Keiko Fujimori and the risk of scrapping mining environmental consultation in Peru

The start of Keiko Fujimori's government has been marked by the presentation of regulatory bills aimed at speeding up the approval of Environmental Impact Assessments for large copper and gold mining projects, cutting administrative timelines and ignoring the mechanisms of prior consultation with native communities.

Trying to unblock projects such as Tía María or Las Bambas by cutting environmental safeguards and disregarding the demands of indigenous peoples will trigger a resurgence of social conflict in the mining basins of the southern Andes.

Seeking to impose extractive activities by reducing environmental safeguards and repressing community protest is a strategy that will reignite social conflict in the Andes. Local communities must be direct partners in regional development through public social investment funds.