The creation of informality and the legal geographies of artisanal and small-scale mining in Peru

Keywords: informality, extraction, artisanal and small scale mining, legal geographies, Peru
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has existed for centuries, but in recent decades it has been increasingly recast as informal or illegal. Neoliberal roll-out brought with it an embrace of pro-mining policies in many countries of the Global South – pro-Large Scale Mining (LSM), that is. Changes of legal and policy frameworks to facilitate and attract foreign direct investment in mining shifted the legal geographies for ASM, effectively informalizing traditional mining activity that had previously operated legally, or in the blank spaces unaddressed by the law. Thus, although ASM mining sites and practices had not changed, the sector was made substantially more precarious as a side-effect of pro-LSM policies. Over time, the situation has compounded. Decades of (pro-LSM) extractivist development policy have failed to create opportunity in rural areas, which together with repeated crises and high commodity prices, have pushed ever more people into the (now informalized) ASM sector. Growth of ASM and its increasing marginalization and informality also go hand-in-hand with deteriorating environmental, health, and labor standards in the sector. I analyze these dynamics through reflection on three years of research on Peru’s ASM sector and analysis of its extractive policy landscape, to understand the evolution of the policy and legal framework and its impacts on the ground. I conclude that adverse legal-structural factors have exacerbated ASM’s downsides while undermining its upsides.