Sep 18 (Tierramérica) - Some 20,000 volunteers took part in a beach clean-up Sep. 16 in Venezuela, targeting 300 areas along the Caribbean, as well as around lakes and riverbanks, coinciding with the end of school vacation.

"We also classify and inventory the garbage we collect. The experiences of recent years indicate that the waste associated with tourism, especially plastics, are the main pollutants of our beaches," Maury Marcano, spokesman for the initiative, organized by the Foundations for the Defense of Nature, told Tierramérica ahead of the clean-up.

Last year, thousands of volunteers on 179 beaches collected 755,000 kilos of waste in 13,400 garbage bags. The annual beach clean-up is financed by big Venezuelan private companies.

SANTIAGO, Sep 18 (Tierramérica) - A dozen representatives of indigenous Mapuche communities in Chile's Araucanía region charged that they are the target of racism and discrimination by the authorities who set up 19 garbage dumps less than one kilometer from their homes.

The Mapuche Indians say the foul odors and the smoke from burning garbage has caused respiratory problems. Furthermore, the dumps have attracted packs of dogs, and led to the appearance of larvae in livestock, particularly hogs, that causes trichynosis in humans.

The Mapuche leaders gathered in the city of Temuco to draw up strategies for getting rid of the dumps.

Alejandra Parra, of the non-governmental Action Network for Environmental Rights, told Tierramérica that a prompt solution is unlikely, which is why they will file a complaint of racism before an international organization, yet to be determined.

TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 18 (Tierramérica) - A small association of journalists in the Honduran interior has announced the creation of the "Bellota de Oro" (Golden Acorn), an award to recognize efforts to defend the environment.

The Honduran Assocation of Environmental and Agro-Forestry Reporters, AHPAAF, with 25 members and founded in May, will present the new award on Nov. 1 to businessman Emilio Larach for his innovative campaigns in favor of sustainable development in Honduras over the past three decades.

He is currently reforesting the main watersheds of the capital.

Association president Dolores Valenzuela told Tierramérica that usually, "here the ecological awards go to those who degrade natural resources and hide under tha mantle of notables. We are recognizing the ones who truly are committed to the environment."

HAVANA, Sep 18 (Tierramérica) - Several vacant lots in central and heavily populated areas of 14 of Havana's 15 municipalities have been refurbished for "organoponic" gardening as part of an urban agriculture program for 2006 in the Cuban capital.

These are small spaces for growing vegetables without chemical products, in this case in protected plots that allow better protection of the substrata, enriched with organic materials, and obtaining better yields.

Yamil Sarría, an expert with the urban agriculture group in the capital -- home to 2.2 million people --, told Tierramérica that the organoponic crops are a safeguard in case of flooding, and they also recover more quickly from hurricanes.

The gardens, which grow mostly herbs and vegetables, "are shorter plants, so suffer less from the hurricane winds," said Sarría.

MILAN, Sep 18 (Tierramérica) - In the northern Italian hills of Ascoli, beekeeper Emidio Ferreti is raising ants to sell them at market. The ants are used for fighting other crop-destroying insects, pollinating olive trees, and even for filming movie scenes.

The most popular is the Crematogaster scutellaris, a tiny ant with a red head, and the Camponutus herculeanus, which is black, and bites deep enough to draw blood.

"Ant farming is an economic and food resource. Their eggs are nutritious and as sought after as caviar. They are an inexhaustible source, they are renewed and protect plants and nature," Ferreti told Tierramérica.

His ants produce 60 kilograms of larvae annually (one kilo is one million), sold at just over 500 dollars per kilo.