Alluvial Gold Mining, Conflicts, and State Intervention in Peru'S Southern Amazonia

Alluvial gold mining, predominantly informal, is the most environmentally degrading activity carried out in the Peruvian Amazon; over the past 15 years, its uncontrolled expansion has sparked conflicts over its exploitation, the distribution of profits, and the socioenvironmental impacts generated. To analyze the conflicts and the attention they receive from the state, we constructed a chronology of events related to territorial occupation, gold exploitation, conflict evolution, and state intervention. In this way, we identify the most significant occurrences related to the socioenvironmental problematic in question. In addition, we used the QGIS software package to analyze the overlapping rights and uses that the Peruvian government assigns to the territory for activities related to mining, forestry, conservation, and property. As a result, we identified places in which up to four rights or uses have been assigned by government institutions, as well as state interventions that served to compound informality and misgovernment in the area. We conclude that the main causes of conflicts and misrule in southern Peruvian Amazonia stem from weak institutions and state authority, evidenced by the deficient services provided, the concession of incompatible usage rights over a single territory, and the enactment of regulations that are not for the public good. Moreover, mining formalization has not been successful, because implementing and sustaining formality proves costly and bureaucratic and does not offer major advantages to the miners, while informality is not an inconvenience for miners .