Under fire, Peruvian officials modify development decrees

After a month of protests by environmental and other groups, the Peruvian government has backtracked slightly on two decrees issued by the executive branch in mid-January to speed up major infrastructure work. The so-called urgent decrees listed a series of infrastructure projects that would not need environmental certification before final concessions could be granted, although environmental impact studies would have to be approved before construction could begin. The decrees bypassed Congress, which had turned down similar legislation in November 2010. On Feb. 17, after a meeting with presidents of the regions for which the projects were slated, government officials announced that the article eliminating approval of environmental studies as a requirement for granting temporary concessions would be struck from the decree, although other... [Log in to read more]

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