- A new bill under debate in Peru’s congress seeks to reevaluate the existence of every Indigenous reserve for isolated peoples to determine whether to keep them or scrap them completely.
- The bill would shift decision-making power into the hands of regional governments and include economic interests in the evaluation process, changes which human rights and environmental experts call legally flawed and a human rights violation.
- Some regional governments and companies backing the proposed bill have questioned studies confirming the existence of isolated peoples and seek to place oil exploitation, logging and economic development as a priority.
- In the event of the bill’s approval, all open proceedings relating to Indigenous reserves and Indigenous peoples in isolation would be suspended.
A new legislative proposal, criticized by opponents as a step backwards in recognizing the rights and protections of uncontacted and recently contacted Indigenous people, is currently under debate in Peru’s congress.
The controversial proposal, which seeks to alter the current Law for the Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact Situations (known as PIACI in Spanish), could repeal the creation of some Indigenous reserves – reserves which, in many cases, took years to be declared and prevent the entry of extractive industries, like oil and logging companies.
One of the changes proposed in the bill is for the creation of Indigenous reserves to no longer be a matter the national government deals with — through the ministry of culture — and instead be a matter placed in the hands of regional governments. In addition, with the approval of the bill, the status of every Indigenous reserve in Peru already approved until now would be immediately reevaluated, with the purpose of determining whether to continue with their existence as reserves, revoke their status, or scrap them entirely.
Finally, the bill proposes that while it awaits final approval, all proceedings relating to Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact should be suspended, including the declaration of new Indigenous reserves.
“If approved, [the bill] would be an attack on the survival of Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact, an attack against the rights of people who are unable to defend themselves,” said María Amelia Trigoso, member of the ministry of culture’s department of peoples in isolation and initial contact situations.
Indigenous reserves for isolated and recently contacted people prevent settlers from occupying their territory, control the spread of diseases to the vulnerable populations and bar the entry of extractive industries—unless it’s declared a national priority.
“There are 7,500 Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact. We are talking about the lives of highly vulnerable people, and, alongside it, the loss of vitally important rainforests,” Trigoso added.
The proposal was put forward by Jorge Morante Figari, a congressman from the department of Loreto and member of the right-wing Fuerza Popular party. The regional government of Loreto is openly against the PIACI law. Critics of the bill say a coalition of right-wing parties in congress is taking advantage of the country’s current political crisis following the removal of former left-wing president Pedro Castillo who tried to dissolve congress.
Loreto is the region of Peru where the ministry of culture also most recently recognized the existence of Indigenous peoples in isolation as part of the application process for the creation of the Napo-Tigre and Tributaries Indigenous Reserve. The supreme decree that recognizes and “protects the rights of the Aewa, Taushiro, Tagaeri, Taromenane and Záparo peoples, who live or move between the basins of the Napo River and its tributaries, the Arabela and Curaray” in Loreto was published in El Peruano on Sept. 1, 2022.
Two months later, on Nov. 11, 2022, the new contested bill on Indigenous reserves was presented and referred to two parliamentary commissions: The commission for decentralization, regionalization, and local governments, and the commission for the modernization of state management and culture. Two days ago, the latter commission on culture decided to not comment on the proposal and asked to pass it along to the commission dealing with Indigenous peoples, the correct commission to deal with the bill.
The proposed bill is still under debate.
Read more: Peru to establish rainforest reserve for isolated Indigenous peoples
Denial of the existence of Indigenous peoples in isolation
Supporters of the new legislative proposal say that there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of Indigenous peoples in isolation, a premise that forms the basis for the bill that questions reports that recognize the existence of Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact. Those in favor of the new proposal also argue that the creation of Indigenous reserves unnecessarily limits the sustainable use of natural resources in these oil-rich territories and prevents the implementation of public or private investment projects to promote development in the Amazon region.
