Eco-Briefs

	BRAZIL
	Beyond the Tropical Image

PORTO ALEGRE, Jun 11 (Tierramérica).- "To understand the climate changes in Brazil it is essential to abandon the tropical country myth and look also at the other regions," warns paleoclimatologist Jefferson Cárdia Simões, of the Brazilian Antarctic Program.

Global warming will not only jeopardize the Amazon, but also the southern region of Brazil, considered an area of climate transition, Cárdia Simões told Tierramérica.

The government of Rio Grande do Sul state, in the south, announced the creation of a State Forum on Climate Changes, with the participation of scientists from different areas, in order to help formulate policies for mitigation and adaptation to new climate scenarios.

There is a lack of data to understand climate behavior in the southern region over the last 300 years, and more research is needed on lake sediments and tree rings, as has been done in Antarctica, says Cárdia Simões.

	HONDURAS
	Less Forest Burned

TEGUCIGALPA, Jun 11 (Tierramérica).- Honduras has lost 27,000 hectares of forest to fire in the past 12 months, but it is far less than the annual average of 50,000 hectares of forest destroyed by fire for the last five years.

"If we continue this trend we could halt the destruction of our forests from various causes, including forest fires," Environment Minister Mayra Mejía told Tierramérica.

She credited the lesser destruction to the ecological recovery plan launched 16 months ago with the Armed Forces, with more than two million hectares reforested and some 15 clandestine sawmills shut down.

Honduras, whose territory covers 112,492 square kilometers, averages 2,000 forest fires each year, according to official figures.

	MEXICO
	Trees for the Capital

MEXICO CITY, Jun 11 (Tierramérica).- Some 100,000 trees of native species will be planted in the next couple months as part of a reforestation program for the Mexican capital.

The trees will be planted on 100 hectares of deforested and degraded land in an effort to improve their functioning as suppliers for the aquifers from which a great part of the water consumed in the city is extracted.

"In addition to reforesting, this initiative generates environmental education, because it is mostly carried out by volunteers -- and we already have a thousand signed on," Emiliano Robles, reforestation operations coordinator with the non-governmental group Naturalia.

According to studies by the Autonomous National University of Mexico, in the capital, where about nine million people live and more than 3.5 million vehicles are in circulation, there is progressive deforestation and, among the trees remaining, 15 percent are old and 30 percent are diseased.

	ARGENTINA
	Environmental Film Series

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 11 (Tierramérica).- Argentina's Environmental Secretariat has launched a film series and a screenplay competition centered on the environment.

An official with the secretariat, María Laura Spina, told Tierramérica that both initiatives seek "to raise awareness and reflection about environmental problems," targeting adolescents and young adults ages 13 to 30.

The 1st Environmental Film Series -- presented Jun. 5, on World Environment Day, by the Secretariat and the National Institute of Film and Audiovisual Arts -- will screen national and foreign documentaries in theaters in Buenos Aires and six other provinces this month.

With the slogan "Your gaze can change reality", the 1st Contest of Environmental Screenplays has a deadline of Oct. 5. The prizes include a computer, cash, and a collection of books on ecology.

*Source: Inter Press Service.