Contamination of natural resources and its configuration of environmental crime in a high Andean artisanal mining, Apurimac, Perú.

Abstract

The impacts of the extraction of natural resources, including mining, in Andean communities have generated pollution problems and require intervention for their configuration of environmental crimes to mitigate the impacts on high Andean communities. The purpose of the research was to describe the different indicators that determine the severity of damage to natural resources due to their configuration of environmental crime in the Andean region of Apurimac, Peru. A quantitative investigation was carried out through the historical-logical, the interview was used, with a sample of 38 legal operators specialized in cases of environmental crimes of the high Andean sector of the study area. Itfound that the factors of dangerous behavior, prolongation in time and repetitive behavior cause the intensity of the polluting act towards natural resources for their configuration of environmental damage to illegal mining companies, with negative impacts on surface water, groundwater and soil. However, acts of pollution by artisanal mining activities do not respond with responsibility, being necessary that the organs of a company will respond as mediate authors of the crime of undue propagation of pollutants only in those cases in which they have instrumentalized their subordinates by way of error or coercion. Environmental management is necessary to mitigate pollution from artisanal mining to guarantee the natural resources of indigenous peoples.