SAO PAULO - Usina Verde, an urban waste incineration project of the Center for Integrated Studies on Environment and Climate Change in Brazil, based in Rio de Janeiro, aims to curb emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas.

The effort is part of the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, through which industrialized countries can obtain carbon emissions credits by investing in clean energy projects in the developing South.

It will be the first case in which an educational institution holds credits in the carbon market.

"We should have continuous operations in February or March to obtain those credits," Alexandre D'Avignon, the professor in charge of the project, told Tierramérica.

With an investment of about 4.4 million dollars from the private sector, the plant began operating in May 2005, and is already processing 30 tons of garbage daily.

HAVANA - Urban agriculture recovers more quickly from hurricanes and drought than rural crops do, and they have a positive impact on the environment, Eugenio Fuster, president of the non-governmental Cuban Association of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians (ACTAF), told Tierramérica.

In urban plots and gardens, and without using agrochemicals, Cuba harvested more than four million tons of fresh vegetables and herbs in 2005, according to official sources.

These "organoponics" proved to be more resistant, because they are planted in containers, which prevents soil from falling away in heavy rains. And their use of water is more effecient, which is important in times of drought.

These and other experiences will be shared by farmers and technicians from different countries at the International Meeting on Organic and Sustainable Agriculture, to take place in Cuba, May 9-12, sponsored by ACTAF, said Fuster.

GUATEMALA CITY - Hundreds of townspeople from a community 55 km south of the Guatemalan capital engaged in a violent protest Jan. 16 against construction of a geothermal power plant, saying it would harm the local environment.

"We are protesting the plant because it doesn't have a municipal permit and they already want to bring in machinery to begin work," Alvaro González, mayor of San Vicente Pacaya, told Tierramérica. The protesters prevent the machinery from entering the area.

"In order to grant them a municipal permit, they have to present an environmental impact statement," González added.

They also demand that the Ortiplán company provide them with electricity for a water treatment plant, because they lack potable water. Spokespersons from Ortiplán told the press the company has permits from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and from the Municipality of Amatitlán, neighbor of San Vicente Pacaya, covering the extent of the area to be occupied by the power plant.

TEGUCIGALPA - Some 1,500 families from eight southern Honduran communities have been working for one year on an ecological farming project for sustainable production and water and forest conservation, says coordinator Alejandro Mendoza, of the Catholic Social Pastoral Caritas.

Mendoza said in a Tierramérica interview that another proposal is to prepare the communities for the implementation in 2006 of the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). "We are teaching people not to fear globalization and its challenges," he said.

The project encompasses the communities of Nacaome, Pespire, San Lorenzo, Choluteca, Namasigue, Orocuina, Apacilagua and Morolica, in the southern departments of Valle and Choluteca, along the border with El Salvador and Nicaragua. Plans are in the works to extend it to two regions in the eastern department of El Paraíso.

SANTIAGO - Ecologists, salmon farmers, livestock ranchers and residents of the southern Chilean region of Aisén have said they will protest the project of the Spanish transnational Endesa to build four hydroelectric dams on the Baker and Pascua Rivers.

For them, the project "would mean the beginning of the destruction of the Chilean Patagonia and of Chile's biggest river (the Baker)," Mitzi Urtubia, communications director of Ecosistemas environmental group, told Tierramérica.

The government's electricity and fuel superintendency, SEC, has to announce a decision by Mar. 15 about the provisional concession to Endesa, and has until Feb. 16 to respond to the opposition statement presented by area residents and by Ecosistemas.

The Chilean government supports Endesa's initiative because it would expand energy production capacity and reduce the country's reliance on natural gas imported from Argentina.

CARACAS - The collapse in January of a highway bridge that connects Caracas to its sea and air ports, on the Caribbean coast, is in part the result of neglect of the environment, after decades of allowing unregulated construction of precarious homes on the steep hillsides.

"The uncontrolled population of the surrounding areas, and the destruction of protective forests have left valuable infrastructure in a state of deterioration," environmentalist Frank Bracho, author of the book "Leyes del orden natural" (Laws of Natural Order), told Tierramérica.

The highway bridge "debacle" should be taken as an opportunity to promote "sustainable, ecological and social responsible plans and projects," said Bracho, who has called for the World Social Forum, meeting in Caracas this week, to serve as a forum for debate on the petroleum-based development model that Venezuela is rooted in.