Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal admits unconstitutionality lawsuit against amendments to forestry law, which promotes deforestation and impunity for illegal economies in the Amazon
This Tuesday, 2 July 2024, it was announced that Peru’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal (TC), admitted an unconstitutionality lawsuit filed by the Association of Sociologists of Lima and Callao against Law 31973, known as the 'Anti-Forest Law', widely criticised for promoting deforestation, forest degradation and impunity for forestry crimes in the Peruvian Amazon. The law also violates the governance and rights of Indigenous peoples.
The admission of this lawsuit is the result of an effort by civil society, strategic allies and specialists in the field, who, with their contributions, facilitated its drafting. Organised civil society and Indigenous peoples' organisations have already made efforts to explain why the 'Anti-Forest Law' would have serious effects on the environment of our Amazon.
These concerns have also been taken up by international bodies, such as the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, who warned Peru that the law encourages dispossession and logging on Indigenous lands, as well as fostering impunity for illegal activities in forests and increasing violence against Indigenous rights defenders. The European Union has also denied the alleged justification for the modification of the forestry law.
Law 31973 promotes deforestation and ignores the existence of Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact
Jorge Pérez Rubio, president of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), said that the 'Anti-Forest Law' seeks to ignore the existence of Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact (referred to in Spanish by the acronym “PIACI”).
"Both the Anti-Forest Law and the anti-PIACI law have the same purpose, which is to throw open the doors of the Amazon to activities such as logging and oil extraction, among others, which could also lead to an increase in illegal mining, which has been increasing sharply in the Amazon," he said.
For his part, Juan Carlos Ruiz, lawyer and coordinator of IDL’s Constitutional Litigation and Indigenous Peoples programme, stressed that this is a law that puts the regulation of extractive activities in the Amazon at risk.
"What this law does is deregulate the environmental sector, the forestry sector, and that space is occupied by illegal mining, loggers, land traffickers, coca growers, drug traffickers, oil palm companies, and these groups are deploying illegal economies that are destroying the social fabric. What this law does is deregulate, it feeds this withdrawal [of the state], it ties the hands of the Ministry of the Environment", he maintains.
According to Majed Velásquez Véliz, the dean of the Lima College of Sociologists, the main problem with this law is that it could cause conflicts between Amazonian and peasant communities.
"The lack of a process of prior consultation and consent is a critical problem, as this process is essential to ensure that the voices of Indigenous peoples are heard and their opinions are taken into account before the approval of any project or legislation that directly impacts them," he remarked.
Overview
- Resource Type:
- News
- Publication date:
- 3 July 2024
- Region:
- Peru
- Programmes:
- Conservation and human rights Territorial Governance Culture and Knowledge Legal Empowerment Access to Justice Law and Policy Reform
- Partners:
- Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP) Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL)
- Translations:
- Spanish: TC admite demanda de inconstitucionalidad contra modificación a ley forestal, que promueve la deforestación y deja impune a economías ilegales en la Amazonía