Updates in Peru's fight against illegal mining

Despite the central Peruvian government’s ambitious rhetoric and aggressive police operations, the real responsibility for combatting illegal mining in Peru rests with the country’s regional governments. On Tuesday, the Organism for Environmental Justice and Evaluation (OEFA) announced that it would provide extensive training to regional governmental officials on the enforcement of environmental regulations.

OEFA President Hugo Gómez explained, “This year it is important that we come together with environmental managers and governors to explain them that today, the national and global agenda has changed, and it is imperative that we place an emphasis on environmental issues, because there are serious problems like global warming and other national issues.”

According to OEFA’s statistics, all of the regional governments in Peru are failing when it comes to enforcing environmental regulations. Even Cajamarca, the leader among regional governments in 2014 for enforcing environmental regulations on artisanal mining vastly underperformed the OEFA’s desired benchmarks. Last in the rankings came the regional governments of Lima and Callao.

In other mining-related news, Roque Benavides, president of Minas Buenaventura and president of the Organizing Committee for the 32^nd Peruvian Mining Convention (Perumin), assured reporters that Peru still has tremendous potential for implementing large-scale mining projects that will contribute to the country’s economic development.

In September, Perumin will return to Arequipa, despite the recent protests by local communities opposing Peru’s latest stalled-out mining project, Tía María. Benavides brushed aside suggestions that the conference could be marred by protests, saying that, “Miners are used to taking risks. We’ve had problems before, but we’re ready to take them on and overcome them.”