New extractivism, foreign investment and inclusive development: reclaiming participatory gender equality in Perú

The paper evaluates the effectiveness of citizen participation in environmental management, specifically, in relation to the process of evaluation of environmental impact assessment studies of large-scale mining projects in Peru. It is analysed if these mechanisms are equally inclusive of female and male voices; identifies the barriers that women face in these deliberative spaces and assess what the government is doing to reduce gender based exclusions. The paper argues that, although according to Peruvian environmental and mining law, participatory spaces are aimed to include citizens’ voices; they end up reinforcing domination and control as they mainly operate to facilitate a rapid expedition of environmental licenses in mining projects rather than truly foster spaces of dialogue, consensus and political inclusion. For the most part, such mechanisms have also been blind to the gendered impacts of extractivism.