diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index fcba528b2..b68c55c85 100644
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -781,7 +781,6 @@ if not preconfigured:
             env.Append(CXXFLAGS = '-DHAVE_LIBXML2')
             
     if env['CAIRO'] and conf.CheckPKGConfig('0.15.0') and conf.CheckPKG('cairomm-1.0'):
-        env.ParseConfig('pkg-config --libs --cflags cairomm-1.0')
         env['HAS_CAIRO'] = True
     else:
         env['SKIPPED_DEPS'].extend(['cairo','cairomm'])
@@ -931,7 +930,6 @@ if not preconfigured:
             env['MISSING_DEPS'].append('boost python')
 
         if env['CAIRO'] and conf.CheckPKGConfig('0.15.0') and conf.CheckPKG('pycairo'):
-            env.ParseConfig('pkg-config --cflags pycairo')
             env['HAS_PYCAIRO'] = True
         else:
             env['SKIPPED_DEPS'].extend(['pycairo'])
diff --git a/bindings/python/SConscript b/bindings/python/SConscript
index 59a629feb..d6b9f9f07 100644
--- a/bindings/python/SConscript
+++ b/bindings/python/SConscript
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ if env['PLATFORM'] == 'Darwin':
     if env['THREADING'] == 'multi':
         libraries.append('boost_thread%s' % env['BOOST_APPEND'])
     if env['HAS_CAIRO']:
-        libraries.append([lib for lib in env['LIBS'] if lib.startswith('cairo')])
+        libraries.append('cairomm-1.0')
+        libraries.append('cairo')
 
     ##### Python linking on OS X is tricky ### 
     # Confounding problems are:
@@ -144,14 +145,18 @@ if env['SVN_REVISION']:
     sources.remove('mapnik_python.cpp')
     env2 = env.Clone()
     env2.Append(CCFLAGS='-DSVN_REVISION=%s' % env['SVN_REVISION'])
-    if env['HAS_CAIRO']:
-        env2.Append(CXXFLAGS = '-DHAVE_CAIRO')
-    if env['HAS_PYCAIRO']:
-        env2.Append(CXXFLAGS = '-DHAVE_PYCAIRO')    
+    if env['HAS_CAIRO'] or env['HAS_PYCAIRO']:
+        if env['HAS_CAIRO']:
+            env2.ParseConfig('pkg-config --libs --cflags cairomm-1.0')
+            env2.Append(CXXFLAGS = '-DHAVE_CAIRO')
+        if env['HAS_PYCAIRO']:
+            env2.ParseConfig('pkg-config --cflags pycairo')
+            env2.Append(CXXFLAGS = '-DHAVE_PYCAIRO')
     sources.insert(0,env2.SharedObject('mapnik_python.cpp'))
 
 if env['HAS_CAIRO'] or env['HAS_PYCAIRO']:
     env2 = env.Clone()
+    env2.ParseConfig('pkg-config --libs --cflags cairomm-1.0')
     fixup = ['mapnik_image.cpp','python_cairo.cpp']
     for cpp in fixup:
         if cpp in sources:
diff --git a/demo/c++/SConscript b/demo/c++/SConscript
index 476894fbd..ccbdbad19 100644
--- a/demo/c++/SConscript
+++ b/demo/c++/SConscript
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ libraries =  [boost_thread,'mapnik2']
 
 if env['HAS_CAIRO'] in env['CXXFLAGS']:
     # add cairo and cairomm-1.0 to libs
-    libraries.append([lib for lib in env['LIBS'] if lib.startswith('cairo')])
+    libraries.append('cairomm-1.0')
+    libraries.append('cairo')
 
 if env['PLATFORM'] == 'Darwin':
     libraries.append(boost_regex)
diff --git a/src/SConscript b/src/SConscript
index 501430924..d4f3f224e 100644
--- a/src/SConscript
+++ b/src/SConscript
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ libraries = ['freetype','ltdl','png','tiff','z','jpeg','proj',env['ICU_LIB_NAME'
 
 if env['HAS_CAIRO']:
     # add cairo and cairomm-1.0 to libs
-    libraries.append([lib for lib in env['LIBS'] if lib.startswith('cairo')])
+    libraries.append('cairomm-1.0')
+    libraries.append('cairo')
 
 if env['XMLPARSER'] == 'libxml2':
     libraries.append('xml2')
@@ -146,9 +147,10 @@ if True : # agg backend
     """ 
         )
 
-if 'cairo' in env['LIBS']:
+if env['HAS_CAIRO']:
     env2 = env.Clone()
     env2.Append(CXXFLAGS = '-DHAVE_CAIRO')
+    env2.ParseConfig('pkg-config --libs --cflags cairomm-1.0')
     fixup = ['cairo_renderer.cpp','graphics.cpp','image_util.cpp']
     for cpp in fixup:
         if cpp in source: