Kichwa communities move towards recognition of their ancestral land in the Cordillera Azul National Park

The fourth meeting agreed to set up a special commission within the Technical Committee to advance the requests for demarcation in the PNCAZ within the current legal framework, with the Commission being made up of representatives of the State, indigenous organisations and specific community authorities, according to the work plan established in accordance with the prioritised territorial intervention.

In a key way, a first area of intervention was defined: the Lower Huallaga, involving the Callanayacu, Ricardo Palma and Canayo communities and their federations FEPIKBHSAM and FEPIKECHA.

This prioritisation is expected to be a pilot project that will allow learning and progress to be made in this historic process of recognition of indigenous ancestral territories affected by the PNCAZ, which was created without due process for obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of the Kichwa population.

In addition, the DRASAM committed to move forward in other cases of communities with ancestral territorial claims within the Park.

A key point of the discussion was the indigenous movement's questioning of non-compliance with one of the commitments of the Chazuta Act that gave rise to the PNCAZ Technical Committee. Specifically, the authorities were reminded that SERNANP and CIMA must respect the structure of the indigenous movement in any coordination with the communities. In this way, the federations and their regional organisation can monitor and permanently accompany their support communities with a view to safeguarding their rights, avoiding confusion and misunderstandings.

 

"We are going to set ourselves straight to respect the structure of the indigenous movement, if there have been mistakes. In good faith, let us transform this conflict into a proposal of how things should be", MINCUL representative.

 

Undoubtedly, progress towards the recognition of Kichwa territorial rights in the San Martín region has not come for free. It has been the product of years of advocacy towards the Park and Peruvian State authorities, involving a constitutional lawsuit over regulations affecting the rights of indigenous peoples in the case of protected natural areas created without first having first achieved recognition of indigenous territorial rights; an alert to the Green List system of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2021 questioning the poor governance of the PNCAZ; a call from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to the Peruvian State in the framework of its early warning and urgent action procedure, regarding affectations to the human rights and territories of the Kichwa people by the Park and its REDD+ Project; a letter to international buyers of the carbon credits generated by the Park with its REDD+ Project, among many other actions.

The Kichwa people remain united in this historic process in the search for a paradigm shift in conservation in Peru, one that respects the human rights of the communities that have conserved and managed forests for many years before the arrival of the natural protected areas model. And for this, the communities need to regain trust, affected by years of exclusion from a model working behind their backs. Advances such as those of the fourth PNCAZ Technical Committee, moving from words to action, seem to be some of the first steps on the path towards this new social contract, as the Kichwa have called it, one that fairly considers indigenous peoples as allies and pioneers of conservation, and thus jointly face the monumental challenge of our times: the climate crisis and its increasingly severe consequences.

 

"The problems have not been caused by indigenous peoples, but by the authorities themselves. Most of the natural protected areas are indigenous peoples' territories," Julio Cusurichi, AIDESEP leader.

 

Review the Minutes of 14-08-2023 here and the Minutes of 04-09-2023 here.