News stories by Humberto Márquez* - Tierramérica

In the Southern Caribbean, along the Venezuelan coast, fishing is on the decline, surface waters are warming, rivers discharge tonnes of waste into the sea -- the waves seem to be licking the wounds left by these phenomena and devastating fishing practices like bottom trawling.

The women of this town in northern Venezuela no longer say 'garbage' but rather 'secondary raw material,' and instead of referring to recycling, they talk about 'separation at point of origin.'

The Ecosystems Map of the Northern and Central Andes could serve as a guide for environmental conservation of this South American area covering 1.5 million square kilometres and holding the world's highest concentration of biodiversity.