CURITIBA - Some 110,000 dollars in prizes will be awarded at the third International Festival of Environmental Film and Video, June 13-17, in the central Brazilian city of Goiás Velho.

The entries include 17 Brazilian and 18 foreign productions selected from among 360 films and videos from 50 countries. The jury will award prizes in the categories of feature-length, medium-length and short movies, whether recorded on film or video.

A poetic video about the river that crosses Recife, a major city in northeast Brazil, and a film by Cuba's Rigoberto López about Port au Prince, capital of Haiti, took top prizes at the previous two editions of the festival.

''We are attempting to consolidate a center of audiovisual production in Goiás state in addition to defending the 'cerrado','' an extensive ecosystem that holds great biodiversity, the festival's director, Assunçao Hernandes, told Tierramérica.

CARACAS - Some 11,500 arrau turtles were released in the Orinoco River, the high point of a conservation program sponsored by the Venezuelan Ministry of Environment.

The turtles are collected along the riverbanks and taken to refuges in the southern state of Amazonas. Last year, 300 nests were saved, and the number is expected to reach 700 in 2002, meaning 25,000 turtles could be released next year.

The arrau turtle can grow to a length of 80 cm and inhabits the Amazonas and Orinoco river basins. The species is threatened by human activities in those areas, the resulting pollution, and by predatory animals.

SAN JOSE - The non-governmental Development Foundation for the Central Volcanic Range (FUNDECOR) has won the King Baudouin International Development prize, granted by Belgium, for its conservation efforts in Costa Rica.

Founded in 1989, FUNDECOR has provided technical assistance to small landholders for the sustainable exploitation of the volcanic range's forests through 450 agreements, and has supported 2,500 people in forest management programs.

The foundation has also put into practice an ''oxygen sales program,'' in which 10 dollars are paid for every hectare of forest set aside for conservation.

LIMA - The Peruvian government has revoked a permit granted last year to an international company to build and operate a cable car system in the archeological sanctuary of Machu Picchu, due to the environmental impact implied by an increased flow of tourists.

An average of 1,200 people a day visit Machu Picchu, an ancient stone city set atop a tropical mountain northeast of Cuzco. The cable car system would double that number, according to studies by the National Institute of Natural Resources.

Machu Picchu, a legacy of the Incan empire, was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1983 for both for the cultural and natural wealth it represents.