Reflexiones sobre los retos del desarrollo y la sustentabilidad en el Perú

The objective of this essay is to explain the nature of the challenges we face as a country historically dependent on the extraction of resources —particularly minerals— when approaching sustainable development. To this end, the text presents a brief account of the emergence of environmental sustainability as an urgent global objective, and then proposes the constitution of plural forms of territorial governance to identify, from a territorial perspective, transitions towards possible forms of postextractive sustainability. After introducing the issue, the text reflects on how the dominant construction of the notion of nature as separate from man has permeated our vision of development. The third section provides a brief explanation of the emergence of the issue of sustainable development as a fundamental objective in today’s world, with emphasis on the challenges it implies for countries where, as in Peru, economic development has been associated with extraction. The fourth section proposes the constitution of plural forms of territorial governance as a way of finding, from local specificities, alternatives to current development. Finally, the text closes with some reflections.