Fostering Social Change in Peru Through Communication: The Case of the Manuani Miners Association

Abstract

Much has been done to formalize miners in Peru; since its inception in 2006 the Ministry of Environment passed laws to align mining policies with international standards. However, the combination of the necessity to have a source of income and the rapid acquisition of money that illegal and informal gold mining provides has proven a serious impasse for the Peruvian government; hence these mining practices keep growing. As part of the Initiative for the Conservation of the Andean Amazon II (ICAA II), the Manuani Miners Association in Madre de Dios, one of the regions more prone to illegal mining and bad environmental practices in Peru, started a land restoration, remediation, and reforestation process of the degraded rainforest. This case study analyzes how a program within ICAA II used communication to promote this significant change in behavior, what communicational tools were used, and what is their possible further applicability in similar scenarios to foster positive change.