Follow the Water: Emerging Issues of Climate Change and Conflict in Peru

This study explores how the effects of climate change on water quantity, quality, and access may be factoring into aspects of localized instability, fragility, and conflict in Peru. To help guide the methodological approach, FESS developed a seven-phase framework—the Climate Change and Conflict Assessment Framework (CCCAF). The framework emphasizes one of the main conclusions of recent conflict analysis: conflict is always the result of the interactions of multiple political, economic, social, historical, and cultural factors, and these must be taken into account in any analysis. Moreover, the quality of governance and the resilience of political, economic, and social institutions all mediate the relationship between environmental change and conflict in important ways. The influence of climate change and climate-related policy and program responses on instability and conflict can only be understood within this web of relationships.

To conduct the study, a three-person field research team composed of two FESS researchers and one senior conflict advisor from USAID/CMM, accompanied by one or at times two colleagues from USAID/Peru, interviewed more than 50 persons from national and regional government, civil society organizations, international organizations, local communities, and the private sector. After initial meetings in Lima, the team traveled to Huaraz and Canrey Chico in Recuay, Ancash. There, field visits focused on climate change impacts in the Santa River Basin, especially the Cordillera Blanca and Callejón de Huaylas. The team also traveled to Arequipa for meetings in the regional capital as well as Condesuyos province. Interviews also were held with elected officials from communities in La Unión and Caylloma provinces. These field interviews were followed by a return to Lima and another round of meetings with key national ministries and nongovernmental organizations. While noting the constraints on time and geography, the study team believes the report effectively identifies a number of key issues and dynamics at play in the climate-conflict relationship throughout the highlands as well as elsewhere in Peru.

Source: USAID
Year: 2012