LIMA - More than 1,100 Peruvian indigenous communities affected by pollution from the mining industry are preparing a mobilization to demand that the companies responsible pay for environment insurance with a percentage of their profits.

Conacami, the national association of communities hurt by mining, is bringing proposals before the president and Congress this month that include environment insurance, the evaluation of the damage caused, and the participation of residents in monitoring prevention efforts.

Mining pollutes 160 rivers and lakes in Peru and causes the loss or deterioration of thousands of hectares of farmland, according to Miguel Palacín, Conacami president.

SANTIAGO - The Chilean National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) and the municipalities in the Valparaíso region launched a forest fire prevention campaign that entails creating 80 km of firebreaks (ditches) and removing excess underbrush.

Valparaíso, west of the capital, is one of the regions most vulnerable to fires, which blaze each year in south and central Chile during the summer season, causing millions of dollars in losses, as well as environmental damage.

The 80 km of firebreaks will be cut in the outskirts of the urban sectors most at risk. The program, under the technical coordination of Conaf, involves the cities of Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Quilpué, Villa Alemana and San Antonio.

Conaf ''drafted reports about areas of danger and risk in the outlying zones of those cities, where 80 percent of the summer season's forest fires occur,'' explained Daniel Ariz, an expert from the government agency.

SAN JOSE - Five rural communities in southern Costa Rica will implement a three-year program for ecological conservation and environmental micro-business development, with the support of a 350,000-dollar donation from the International Rotary Foundation and the San José Rotary Club.

The project, an initiative of universities and non-governmental organizations, targets the communities of Pejivalle, Plaza Vieja, Taus, El Humo and La Esperanza, located some 250 km south of the capital.

The non-governmental Tropical Science Center, one of the leading biodiversity research institutions in Central America, is heading this pilot program.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The Pantanal Program for sustainable development and preservation of this important southwestern Brazilian wetland ecosystem is to be launched in the first quarter of 2001, with a total budget of 400 million dollars over eight years.

The Inter-American Development Bank will finance half of the 165 million dollars needed for the project's initial phase that lasts until 2005, announced Brazil's Environment Ministry.

The area protected will expand from the current 500,000 hectares to two million hectares, home to 10 percent of the Pantanal's forests.

The funding is earmarked for expanding sanitation and infrastructure works and to foment eco-tourism, fishing, agriculture and other economic activities that can be pursued in a sustainable way - and to the benefit of two million people.

CARACAS - The Venezuelan Environment Ministry has a 142-million dollar clean-up and forestry plan underway that will principally benefit the country's coastal zone.

Authorities will work in coming months to recover polluted beaches, plant three million trees in 17 river valleys and clean up dams and lagoons in various areas.

The ministry will pay special attention to Vargas, a state that suffered serious damage from torrential rains and flooding in December 1999. There, the project will focus on rebuilding an aqueduct and a wastewater treatment plant that was rendered useless after last year's storm.

In addition, air quality measurement equipment will be installed in Venezuela's six largest cities to measure emissions of gases that are harmful to the atmosphere.

* Source: Inter Press Service