The conflict over the Chaupe cloud forest in northern Peru involved local mobilisation, high drama, terrorism and national and international politics.1 An earlier, Spanish language version of this article was presented at the First European Congress of Latin Americanists, University of Salamanca, 26-29 June 1996. The author appreciates the access given to the archives of Radio Marañón in Jaén and to the archives and Documentation Centre of the Peruvian Environmental Law Society. He also acknowledges the financial support received from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Research Committee and the School of Education, Humanities, Law and Theology at Flinders University. Finally, he would like to acknowledge the comments and suggestions of María Scurrah, Maria Elena Lorenzin, Carlos Soria and Cecilia Scurrah-Ehrhart, the research assistance given by Lucía Scurrah and the translation help of Roslyn Dunk. Nevertheless, the author alone is responsible for any errors that may be contained in this article. However, it also illustrates the process whereby the environment has appeared as an item on the political agenda of one South American country and how the struggle for the control and management of natural resources between local people and outsiders-whether national or multinational- has emerged as a point of friction in the process of globalisation characteristic of the 1990s. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.