LIMA - Experts from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are to set out aboard an ocean cruiser in September to study the Pacific in an effort to determine whether this year will see the reappearance of El Niño, a phenomenon that sharply alters climatic conditions, particularly in South America.

El Niño is cyclical, and entails a warm marine current that forms every three to six years off Australia and New Guinea and travels to the Pacific coast of South America, where it raises the average environmental temperatures.

The result is an alteration of the normal patterns of rainfall, causing drought in some regions and floods in others. El Niño is blamed for two billion dollars in losses that occurred during its last visit: November 1997 to June 1998.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu will host the fifth Inter-American Dialogue on Water Management, Sep 2-6, under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Water Resources Network.

The place and the time chosen for the conference are emblematic. Foz do Iguaçu is a major tourist center due to its location on the border with Argentina and Paraguay, home to the majestic Iguazú Falls and the gigantic Itaipú hydroelectric dam.

Currently, Brazil is in the middle of an electrical energy crisis caused by the lack of water in reservoirs intended for hydroelectric energy production. Urban water management and trans-border watersheds are at the top of the meeting's agenda.

SANTIAGO - Energy experts in Chile have launched an initiative that focuses on tax incentives as a means to encourage fuel efficiency.

According to the authors of the proposal, Sara Larraín, director of the Sustainable Chile Program, and Miguel Márquez, of the University of Chile's Energy Program, efficient use of energy is indispensable because there has been a notable increase in demand in the last few years, but investment in the sector has not kept pace.

Larraín said Chile is overly dependent on petroleum, a fact that justifies a tax system which increases the burden for those who use fossil fuels and gives tax breaks to those who seek alternative energy sources.

CARACAS - An area of 129,000 hectares along eastern Venezuela's Caribbean coast, home to great biological diversity, has been turned into a national wildlife refuge.

Located in the states of Monagas and Delta Amacuro, the chosen site - covered by extensive palm groves - is a government attempt to protect animals from poaching and unregulated tourism, as well as preventing oil exploration from damaging the local ecosystem.

The new reserve covers the habitat of many species, including 'cunaguaros' (of the leopard family), manatees, parrots, macaws, dolphins, and other sea mammals.