Peru will work beginning this month to force mining companies to meet their obligations for environmental reparations, lawmaker Jaime Velásquez told Tierramérica. The Environmental Code, enacted in September 1990, established for the first time that mining companies are responsible for the damage they cause, and their obligation to compensate the government and the local communities.

But some have avoided responsibility by formally transferring the mines to new companies or ''requesting the cancellation of their rights to the mining concession,'' Velásquez said.

As a result of legal reforms approved on May 2, the responsibility for remediation of environmental damages existing at the moment of transfer of a mine falls equally to the transferring party and the recipient.

The Peruvian Congress also increased the fines 600 percent for companies that fail to present their respective environmental damage reparations plans in a timely manner.