Peru’s Defensoría del Pueblo — the national ombudsman organization — reported yesterday that almost half of the country’s social conflicts it tracked in December were related to environmental concerns.
The state-sponsored Defensoría, in charge of protecting the basic and constitutional rights of Peruvians, released a summary of its 46th Social Conflicts Report, stating that 47 percent of 78 social conflicts it tracked in December are “socio-environmental” in nature.
Twenty-six social conflicts, or about 33 percent of the total, remain active. Most the conflicts cited in the report are centered in areas where the majority of the population lives below the poverty line, with 61 percent in rural areas.
The Defensoría del Pueblo added that two new conflicts developed in December: a conflict over judge’s salaries and a border dispute between the southern Puno, Moquegua, Tacna and Arequipa departments.
A November 2007 report by the Observatory of Mining Conflicts, OCM, found that more than 50 percent of Peru’s social conflicts are due to the expansion of mines. In a meeting with foreign correspondents, OCM representative José de Echave cited the Majaz copper mine, owned by Zijin Consortium of China, and the Yanacocha mine owned by Colorado-based Newmont, the world’s largest gold producer, as two examples.
