“Are we at fault because our wealth ends up in the hands of those wiracuchas, that they take what is ours and give it to others without us even knowing it?” The Kichwa people oppose exclusionary conservation in the Cordillera Azul National Park in Peru.

The federations of the Kichwa people of the San Martín region in Peru have issued a joint statement regarding what they consider as exclusionary and discriminatory conservation by a natural protected area, the Cordillera Azul National Park (PNCAZ). This comes following a webinar entitled, "The sustainability of protected natural areas: REDD + and the Paris agreement", which was organised by the NGO Center for Conservation, Research and Management of Natural Areas (CIMA) and law firm Hernández & Cia on Wednesday 7 July 2021. Other participants included the National Service of Natural State-Protected Areas (SERNANP), the Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), carbon credits certifier Verra and the France-based oil company, Total Energies.

Read the statement (Spanish only) 

The Kichwa federations that sign the statement, including the Ethnic Council of Kichwa Peoples of Amazonia (CEPKA), the Federation of Kichwa Indigenous Peoples of Bajo Huallaga, San Martin (FEPIKBHSAM) and the Federation of Kichwa Indigenous Peoples of Chazuta, Amazonas (FEPIKECHA), express their deep discontent and indignation over what they consider an exclusionary and discriminatory vision that persists around conservation in Peru, which is carried out at the expense of the forests that the Kichwa have occupied, protected and managed ancestrally for generations, as well as the violation of their fundamental rights.