Eco-Briefs

	HONDURAS
	From Garbage to Micro-Enterprise

TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 22 (Tierramérica).- Some 30 families from the community of El Volcán, in the central Honduran valley of Comayagua, launched a project this month to recycle garbage.

Their effort is part of an environmental, educational and micro-enterprise training initiative promoted by domestic and international groups.

Ángel López, who used to be an informal garbage collector, is now a microentrepreneur and is thinking on a grand scale. “We have become people with a business vision for the future. We are even learning to read and write to avoid errors in our accounting,” he told Tierramérica.

The microbusiness he leads is known as “Nueva Esperanza” (New Hope) and is part of a project promoted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO) and the National Center for Employment Education, in cooperation with the local government of Comayagua.

	BRAZIL
	Industries that Save Forests

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 22 (Tierramérica).- The industrial complex established in the Brazilian Amazon city of Manaos at a cost of heavy subsidies since 1967 has reduced deforestation in the northeastern state of Amazonas by 70 percent between 2000 and 2006.

The avoided emissions of climate changing carbon gases would be worth 10 billion dollars on the European carbon market according to a study by the Federal University of Amazonas, the Federal University of Pará, the Applied Economics Research Institute and the Piatã Institute, released on Sep. 12.

The industries there have concentrated the economy and the population in the capital, allowing the state to preserve 98 percent of its vegetation, says the report.

But "Amazonas has few roads and 70 to 80 percent of the population is urban. Road infrastructure would increase deforestation and reduce the weight of the industrial complex in containing" the process, Paulo Moutinho, of the non-governmental Environmental Research Institute of the Amazon, told Tierramérica.

	ARGENTINA
	International Dialogue on Climate Change

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 22 (Tierramérica).- "Adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer and financing" were the issues dealt with at the climate change meeting that drew environment ministers from 25 countries to the southern Argentine city of El Calafate.

The meeting helped delineate "concrete proposals for building consenus" on the way to the 2009 Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said Sandra Firpo, spokeswoman for Argentina's Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development.

The Sep. 15-18 meet was part of a series of informal talks that environment ministers have been holding since 2005. Previous dialogues took place in Greenland, South Africa and Switzerland.

	MEXICO
	Promising Invention for Spinal Injuries

MEXICO CITY, Sep 22 (Tierramérica).- Mexican researchers have synthesized a polymer that promises to restore the electrical connections in a damaged spinal cord, which could help injured people recover mobility.

The technique has been tested in rats, in which 50 percent recovered the functioning of the spinal cord, researchers from the physics department of the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) in Mexico City told Tierramérica.

There is great possibility that the polymer could be used in humans with spinal cord injuries, which, in conjunction with other medical treatments, could return mobility, according to Roberto Olayo, research coordinator.

The polymer they developed and synthesized in plasma is placed inside the spinal cord. It is biocompatible and helps the cells establish connections that had been interrupted by injury.

*Source: Inter Press Service.