Kichwa organizations of San Martin, Peru lament breakdown of dialogue with Cordillera Azul National Park authorities, territorial rights violations continue

Organizations of the Kichwa people issued the following statement on 18 January 2023 following the breakdown of dialogue with the State Protected Natural Areas Service (SERNANP) and the Center for Conservation, Research and Management of Natural Areas (CIMA) in the Technical Working Group that was established in September 2022 to address more than 20 years of exclusion by the conservation model imposed by the Cordillera Azul National Park in their traditional territories.

STATEMENT ON THE BREAKDOWN OF DIALOGUE AT THE CORDILLERA AZUL NATIONAL PARK TECHNICAL ROUNDTABLE

The Coordinating Committee for the Development and Defense of Indigenous Peoples of the San Martin Region (CODEPISAM) and three of its federations, the Federation of Indigenous Kichwa Peoples of Chazuta (FEPIKECHA), the Ethnic Council of Kichwa Peoples of the Amazon (CEPKA) and the Federation of Indigenous Kichwa Peoples of Bajo Huallaga San Martin (FEPIKBHSAM), and representatives of the native communities of Puerto Franco, Chambira, Canayo, Mushuck Llacta, Ricardo Palma, Callanayaku, Ankash Yacu de Achinamiza, Anak Kurutuyacu and Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu, as well as the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP); in the face of the intransigent and bad faith attitudes of the State Natural Protected Areas Service (SERNANP) and the Center for Conservation, Research and Management of Natural Areas (CIMA) at the meeting of the Technical Working Group for the effective participation of Indigenous peoples with territorial claims linked to the management of the Cordillera Azul National Park (PNCAZ) on 18/01/2023 in Tarapoto, we state the following:

1. We categorically reject and regret that SERNANP has continued at this technical table to maintain a reluctant position in its legal interpretations of the application of RM N° 0136-2022-MINAGRI of 7 April 2022 that allows for the demarcation of communal territories within Natural Protected Areas (NPAs), without considering the national and international regulatory framework that protects us as indigenous peoples, and despite the fact that the General Directorate of Agrarian Property Sanitation and Rural Cadastre (DIGESPACR) of MIDAGRI has reiterated that there are no impediments to such demarcation.
2. We denounce that the Technical Roundtable has been suspended not because of our will, but because CIMA has not wanted to respect our legitimate request to temporarily stop the entry of their teams to our communities, until concrete advances and good faith are evidenced in the demarcation of territories within the PNCAZ, as provided for by the current regulations. We have reiterated countless times since the first meeting in Chazuta on 03/09/22 that without addressing the demarcation of our collective territories, it is not possible to speak of full and effective participation and benefit sharing, but CIMA intends to kick our territorial agenda down the road and impose its own work schedules. We regret that this is the governance of the PNCAZ awarded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
3. We also regret and denounce the absence of the Ministry of Culture at the meeting, which through its General Directorate of Indigenous Peoples' Rights promised to facilitate the Technical Roundtable, but simply abandoned and failed to fulfil its commitment to the Kichwa people.

THEREFORE, WE DEMAND:

1. That SERNANP and CIMA halt their conservation actions and private agendas behind the back of the Kichwa people. Therefore, we urge that SERNANP hold an emergency meeting together with DIGESPACR and the Indigenous organizations, hoping they have understood our attachment to our ancestral territory, which by right we are entitled to.
2. Full compliance, and without cheating, of our demands raised from the beginning in relation to the PNCAZ: prior consultation, the demarcation of our territories, accountability and transparency, full and effective participation in its management, the distribution of benefits from carbon credits, respect for the structure of the Indigenous movement, our rejection of its award by the IUCN’s Green List, and the struggle for reparations and compensation for 20 years of exclusion.
3. We alert the national and international community that the famous PNCAZ, widely-awarded and with buyers of carbon credits around the world, continues with its colonial practices of imposition even in dialogue tables supposedly created to build bridges. In good faith and as in any process, we have provided them with channels of dialogue since our first meeting in Chazuta, but SERNANP and CIMA have not yielded or heeded our agenda and request for respect for our patrimonial rights to date, which has been postponed since April 2022 with the obstruction of the titling processes of our territory in the PNCAZ, failing to comply with mandatory legal provisions at their whim, or benefits sharing with accountability and transparency. We therefore do not authorise their entry into our communities and we demand that they do not surprise or try to divide them with crumbs and productive projects that do not bear fruit, from all the financing that they achieve at the expense of our forests.

Tarapoto, 18/01/2023.