International Capital vs . Local Population : The Environmental Conflict of the Tambogrande Mining Project , Peru . Draft

An environmental conflict between a transnational mining corporation and a rural population in Northern Peru was studied in depth. Interviews with the stakeholders and a survey of the population were carried out in order to characterise the conflict about a gold mining project, in terms of perception of environmental risks, preferred decision-making mechanism, alternative solutions, confidence in experts and government institutions, and fairness in the distribution of profits. Against the post-materialist and “risk society” theses that poor people do not worry as much about environmental hazards as the rich do, the results reveal that 85% per cent of the local population is against the project, due to environmental hazards and other concerns. Local experts were divided about the possible developmental and environment outputs of the projected mine. Disagreement between experts, the local population and the mining company, distrust in institutions, and the lack of a participatory procedure for deciding local development strategies create serious difficulties in legitimising the project assessment and approval. It seems that a “technical” solution is not possible, due to the existence of conflicting value-systems and the fact that no “value free” procedure is available. We arrive to the conclusion that, in this case, the final decision can be legitimised only if the adopted decision mechanism represents a shared meta value-principle, i.e. direct democracy. Thus, a referendum seems to be the most suitable method for deciding on the project. The definition of the most appropriate geographical scale for the voting process relies on ethical stances.