Mediating Mining Conflicts: Evidence from 60 Government Dialogue Tables in Peru

• In Event: Politics of Natural Resources in Developing Countries

Abstract

Although the mining sector generates many economic benefits, it also produces many negative externalities, which when left unaddressed can lead to conflict. Previous evidence from Peru has shown that as international prices rise, there are more externalities produced by extractives firms and more riots by local communities against the sector, especially when local government performs poorly. In order to address the growing number of mining conflicts, the government of Peru has deployed dialogue roundtables (“mesas de dialogo”) carried out by the National Office of Dialogue and Sustainability (ONDS). In this paper I show evidence from an original survey of participants in 60 ONDS roundtables that conflict in the mining sector related to externalities occurs where local government capacity is weak and the political incentives of local leaders are not aligned with local communities.

Author

• Renard J Sexton, New York University