GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture launched a campaign to convince dorado and shark fishing operations to change the type of hooks they use as a means to prevent accidental capture of sea turtles, which are in danger of extinction.

''The goal is for around 3,000 fisherfolk to use a new kind of hook,'' Fraterno Díaz, coordinator of the ministry's fishing management and aquaculture division, told Tierramérica.

''This will help to strengthen and preserve the populations of the seven turtle species that have been found in the Pacific and Atlantic,'' said Díaz.

Martín Hall, a Mexican expert with the International Tuna Commission, explained in a Tierramérica interview that if current trends continue, and if the conventional fishhooks remain in use, at least two sea turtle species could be extinct in 30 years.

There are 38 sea turtle refuges in Guatemala, which has released 100,185 hatchlings.

BUENOS AIRES - Argentine researchers announced on Aug. 20 that a new industrial process is available to produce a plastic that quickly degrades after being buried. The key in production is the Azotobacter chroococcum bacterium.

The discoverers, scientists from the agro-food division at the agronomy school of the University of Buenos Aires, for ten years have been searching for a plastic that would disintegrate once it is discarded, thereby reducing pollution.

They found that the Azotobacter chroococcum accumulates polyester as a reserve -- up to 80 percent of their weight in just four days -- as a reaction to lack of oxygen or nitrogen, for example, when it is buried in the soil.

Silvia Miyazaki, head of the research team, explained to Tierramérica that the material extracted from the bacteria is purified through heat to turn it into plastic. It is inert in the air, but becomes biodegradable after one month in the ground.

BOGOTA - The Colombian government will begin the second phase of the project ''Environmental Improvement in Indigenous Communities,'' which is to benefit some 100 Ticuna Indian families in the Amazon region.

The project, supported by Germany's GTZ cooperation agency, the Pan-American Health Organization and the World Health Organization, has a budget of 90,000 dollars.

Colombia's deputy environment minister, Carmen Arévalo, told Tierramérica that the goals of the second phase, to last through mid-2005, are to manage household sewage and wastewater, build two hand-pump wells for the community, and implement a pilot model for education on improving sanitation conditions in the home.

The first phase, from 1999 to 2003, benefited 250 families in three communities of the Wayuú and Waunaan Indians.

LIMA - The contamination of rivers from mining waste, one of Peru's most pressing environmental problems, can be fought using microorganisms, according to the Peruvian Institute of Nuclear Energy (IPEN).

''We will train biological engineers, chemists and miners so that the mining companies implement bio-mining and bio-remediation programs,'' IPEN chief Modesto Montoya, told Tierramérica.

Bio-mining consists of using bacteria to absorb the materials mixed with the ore, while releasing copper and improving the recovery of gold.

Bio-remediation involves purifying the water of the rivers adjacent to the mines by using bacteria, algae and fungus.

The project was presented to the mining companies in Peru during an international science meeting organized by IPEN, which drew more than 500 experts to Lima in August.