Small-scale gold mining, mercury exposure and the Struggle for the Right to Water in the Peruvian Amazon

In this article, we focus on the particular Amazonian region of Madre de Dios in Peru. This work takes an original approach by focusing on artisanal gold mining – as opposed to the traditional focus on large-scale mining companies and uncovers the water conflicts between several amazonian interest groups: artisanal miners on the one hand, and a consortium of forest, ecotourism and conversation concessionaries on the other. We use the concept of “livelihood-based environmentalism” (Bebbington, 2009) to go beyond the traditional divide between development and conservation. Indeed, in this case study, there is no organized resistance of communities, who prefer dealing directly with miners to obtain financial compensations