Indigenous organisations in the Peruvian Amazon denounce intentions of parliamentary commission to promote highway cutting through protected areas and indigenous territories

Indigenous organisations of the Purus province including ORAU, FECONAPU and ECOPURUS have denounced the intentions of some members of the Indigenous peoples' parliamentary commission to endorse a proposed law that would render the construction of a major highway cutting through the Purus region as a 'public necessity'. If endorsed by the commission, the law could then be considered for approval by the Peruvian parliament.

The proposed road between Puerto Ezperanza and Inapari would cut through protected areas including the Alto Purus National Park and the Purus Communal Reserve as well as the territories of the isolated Mashco Piro people and community titled lands. The project has been opposed by the regional environmental commission of Madre de Dios because it would threaten 'the integrity and protected status of the Alto Purus National Park and Purus Communal Reserve ' while the Ministry of the environment has stated that it constitutes a 'direct threat to the rights of isolated indigenous peoples'. The Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Council of Ministers have both recommended that the proposal be shelved. Indigenous organisations have announced themselves in a permanent state of mobilisation and the start of a concerted campaign to prevent passage of the law.

Click here to read ORAU, ECOPURUS and FECONAPU's statement (in Spanish only).