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Peru’s Ministry of Culture (MINCU) has issued a report that blocks, at least temporarily, the expansion of the country’s biggest gas project in the Amazon rainforest in a Reserve set aside for the protection of isolated indigenous peoples. 

Dear Friends,What are the prospects for securing the land rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, and women in the foreseeable future?Significantly, the report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, under Goal 1 to “End Poverty”, sets a target to “Increase by x% the share of women and men, communities, and businesses with secure rights to land, property, and other assets”.

Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and Wapichan Communities in the Rupununi are raising major concerns over road building plans affecting pristine forest in the south of the country on lands within Wapichan territory.

On 30 October 2013, after months of intense negotiation and dialogue with the Peruvian government, Peru’s Forest Investment Plan (FIP) was finally approved by the Sub Committee of the Forest Investment Programme, a World Bank initiative that aims to reduce emissions from deforestation.

On 1 November 2013 indigenous and civil society organisations from Peru including FENAMAD, AIDESEP, Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR), and the National Human Rights Coordinator presented evidence in a hearing before the Inter-American Commission.The petitioners documented the failure of the Peruvian government to provide effective protection for isolated indigenous peoples in Peru.

Source: Survival InternationalPlans to build a massive hydro-electric dam on the land of two unique tribes in Guyana would lead to the destruction of a unique people and vast tracts of rainforest, a new report has revealed today.

On Monday October 21, 2013 the Government of Guyana and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a contract for the Amerindian Land Titling Project under the Guyana/Norway Guyana REDD Investment Fund (GRIF) arrangement. This signing took place during the opening session of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the National Toshaos Council and is heralded by President Donald Ramotar as fulfilling a promise made to the Amerindian people in the PPP’s manifesto. Campaigning? According to another government official Minister of Finance Ashni Singh, the project will give Amerindians control over the lands that belong to them. The project, according to the government is to facilitate the titling and demarcation of Amerindian lands. 

In statements published in a Peruvian national newspaper and online, both AIDESEP (the national indigenous Amazonian organisation) and over 50 Peruvian and international civil society organisations, including Forest Peoples Programme, have reiterated their demand that the State establish strict measures for the protection of isolated peoples in Peru.

Photos in an internal report by a Peruvian government agency reveal illegal clearings in a reserve in the Amazon purportedly protecting indigenous peoples living in ‘voluntary isolation’ and ‘initial contact.’

Source: The Huffington PostA United Nations committee says that plans by Peru's government to expand a controversial gas project in the Amazon could threaten the 'physical and cultural survival' of indigenous peoples.

On the eve of the Peruvian government's final consultation with indigenous peoples on the draft investment plan of the FIP, indigenous organisations expressed their cautious welcome of the latest version of the plan, which includes key agreements on their customary land rights reached with indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, they expressed their grave concern that last minute adjustments were made to the plan without their agreement.

A group of Colombian indigenous women have prepared a shadow report that they will present to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) during its 56th session, currently underway in Geneva. 

In this edition of the Partner Spotlight we interview Louis Biswane from the Organisation of Kalin’a and Lokono Peoples in Marowijne (KLIM) in Suriname. Louis recently participated in the Indigenous Fellowship Programme (IFP) of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva from 17 June to 12 July, on behalf of KLIM. In this interview, Louis talks about his experiences in Geneva: what he learned, and how the expertise and knowledge he has gained will support KLIM’s work. 

Dear Friends,The principle that the enjoyment of human rights is both the means and the goal of development, highlights the importance of human rights monitoring as a means for empowering rights-holders to exercise their rights, whilst holding States and other actors accountable for their human rights obligations.   

On 2 August 2013 indigenous organisations and representatives of the Peruvian government reached an agreement to modify controversial aspects of the government’s draft Forest Investment Plan (“FIP Plan”), an initiative financed by the World Bank’s Forest Investment Programme (FIP), to address deforestation. The plan was due to be presented to the World Bank’s FIP sub-committee in October 2013 but a draft version was roundly denounced by indigenous organisations in July as it continued to ignore indigenous proposals and violated Peru’s legal obligations to respect indigenous peoples’ rights to land and resources and the World Bank’s own safeguard policies. 

To Mrs Cristiana Pasca-PalmerHead of Unit (Climate change, Environment, Natural resources, Water)Directorate General Development and CooperationEuropean CommissionRue de la Loi 200B-1049 Brussels Re: Guyana – EU VPA negotiation

In an embarrassing u-turn the Peruvian Vice Ministry of Culture has withdrawn its formal observations on the proposed expansion of the Camisea gas project within a Reserve for isolated peoples which included the conclusions that the health, traditional economic activities and ways of life of the indigenous peoples in ‘initial contact’ and ‘voluntary isolation’ (‘isolated peoples’) in the region will be severely impacted and two of them, the Nanti and the Kirineri, could be made ‘extinct.’

Over 70 activists and leaders of Latin America’s indigenous peoples movement have written to President Maduro of Venezuela urging his intervention to end the repression of the Yukpa people in the Sierra de Perija region. This began with the Yukpa’s violent eviction from their lands in the 1920s and has continued to this day in the form of repeated imprisonment and oppression of their leaders and even their assassination including that of Sabino Romero in March 2013. The organisations urge President Maduro’s intervention to end the militarisation of the area, initiate processes of peaceful dialogue and fully implement Venezuela’s constitutional commitment to recognise indigenous peoples’ ‘original rights over the lands they have traditionally and ancestrally used and occupied’.

Source: The TimesThree ministers in Peru have resigned in protest at plans to drill for oil in a reserve for indigenous tribes, who risk being exposed to diseases that could kill them (James Hider writes). 

En el día internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas establecido cada 9 de agosto por las Naciones Unidas a través de su Asamblea General en el año 1994, la FAPI se dirige a la comunidad nacional e internacional haciendo propicia la fecha por su importancia, para dar a conocer sus consideraciones ante la coyuntura que atraviesa actualmente el Paraguay.