“The legislative proposal has been put forward by a congressman from Loreto who holds close ties with the coordinating Committee for the Development of Loreto (Coordinadora por el Desarrollo Sostenible de Loreto – CDL), an organization that argues that Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact Situations do not exist and that the creation of protective measures for Indigenous peoples in isolation impacts the development of the department of Loreto,” said Hugo Che Piu, president of the non-profit civil society group Law, Environment and Natural Resources (Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales – DAR).
The CDL is made up of logging companies, local businessmen and regional authorities.
However, the creation of Indigenous reserves in Peru follows a lengthy and thorough anthropological study to support the existence of isolated peoples in a region. In the case of the Napo-Tigre reserve in Loreto, it was an almost 20-year process of rigorous scientific and anthropological studies that collected 292 pieces of evidence, including the presence of traditional houses, such as malocas, Indigenous longhouses, belonging to Indigenous peoples in isolation.
Che Piu noted that attempts are being made to give this discourse in favor of the bill legal backing via the legislative proposal and added that with its approval, the first impact that it will have will be that “all the [declaratory] processes for new Indigenous reserves that already exist – some of which are in Loreto – will be suspended.”
Another consequence of the bill, the president of DAR said, would be the creation of commissions tasked with reviewing the status of existing Indigenous reserves, which would be created and chaired by regional governments. Che Piu explained that since the bill concerns the implementation of national regulations for the whole of Peru, it should therefore be the national government, rather than regional ones, in charge of making such decisions. In the case of Loreto, Che Piu argued that the regional government in the department has an interest in promoting economic activities in the area and, therefore, “has a biased position,” whereas the ministry of culture specializes in such issues.
“We would also be introducing another issue: an economic evaluation of the creation of reserves, which is a pernicious concept because we would be counterposing the protection and safeguarding of people’s lives with the economic impact that it would bring,” Che Piu said.
“It’s a path that the debate on this issue should not take,” María Amelia Trigoso, an employee for the ministry of culture, told Mongabay. “As it suggests that economic development would be prioritized and would relegate the defense of the huamn rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact. Starting the discussion with this dichotomy does not lead us anywhere.”
Silvana Baldovino, director of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law’s Biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples Program explained that in order to give regional governments the powers outlined in the proposal, changes would have to be made to Peru’s Organic Law of Regional Governments, something which could not be done within the scope of this legislative proposal.
“Legally it has multiple flaws,” Baldovino commented.
Another issue that should be taken into account, María Amelia Trigoso, member of the ministry of culture highlighted, is the possible destruction of rainforests that currently occupy the seven reserves that have already been created.
“We would be talking about more than four million hectares (ten million acres) of rainforest that are part of these seven Indigenous reserves that are the territory of the Indigenous peoples who live there, as well as just over three million hectares (7 million acres) that together make up the five requests for Indigenous reserves that have been made, ” she said.
With this proposal, lawmakers are trying to weaken and, effectively, do away with any institutional backing for Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact, Baldovino told Mongabay.
“This would reverse the progress that has been made for Indigenous peoples in isolation, leaving them in a situation of much greater vulnerability [without their land and resources].”
Voices from within congressman Morante’s office reaffirmed their support for the bill and the lack of isolated peoples in the region.
In one emphatic statement, Manuel Noriega, Morante’s advisor, dismissed all the evidence gathered for years by experts and officials from the ministry of culture: “We believe, based on empirical evidence, that they [Indigenous peoples in isolation] do not exist in Loreto. We can talk about that because we are Amazonians from Loreto, we know our territory and all those rivers, those small streams have been navigated.”
“Thousands of people go into our rainforest looking for supplies, and if Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact existed, they would have seen them by now,” Noriega continued. “But what you do find in the rainforest – and many are afraid to say it – is drug trafficking, in the depths of the rainforest, it’s there,” Morante’s advisor added.
During the course of the interview, Noriega also questioned the applications for new Indigenous reserves that had been presented to the ministry of culture. “We are saying that they must provide scientific evidence, they must prove to us that they exist, now there are much more advanced technologies.”
