Freshwater Management Discourses in the Northern Peruvian Andes: The Watershed-Scale Complexity for Integrating Mining, Rural, and Urban Stakeholders

Daniel Mercado-Garcia (), Thomas Block, Jheni Thalis Horna Cotrina, Nilton Deza Arroyo, Marie Anne Eurie Forio, Guido Wyseure and Peter Goethals
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Daniel Mercado-Garcia: Aquatic Ecology Research Unit (AECO), Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Thomas Block: Centre for Sustainable Development, Department of Political Sciences, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Jheni Thalis Horna Cotrina: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Cajamarca, Cajamarca 06003, Peru
Nilton Deza Arroyo: Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Nacional de Cajamarca, Cajamarca 06003, Peru
Marie Anne Eurie Forio: Aquatic Ecology Research Unit (AECO), Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Guido Wyseure: Division of Soil and Water Management, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Peter Goethals: Aquatic Ecology Research Unit (AECO), Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: The Peruvian environmental action plan seeks headwaters protection as one of its integrated watershed management objectives. However, heterogeneous social and environmental conditions shape this freshwater management challenge at subnational scales. We have noticed different interpretations of this challenge. To map the debate, understand the diverse interpretations, and frame political choices, we conducted semi-structured interviews with institutional and non-institutional stakeholders for performing discourse analysis in an Andean watershed where mountaintop gold mining, midstream farmers, and the downstream Cajamarca city coexist. One discourse dominates the debate on protecting the freshwater supply and argues the importance of river impoundment, municipal storage capacity, and institutional leadership. The other two discourses revolve around protecting the mountain aquifer. The second discourse does so with a fatalistic view of headwaters protection and rural support. The third discourse partially shifts the debate towards the need for improving rural capacity building and (ground)water inventories. To understand evolutions in society, it is crucial to understand these three discourses, including the types of knowledge that actors present as legitimate, the attributed roles to all stakeholders, and the kinds of worldviews informing each discourse. The interaction among discourses could hinder integrated watershed management at worst or, at best, help inspire multi-stakeholder collaboration.

Keywords: gold mining; semi-structured interviews; mountain freshwater; discourse analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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