ABSTRACT
Under President Ollanta Humala (2011–2016), Peru adopted a national Law on Prior Consultation and concluded 24 consultation processes. Based on the analysis of ethnographic fieldwork material (2013–2015), interviews, legal texts, and primary documents, this chapter argues that prior consultation is an ambiguous instrument that operates as a “door opener” in two contrasting ways. On the one hand, consultation processes are criticised, given that they are used by the hydrocarbon and mining industries to legitimise new projects and expand extractive frontiers. On the other hand, prior consultation as a contested norm has finally pushed Indigenous Peoples’ rights onto the national agenda. The chapter concludes that the observed changes can only stand for a new era of recognition politics in Peru when the initiated reforms lead to a profound restructure of the State and the country’s extractive imperative.
