Environmental Licensing and Conflict in Peru's Mining Sector: A Path-Dependent Analysis

What is the relationship between formal participatory structures and the onset and evolution of popular mobilization? Under what conditions does mobilization bring about policy and even institutional change? This article examines mining conflict—and in particular the project approval stage, when mobilization is most likely to interrupt extraction—in Peru. Utilizing a path-dependent framework, the paper finds that very limited spaces for community participation in the environmental impact assessment process in fact have prompted and transformed popular mobilization in extractive zones, leading to outside scrutiny and the stalling of major projects.