SANTIAGO - The organization Acción por los Cisnes (Action for the Swans) won the prize for best defender of animals, awarded annually by the Chilean Federation of Animal Protection Institutions.

"Thanks to the efforst of its members, (Action for the Swans) ensured that the deaths of the black-necked swans (Cygnus malencoriphus) in the Cruces River achieved national prominence" in Chile, César Sánchez, head of the federation, told Tierramérica.

The organization was formed in 2004 after a massive die-off of the swans and other species was reported in a nature sanctuary in Valdivia province, 840 km south of the capital.

The wetlands had been contaminated by run-off from a pulp mill owned by the Anacleto Angelini group, which was fined and shut down several times this year, but finally reopened under the condition that it had to build a channel to direct its wastewater to the Pacific Ocean.

TEGUCIGALPA - The first wind-generated power plant in Honduras will begin operating in late 2006 on Hula hill, south of the capital, and will supply Tegucigalpa and the surrounding areas with electricity.

"The plant will be ready to open in 10 months," Jorge Fidel Rivera, of the U.S. company Clipper Windpower Inc., told Tierramérica. The firm is entrusted with construction of the power facility, which has a price tag of 85 million dollars.

This is just one of several projects that the Honduran government and business sector will promote in the coming year, as an alternative source of energy.

Jorge Morazán, from the renewable energy division of the government's national electrical energy agency, ENEE, told Tierramérica that the wind projects are a positive move because, in addition to contributing to a sustainable environment, they will allow the country to save on energy expenditures.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Cooking with aluminum or stainless steel pots and pans can be harmful to one's health, reveals a study by Elaine Bocalon, a researcher at the Sao Carlos school of engineering at the University of Sao Paulo.

Four liters of water boiled for three hours with 10 grams of salt can transfer 20 milligrams of aluminum for each liter of water, Bocalon said.

Excess aluminum in the body is said to be related to Alzheimer's disease (though it is not known whether it is a cause or effect of the disease), inflammation and lung problems, she added.

According to Kesia Quintaes, a food engineer who tested different types of cookware and published her conclusions in "Inside the Pots", frying food in aluminum pans transfers less of the metal.

HAVANA - Cuba aims to finalize automation of its eight climate radars during the first half of 2006, with notable improvement for the early warning and alert system for extreme weather.

With the system's automation, the forecasts will be more effective and reliable, because the data on tropical storms, for example, can be tracked and processed in real time, Orfilio Peláez, a member of the Cuban Meteorology Society's executive board, explained to Tierramérica.

Each radar has a range of about 300 km, although some reach 400 km, added the expert. The updating with digital technology began in 2000, with a program created by engineers at Cuba's Meteorology Center at Camaguey.

GUATEMALA CITY - An environmental study by the private Rafael Landívar University indicates that Guatemala has lost 50 percent of the forests it had in 1950.

This Central American country loses 60,000 hectares of forest annually, and plants just 14,000 hectares of trees each year, and those are mostly for commercial use, Carlos Albacete, director of the environmental group Trópico Verde, told Tierramérica.

"Even when many more hectares of trees are planted, we don't consider that recovery of forest, but rather that it is planted for the benefit of the lumber industry. In that sense, the government's achievements are not a success for forest conservation," added the environmentalist.

Luis Rolando Zanotti, deputy manager of the government's national forestry institute, INAB, acknowledged that efforts to reverse deforestation are lacking, due to "the needs of the population, who push the agricultural frontier forward, even up the mountainsides."

CARACAS - Consumption of tilapia fish from the Valencia Lake area, some 100 km west of Caracas, can be dangerous, due to the high concentration of mercury in its meat, which is nearly four times the limit of 1.6 milligrams per kilo allowed under the standards of the World Health Organization.

Abic Valderrama, of the University Institute of Technology in Valencia, the regional capital, told Tierramérica that "if the riverside population continues to consume tilapia, they will suffer severe damage to the nervous system, which in some cases could lead to death."

Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) is originally from Africa. The effects of the heavy metal mercury on the fish itself is cumulative and not degenerative.

Although officials are still investigating the source of mercury contamination, it is believed to come from industrial waste.

Valencia Lake is Venezuela's second largest, covering 238 square kilometers.