Eco-Briefs

	COLOMBIA
	Green Plan Moves Ahead

BOGOTA, (Tierramérica).- Nearly 300 hectares have been added to "Plan Verde", a project aimed at re-establishing the vegetation and ecosystems in the northeastern department of Cesar, one of the country's regions most affected by erosion.

The plan involves the reforestation of 1,166 hectares, with an investment of a million dollars, and creates work opportunities for 800 families, says Félix Vides, project coordinator.

Approximately 400,000 of Colombia's 1.14 million-square-km surface are damaged to some extent by erosion, the result of poor soil management, according to official figures.

	PERU
	Turning Garbage into Energy

LIMA, (Tierramérica).- The first facility to turn organic waste into electricity in Peru and, according to its promoters, the first in Latin America, will be installed in 2003 in the Amazonian city of Iquitos, some 1,000 km northeast of Lima.

The US-based International Technology Center (ITC) will invest 21 million dollars in the energy-generating plant, which will turn the 340 tons of organic solid waste Iquitos produces daily into 10 megawatts of electricity.

The energy produced will be sold to Electro Oriente, a private company that distributes electricity to the city.

	ECUADOR
	A Solution for Used Oil

QUITO, (Tierramérica).- An agreement between the Telecommunications, Potable Water and Sewerage Enterprise (ETAPA) and the Pro-Environment Foundation, in the southern Ecuadorian city of Cuenca, is intended to foment a 40-percent increase in the collection of used motor oil, which is then disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.

Since November, the used oil has been incinerated at the National Cement company in a process that does not pollute the environment, according to ETAPA.

It is a safe process, says the firm, because the incinerator temperatures surpass 1,600 degrees, ensuring the complete combustion and elimination of contaminants contained in the oil, such as dioxins

	MEXICO
	Controversy Surrounds New Airport Plan

MEXICO CITY, (Tierramérica).- Forty percent of the Mexican capital's residents surveyed believe that the five-year project to build a new airport, in the outlying area of Texcoco, will harm the environment, says a poll conducted by the Metropolitan Autonomous University.

The construction project, which triggered a wave of opposition by the farmers whose lands would be expropriated, was announced last October by the Vicente Fox government as a sustainable option for development and part of an ecological renovation strategy.

The construction of the airport in Texcoco, 15 km east of the capital, would require the closing of a garbage dump and measures to change the migratory routes of several bird species.

*Source: Inter Press Service.