1846 area to jointly deliberate and act in a collaborative manner, under the guiding role of ANA’s decentralized authority. The outcomes of this process are tangible for all stakeholders, who collectively assess and reflect on their own practices and commitments related to water management within the basin of interest. From this perspective, the mining project enters a shared governance logic in which its technical and social teams also recognize that relationships and interactions derived from corporate social responsibility or community relations practices cannot be confined to a narrowly defined environmental area of influence. Such territorially bound approaches tend to reinforce bilateral relationships and result primarily in negotiated social investment, rather than in collective learning processes and substantive contributions to water governance and sustainable territorial development. A key question arises: if CRHCs have exhibited sustainability limitations after more than fifteen years of implementation, could similar challenges affect METRHI? Indeed, participatory and water governance mechanisms in mining-influenced territories that are not firmly anchored in the water authority, local government institutions, and the co-participation of the mining titleholders face the risk of losing momentum over time and becoming ineffective in achieving sustainable water governance objectives. In this regard, the initial articulation among these actors to promote the Water Resources Thematic Roundtable is fundamental to sustaining the process over time. Finally, METRHI may serve as an initial platform for territorially grounded water governance, given its establishment at the scale of a smaller hydrographic unit. Over time, it may be articulated with the process of forming the corresponding CRHC, providing the latter with an organizational and participatory precedent that strengthens its institutional consistency and legitimacy. 6. CONCLUSIONS This study confirms that the effective implementation of IWRM in Peru continues to face significant challenges at the territorial level, particularly in smaller high-Andean hydrographic units characterized by limited State presence, fragmented institutional action, and persistent information gaps. Although the SNGRH provides a comprehensive legal and institutional framework, its operationalization remains uneven across scales, with CRHCs often constrained by consultative mandates, limited technical and financial resources, and insufficient local representativeness. The findings also highlight that water-related conflicts in mining-influenced territories cannot be adequately addressed through bilateral arrangements or efficiency-oriented approaches focused solely on mining operations. Instead, such contexts require governance mechanisms that enable sustained multiactor interaction, shared learning processes, and collective decision-making grounded in territorial realities and hydrological dynamics. The METRHI provides empirical evidence of how a territorially grounded, bottomup governance mechanism can complement existing basin-level institutions. METRHI contributes by operationalizing water governance at the scale of a smaller hydrographic unit, where actors are directly affected by water availability, quality, and competing uses. Its main contribution lies in adapting national regulatory and institutional guidelines to local conditions, strengthening representativeness through the inclusion of diverse water users, and creating a space for transparent dialogue, coordination, and consensus-building under the stewardship of the ALA. As an emerging process, METRHI demonstrates the potential to enhance trust among stakeholders, improve access to hydrological information, and support collaborative responses to water-related challenges in mining-affected territories. REFERENCES Andersson, K., & Ostrom, E. (2008). Analyzing decentralized resource regimes from a polycentric perspective. Policy Sciences, 41(1), 71–93. Castro-Salvador, S. (2023). (Dé)centralisation et territoires de l’eau : Enjeux, échelles et acteurs. Le cas des bassins-versants de Lima et Piura au Pérou [Doctoral dissertation, Université Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne]. Disponible en: https://theses.fr/2023PA01H037
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