The Declaration of Puerto Franco: Gathering of Indigenous Peoples and Nations for Conservation with Respect for their Rights

During the meeting, more than 90 people reflected on the violations suffered by the imposition of exclusionary and enforced conservation models.

The Kichwa of San Martin shared their experience of the impacts of the Cordillera Azul National Park and the Cordillera Escalera Regional Conservation Area, as did representatives of other peoples and nations with their respective struggles: the Shipibo, about the Imiría Regional Conservation Area; Ese Eja, about the Tambopata National Reserve and Bahuaja Sonene National Park; Awajún, about the Ichigkat Muja - Cordillera del Cóndor National Park, Cordillera de Colán Sanctuary, Tuntanaim and Chayu Nain Communal Reserves, and Nieva River Reserved Zone; Wampís, on the Santiago Comaina Reserved Zone; Kukama, on the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve; and the Kenyan Ogiek, on the dispossessions in the Mau Forest.

In the sharing of stories, a similar pattern of impacts and violence was identified: territorial dispossession that violates rights to territory, to consultation and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), to traditional livelihoods and persistence of cultural and collective identity, to full and effective participation in the benefits generated by conservation activities. At the same time, it became evident how States and other conservation organisations ignore the historical role that peoples and nations have played in the protection of their forests, lakes, streams and rivers.

The meeting was also a space for the socialisation of strategies of struggle and proposals, both at the level of communities and in an integral manner, as peoples and nations, on the path towards reclaiming the territories on which natural protected areas (PAs) have been imposed, in some cases behind their backs.

Among the strategies and proposals, they highlighted the self-demarcation of ancestral territory, given that the state refuses to assume its historical error in order to carry out this work or make these commitments; legal and political advocacy strategies before the courts and national and international bodies; the peaceful occupation of park ranger stations and the suspension of entry to Indigenous territories; their own conservation proposals such as Indigenous Ecological Areas, community protection zones, Territories of Life - TICCAs, among others; the search for material, moral and symbolic historical reparations; and the decolonisation of thinking and emotions in order to ensure that the peoples and nations themselves replace violent conservation with conservation that respects human rights.

The peoples and nations at the Gathering drew up and launched the Declaration of Puerto Franco[TY1] , which can be read in full here, and which mentions in general terms:

1. Solidarity with the struggle of the native Kichwa community of Puerto Franco for the recovery of their ancestral territory, dispossessed by the Cordillera Azul National Park and forestry concessions, facing a historic legal battle for a new social contract for conservation in the country.
2. Renewal of the commitment to strengthen autonomy and self-determination as Indigenous peoples and nations in order to recover the territories dispossessed by a conservation model that discriminates against and ignores them.
3. Denounces the superimposition on ancestral territories of protected areas created without consultation and the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples and nations, demanding their exclusion and/or resizing.
4. Rejects State pressure to create new protected areas on ancestral territories and, in existing areas that affect Indigenous territories, the suspension of the entry of park rangers is demanded until Indigenous territorial claims are recognised.
5. Rejects that the National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP), Regional Governments and some representatives of the executors of contracts for the administration of protected areas are trying to divide and weaken the organisational structure and social fabric.
6. The State, its institutions and organisations dedicated to conservation are reminded that Indigenous peoples and nations are the owners of the lands they ancestrally own and occupy.
7. National and international justice will continue to be used to defend Indigenous rights.
8. Welcomes the advances of communities, peoples and nations in their self-demarcation within natural protected areas, self-zoning, community administration zones, ancestral occupation studies, biological corridors, the constitution of territorial governments, Indigenous Ecological Areas, Territories of Life – TICCAS, and other strategies in defence and control of the territory adopted to defend their own conservation models.
9. Historical reparation is demanded for the violation of collective rights and for the affectation of dignity and territories.
10. International bodies for the protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples are alerted to the fact that Peru and Kenya are violating the rights to self-determination over territory, access to natural resources, cultural identity and their own development model.