In response to the advisor’s comments, Beatriz Huerta, an anthropologist and expert on Indigenous issues, explained that anthropological, environmental, historical, and ethnobiological studies have indeed been carried out in order to confirm the presence of Indigenous peoples in isolation and that, furthermore, satellite technology has been used to locate malocas.
“The anthropological methodology is based on indirect information, that is, testimonies of people who have found evidence of or have seen Indigenous peoples in isolation. This methodology has been perfected over time and has also incorporated new technological tools. The studies are very rigorous and have been carried out by highly experienced individuals with years of experience.”
Among the actions that were carried out in order to confirm the presence of Indigenous peoples in isolation, Huertas explained, were visits to areas adjacent to the areas inhabited by Indigenous peoples in isolation, in both the rainy and the dry season, in order to collect testimonies from Indigenous peoples already living in these places.
“The evidence includes testimonies from local community members who, during their hunting, fishing or gathering trips, come across the malocas, traces, tracks and trails left by Indigenous peoples in isolation. The trails opened by the isolated people are very different from the trails they themselves open. There are a series of traces. What we do is to collect that evidence and analyze it. And the testimonies are carefully analyzed, taking into account the historical information about the people who have inhabited the area.”
Huertas also said that ethnobiological analysis of materials that have been discovered has also been carried out in order to determine, for example, what type of food the Indigenous population in isolation consume. Flyovers have also been conducted in order to locate the isolated Indigenous settlements.
“There is a very high level of rigor in the studies, but we know that the motivations behind the legislative proposal are economic. It is rather the regional government of Loreto that is denying the existence of Indigenous peoples in isolation,” she told Mongabay.
“It is a nefarious bill, which puts Indigenous peoples in isolation at serious risk of extinction by opening their territories to the exploitation of resources, with all that this could mean for the life, health and integrity of these peoples.”
The issue of the Napo-Tigre reserve
The legislative proposal also takes aim at the process behind the creation of the Napo-Tigre and Tributaries Reserve as well as at the research and studies that were made to support the creation of the reserve. In September 2022, the Peruvian state moved forward in the process by issuing a decree recognizing the presence of Indigenous peoples in isolation in the requested territory.
“Days before the legislative proposal was presented, a ruling was issued ordering the regional government not to grant or reactivate forestry concessions in areas requested for either created or proposed indigenous reserves,” recalled Adam Bauer, a specialist from the Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact Program of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana – AIDESEP).
Bauer noted that the regional government of Loreto has publicly pushed for the repeal or weakening of the current law on Indigenous peoples in isolation and to this end launched a public campaign called ‘Loreto against the PIACI Law.’ “They held a press conference alongside the Coordinating Committee for the Development of Loreto and topped it off by presenting this bill,” Bauer said.
Since August 2022, when the presidential approval of Napo-Tigre reserve was coming to a head, the CDL also began publishing statements in much the same vein as those coming from the regional government. In these statements, the Coordinating Committee for the Sustainable Development of Loreto has claimed that the creation of Indigenous reserves seeks to “frustrate productive economic activity, under the pretext of making claims based on unvalidated scientific studies that there are uncontacted peoples in Loreto. Furthermore, they call for organizations in Loreto “to wage a crusade in defense of the violated territory,” and thus, demand the repeal of the PIACI Law and the supreme decrees related to it.
Noriega, the advisor of congressman Jorge Morante, confirmed to Mongabay that they met with representatives of the CDL in their parliamentary office, but said that they came to advocate on behalf of Indigenous communities who are against the reserves for Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact.
“Some representatives from the Arabela Indigenous communities came to us with documents and videos in which they protested against the creation of the reserves because they will stop them from using, as they always have done, the rainforest’s resources,” Noriega said.
On its social media channels, the CDL has reported on its meetings with different congressmen in which they have stated their opposition to the creation of Indigenous reserves, as well as their support for the controversial bill.
