Access to Land and Natural Resources in the Peruvian Amazon

Abstract

This article explores power relations between farmers and artisanal gold miners based on an analysis of a buffer zone in the Amazonian department of Madre de Dios (Peru), which has been experiencing a gold rush since the mid-2000s. It provides insight into mining territorialisation processes on agricultural lands, actor dynamics and mechanisms of access to and use of land and its resources. Taking a different angle to the analyses already produced on the conflictual nature of their relations, this article endeavours to shed light on a distinct, but no less present phenomenon: the negotiated nature of artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and the mutual arrangements made between stakeholders for access to and use of natural resources.