RIO DE JANEIRO - Brasilia will be the world capital of the study of caverns from July 15 to 22 when it hosts the 13th International Speleology Congress, the fourth in Latin America.

The theme of congress, which is expected to draw representatives from 46 countries, will be the sustainable development of areas of calcareous soils where caves and gorges are formed.

Ecotourism is a well-established activity in these areas, which also attract sports enthusiasts, archeological researchers and biologists, pointed out Clayton Lino, president of the event's organizing committee.

SANTIAGO - The looting and trafficking of archeological objects is turning into a profitable illegal activity in Chile, reports senator Sergio Bitar, of the governing coalition, and Angel Cabezas, executive secretary of the National Monuments Council.

In the past few weeks, Chile's customs officials have seized pieces of textiles, ceramics and even human remains, stolen from indigenous cemeteries near the northern city of Arica, 2,050 km from Santiago.

Looting of archeological sites was also reported at Vallenar, some 500 km north of the capital, and in Temuco, 750 km to the south and capital of the Araucanía region, home to most of the native Mapuche communities.

Bitar and Cabezas stressed that Chilean and international networks are involved in trafficking of these items, an illegal global trade worth 600 billion dollars annually.

SAN JOSE - One of Central America's most important watersheds is in danger due to water-use concessions, warns the non-governmental Organization of Tropical Studies (OET).

The flow of the Tempisque River, in northern Costa Rica, is less in the summer than the total water extracted from it. The water demands on the Tempisque basin is 11.5 cubic meters per second, according to OET. The group cautions that this shortage will cause millions of dollars in losses in crops and infrastructure.

The Tempisque watershed covers 53 percent of Guanacaste province and is used in irrigating 10.6 percent of Costa Rica's territory.

MEXICO CITY - The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) launched its annual Human Development Report on July 10 in the Mexican capital, with a focus this year on the role of technology.

In charge of releasing the report, titled ''Making New Technologies Work for Human Development,'' were Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP global administrator, and Elena Martínez, the UN agency's director for Latin America.

The document includes its yearly ranking of countries according to various factors of human development. The top Latin American countries according to this index are: Argentina, ranked 34 out of 162 countries evaluated, Uruguay (37), Chile (39) and Costa Rica (41).

LIMA - The private sector in Peru will have to invest 750 million dollars over the next 18 months in ecological consulting services and programs if they are to bring their activities into compliance with environmental protection standards, calculates one ecologically-minded entrepreneur.

From January 2000 to June of this year, 260 million dollars were spent in Peru on systems to regulate the environmental impact of the business sector's activities, reported Manuel Santos, regional director of Soluziona, a consulting firm for the Spanish Unión Fenosa consortium.

Sixty percent of the investment in environmental protection corresponds to big mining operations, and the rest is divided among the fossil fuel and electrical energy sectors.

The recession that has persisted here since 1998 has so far prevented the smaller mining operations or the manufacturing industry from adapting to environmental legislation within the established timeframe.