BOGOTA, Oct 23 (Tierramérica) - Beginning in February, the indigenous Arhuacos of Colombia's northern Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, will export annually 15 containers to Japan with 289 tons of Tiwun coffee, which the community grows using environmentally sustainable methods.

Francisco Zalabata, member of the Tayrona Indigenous Confederation, told Tierramérica that the commercialization of the coffee will take place through an agreement signed Oct. 19 by his group and the city of Santa Marta and the Community Trade Network.

Zalabata said Tiwun is a special coffee grown by about 350 indigenous families, following rules of fair trade, and is considered among those with best aroma, taste and texture in the world.

The aim of the network in marketing the product, says Zalabata, is to reach the customer without intermediaries, so that the economic benefits of exporting their coffee go directly to the growers.

SAO PAULO, Oct 23 (Tierramérica) - Research at the University of Campina Grande, in the eastern Brazilian state of Paraíba, explores the potential uses of sisal (Agave sisalana) as a substitute for asbestos, a toxin and carcinogen, as a construction material.

The plant, which is grown in the semiarid Brazilian Northeast, "is low cost, biodegradable, abundant, and is a non-carcinogen renewable resource," research coordinator Antonio Farias Leal told Tierramérica.

"Its use would help the social and economic development of Brazil's poorer regions, thrashed by drought, where no other perennial crop thrives except sisal, and where nearly a million people rely on it for survival," he said.

Brazil is the world's leading producer of sisal, generating about 56 percent of the global total.

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 23 (Tierramérica) - Argentina's Housing Secretariat this month granted certification of technical fitness to a prototype of a brick made from plastic bottles for use in construction of houses and buildings of up to two stories.

"This allows access to official funds for housing made with bricks produced from plastic waste," Horacio Berretta, director of the Economical Housing Experiment Center in the central province of Córdoba, told Tierramérica.

Berretta acknowledged that there are various initiatives for construction with alternative materials, but noted that not all obtain certification. This recognition permits large-scale manufacture of the bricks, beginning with pilot projects in Buenos Aires and in the southwest province of Catamarca.

The plastic bricks are lighter than traditional bricks, he said. They are more water and fire resistant, soundproof, and easy to install.

MEXICO CITY, Oct 23 (Tierramérica) - The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) received the Silver Shell award in Mexico on Oct. 16. The award recognizes Ibero-American initiatives in communications about issues of social responsibility.

"This prize makes us very happy and motivates us, because it recognizes the efforts we make in Latin America and the Caribbean to raise awareness about environmental problems," Rody Oñate, UNEP communications officer, told Tierramérica.

Awarded annually since 2000 to advertising agencies, communications media, and social organizations, it was given this year to UNEP for its support of environmental libraries and video collections, film and art festivals related to ecology, as well as journalism workshops.

Special mention went to UNEP's sponsorship of information services like Tierramérica, a weekly independent publication on the environment and development, produced by Inter Press Service news agency and published in more than 20 Latin American newspapers.

The Silver Shell was founded by Mexican businessman Manuel Arango, and experts from 11 countries participate on the award's jury.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 23 (Tierramérica) - Far past the 45 days predicted, the delay continues for the parliamentary vote on a bill that aims to stop the expansion of eucalyptus in the Brazilian municipality of Sao Luiz do Paraitinga, 170 km from Sao Paulo.

This was the report to Tierramérica from Marcelo Toledo, an official from the judiciary and promoter of the bill. Monoculture of the fast-growing eucalyptus tree for the paper pulp industry already covers "more than 10 percent" of the municipal territory of 73,700 hectares, causing a rural exodus, pollution and destruction of historic monuments, he said.

The bill was presented Aug. 22 with 540 signatures, surpassing the national constitution's required minimum of five percent of the local electorate, but lawmakers have yet to vote on it.

Home to 10,800 people, the mountainous ad forested Paratinga lives from tourism and small farms.

GUATEMALA CITY, Oct 23 (Tierramérica) - From Oct. 15 to Apr. 15, 2007, a ban is in place on collecting and selling the eggs of the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), imposed by the Guatemalan government's National Council on Protected Areas (CONAP).

Ten years ago there were about 50,000 females of this species of sea turtle, but "now there are only a few hundred, and it's estimated that of every thousand turtles hatched only one reaches adulthood," CONAP spokeswoman Evelyn Picón explained to Tierramérica.

The ban on collecting eggs is in force on Guatemala's Pacific coast, while the prohibition on sales covers the whole country. Violation of the bans will be punished with five to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 2,700 dollars.

The only exception is collection of eggs intended for species conservation, by the appropriate authorities.

TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 23 (Tierramérica) - The Honduran Parliament voted last week to ask the Executive Branch to "detain" construction of El Tigre hydroelectric dam, on the Honduras-El Salvador border, until the diplomatic conflict between the two countries is resolved.

The 1.5-billion-dollar project lost key allies as a result of the skirmish sparked by El Salvador, which claims possession of the Conejo islet, in the Pacific Ocean, which an international ruling says belongs to Honduras.

"El Salvador has jeopardized the construction of a dam that is going to benefit that country greatly, because its energy supply is dwindling. Now the government will have to renew its strategy," Adolfo Facussé, president of a Honduran industrial association, told Tierramérica.

If it is built, the dam would supply energy to 70 percent of El Salvador.