Mongabay Latam tried to speak to representatives of the Coordinating Committee for the Sustainable Development of Loreto but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
A bill under scrutiny and support
Miguel Manihuari, a representative from the Regional Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Peru (Organización Regional de Pueblos Indígenas del Oriente – ORPIO), spoke about the danger posed by the potential approval of the bill, saying that “it would be clashing against the existence of our uncontacted brothers and sisters, disregarding their existence.”
“The creation of the Indigenous reserves is an extra step to protect our territories, because our brothers and sisters in voluntary isolation need a space where they can go about their activities,” Marihuari continued.
ORPIO has also filed an appeal against the bill, arguing that it constitutes a threat of violation of the right to life and subsistence of Indigenous peoples in isolation. It has also put together a legal report that supports the unconstitutionality of the proposal.
Maritza Quispe, a lawyer from the Institute of Legal Defense who worked on the report said that, for several years, the regional government of Loreto has been the main culprit in initiating a series of threats against Indigenous peoples in isolation.
“The regional government has handed over a series of forestry concessions on territory that is home to isolated Indigenous communities, despite the Forestry Law expressly prohibiting this, meaning the regional government has been illegally awarding concessions, so how could you give a regional government powers [outlined in the new bill] when instead of protecting Indigenous peoples in isolation it has handed concessions for third parties to carry out activities in the area?”
On the other hand, Quispe said, Peru’s Organic Law of Regional Governments does not state that they are the responsible bodies for creating reserves or protecting Indigenous peoples in isolation. “It’s an obligation that is clearly incumbent upon the governing body, which in this case would be the ministry of culture,” the Quispe said in reference to the new proposal that regional governments would now become the bodies who would decide on the creation of new reserves.
“There are private interests from large-scale corporations, such as in the case of the oil lots of the Perenco oil company, which filed an appeal requesting the annulment of the recognition of Indigenous peoples in isolation. The lawsuit was later withdrawn, but the threat is latent,” Quispe said.
The Perenco Perú oil company hold a concession for Lot 67 within the territory requested for the Napo-Tigre and Tributaries Indigenous Reserve. In June 2022, the company filed an injunction action against the ministry of culture to annul the favorable ruling for the creation of the Indigenous reserve. The company later desisted from continuing with the process in November. A week later, the bill that is now under debated was presented.
In a written statement, Perenco Perú said that “it takes its responsibilities regarding human rights and environmental laws very seriously, and it adheres to strictly controlled and monitored regulations for hydrocarbon activities in its contract areas.”
The company explained that it filed the lawsuit in order to “try to assert its right to participate in the process to determine whether Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact are present in the area,” but clarified that after the ministry of culture recognized the presence of Indigenous peoples in isolation, the company withdrew its complaint.
But Perenco also stated that it received a letter from the ministry of culture indicating that it can continue its operations in the area.
“This is a congress that better serves private interests than it does collective ones, there isn’t a party-specific or parliamentary grouping-specific agenda, but rather individual initiatives,” said Baldovino, from the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law.
Baldovino also said that the campaign in favor of the legislative proposal is being pushed by CDL, led by a group of logging companies from Loreto, but that it has also been supported by the regional government and by hydrocarbon companies.
Currently, five proposals for the creation of new Indigenous reserves for Indigenous peoples in isolation have been submitted to the ministry of culture, where they are currently going through the relevant assessment processes. These five proposed reserves are: the Sierra del Divisor Occidental; the Yavarí Mirim; the Napo-Tigre and Tributaries; the Atacuari and the Pupuña. Four of them are located in Loreto, while one of them, the Sierra del Divisor Occidental, is split between the Loreto and Ucayali departments.
This article was first published here on Feb. 3, 2023 in Spanish on our Latam site.
Banner image: Malocas (traditional longhouses) of Indigenous communities in isolation on the Peru-Brazil border. Image by ORPIO.
Related listening from Mongabay’s podcast: We speak with National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan to talk about the value of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in protecting the world’s biodiversity and examples of TEK from Indigenous communities he’s visited. Listen here:
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