HAVANA - A project carried out by 200 university students in Cuba aims to protect sea turtles from harmful human activities in the province of Pinar del Río, at the far western end of the island.

The program is centered in the Guanahacabibes Peninsula National Park, 176 km west of Havana, and has the backing of scientific and fisheries-related institutions.

The students are tracking the behavior of the sea turtles, as well as organizing activities to promote nature appreciation among children in the seven communities bordering the turtles' nesting sites.

The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is the most abundant in the area, though also found here are the Eretmochelys imbricata, Dermochelys coriacea and Caretta caretta.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The number of tons of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic recycled in Brazil has multiplied eight-fold since 1994, according to figures from the association of plastic industries.

Last year, recycling of this commonly used container/packaging material, grew 18 percent, reaching 105,000 tons, or 35 percent of all such containers used. In previous years, recycling growth had surpassed 30 percent.

Recycling companies not only prevent pollution caused by this material, which takes several decades to degrade, but also provide employment for 2,000 workers and income for at least 10,000 plastic collectors.

Recycled PET is used to make brooms, cloth fibers, resins for paints and numerous office products.

Plastic recycling has joined that of aluminum, paper and glass as a source of income for nearly 500,000 people who collect these materials from the streets and dump sites.

CARACAS - The Venezuelan environmental group Provita is launching a campaign for the harpy eagle to be made the state bird of Bolívar, in the country's southeast, hoping it will contribute to research and preservation, says Oscar Briceño, director of the project.

"This is a monumental bird that can weigh as much as nine kilos. It feeds on monkeys and sloths and its habitat has been the extensive forests from Mexico to Argentina, but today it is threatened by deforestation," said Clemencia Rodner, of the Venezuelan chapter of the Audubon Society.

There are harpy populations along Venezuela's Caribbean coast and in the south, but the largest are in Bolívar.

Provita has engaged in similar projects in the past to protect the frontino bear in the western state of Mérida and the Margarita Island parrot.

SAN JOSE - An international campaign aims to create a fund for preserving the last tropical rain forest on the Mesoamerican Pacific coast, located in Costa Rica and known for its great biodiversity.

Promoting the initiative is the Osa Conservation Union of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, entrusted with the wildlife areas of the southern peninsula of Osa, home to the Corcovado National Park, founded in 1975.

The area is suffering the fragmentation of the forest, and hunting continues of endangered species, like the jaguar.

The fund is to be used to improve protection, pay off land debts of the Piedras Blancas National Park, which is connected to Corcovado via a biological corridor, and support conservation efforts in the private sector.

"The challenge is to not allow any species to become extinct. A well managed park provides a guarantee for the communities while they learn to take advantage of natural resources in a sustainable way," Acosa director Alvaro Ugalde told Tierramérica.

GUATEMALA CITY - Community leaders are demanding that the Guatemalan government annul a highway project that is part of the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP), promoted by Mexico. The activists say the road would destroy sacred Mayan sites in the northern department of El Petén.

The regional accord implies "building roads in protected areas of the Maya biosphere, the expansion of El Mirador National Park and its subsequent privatization," community leader Humersindo Martínez told Tierramérica.

"Many communities have fought to protect the environment, but if they build the highways included in the PPP Maya tourism project, the people will be stripped of their source of subsistence and of their children's future," he said.

"We are going to fight the government until it repeals authorization for the road. We don't want any more destruction and death," said Martínez, head of the Alliance for Life and Peace in El Petén.

TEGUCIGALPA - Some 1,200 of the remaining members of the indigenous Tawahka community, whose name means "land of people of peace", have been working for the past eight months on a conservation project for the reserve they inhabit in northeast Honduras.

With 2,330 square km and some 30 animal and plant species in danger of extinction, the Tawahka reserve is threatened by the unregulated advance of the farming and ranching frontier.

The Indians "have been changing the way they do things," says Donaldo Flores, a technical expert with the non-governmental Institute for Cooperation and Self-Development, which is financing the conservation project.

"The Tawahka are creating nurseries and planting trees. They are transforming the practice of extensive ranching into intensive ranching, in which less land is used to raise more livestock through improved pastures," Flores explained to Tierramérica.

SANTIAGO - The Chilean government will open bidding in January for new bus lines in the capital as part of the Transantiago Plan, which seeks to create an "environmentally, economically and socially sustainable" public transport system.

Santiago is one of the most polluted cities in Latin America, and one of the causes, say experts, is that passenger transport is chaotic, with too many vehicles and poorly planned routes.

The Transantiago Plan will reduce "the Santiago fleet by around 1,000 buses, 50 percent of the lines circulating through the capital and more than 50 percent the kilometers traveled by the buses," Javier Etcheverry, minister of public works, transport and telecommunications, announced last week.

The plan "will also help us meet environmental goals that include a 40-percent reduction in carbon monoxide emissions and 75 percent reduction of particulate materials," said the minister.

ROME - A legislative bill in Italy that would establish a three-year prison sentence for mistreatment of animals has environmental groups clashing with the Roman Catholic Church, which considers the proposal disproportionate because it "equates animals with people."

Some 200,000 cats and 150,000 dogs are abandoned to their fate in this European country. An estimated 80 percent die from mistreatment or end up in the hands of the mafia to be used in illegal fights.

"From the legal perspective, we all have rights, including animals. The Church is behind the times and does not recognize the laws that have existed for 50 years in the rest of Europe," Gianluca Felicete, of the Italian Anti-Dissection of Animals League, told Tierramérica.

The Jesuit magazine Civilitá Católica criticized pet owners who spend fortunes on their animals, "when that money could go towards more important and necessary ends, such as hunger in the Third World."