The threat to culture this week focused on sacred territory and a cultural heritage site. The festival of El Señor de Qoyllur Riti in Cusco became the scene of strong protest at the way official concessions are allowing gold mining to threaten the sacred territory. Norberto Vega Cutipa, secretary of the National Council of Señor de Qoyllur Riti, says “if in three months they don’t annul the mining concessions in the area of the intangible sanctuary of Qoyllur Riti, we will conduct an indefinite strike”. http://elcomercio.pe/peru/cusco/qoyllur-riti-peregrinos-piden-nulidad-concesiones-mineras-noticia-1872129. While the form and power of such a strike is hard to imagine, the strength of feeling as thousands of pilgrims marched in the streets of Cusco was unmistakeable.

Qollur Riti is located at 4,500 metres above sea level to the east of Cusco city; the annual pilgrimage to the sacred site attracts thousands from all over Peru.

The threat to environment and livelihood was at the same time being illuminated through a powerful documentary from Al Jazeera TV, being showcased in Lima. The film focuses on the Tambopata National Reserve in Madre de Dios, where over 100,000 acres of rainforest have been cleared of trees by unauthorised miners and the soil removed through the use of high-pressure water hoses, turning primary rain forest into barren wasteland in a matter of days. The report uses the work of the Carnegie Institute Amazon Mercury Ecosystem Project. Its Director Luis Fernández says that the further the mercury used in gold mining travels along the food chain, the stronger the contaminating effects.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/techknow/2016/01/gold-cost-illegal-mining-peru-160115085928711.html