An Analysis of Peru: Is Water Driving Mining Conflicts?
Publisher: Elsevier: Resources Policy
Author(s): Jorge Salema, Yash Amonkar, Nicolas Maennling, Upmanu Lall, Luc Bonnafous, and Khyati Thakkar
Date: 2018
Topics: Conflict Causes, Extractive Resources, Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Peru
Mining projects face community opposition in various parts of the world, and water is often perceived as a primary source of such opposition. Despite the proliferation of community conflicts at mine sites, there is a dearth of documented, quantitative analyses for insights as to the factors contributing to such conflicts. Peru provides a useful case study for such an analysis given the history of data collection on mining-related conflicts. We provide a statistical analysis with data from Peru from 2007 to 2016. During this time period the country was plagued with numerous mining related conflicts. We have separated out those conflicts that were perceived to be water related. Apart from reviewing national trends, this paper also analyses region-level data. We find that quality and availability of water are drivers for those water-related social conflicts with mining companies. However, other factors such as past conflicts and revenue payments to the sub-national level play a bigger role.