Puerto Franco case: Kichwa community fighting for its territorial rights to be heard by Peru’s Constitutional Court

Peru’s Constitutional Court could set a historic precedent for Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon who are defending their territory against conservation models that infringe upon their rights. 

This Friday, 17 July 2026, the Peruvian Constitutional Court will hold a hearing to review the case of the Puerto Franco Indigenous community, which in 2020 launched a legal battle to defend its territorial rights against the Peruvian State through an application for constitutional protection. The hearing will take place at the headquarters of the Superior Court of Justice of Loreto, located in Iquitos. 

Puerto Franco, a community of the Kichwa Indigenous People in the San Martín region, is seeking justice before the high court because they were dispossessed of their ancestral territory  by the imposition of the Cordillera Azul National Park and forestry concessions. 

Previously, the community’s claim had been upheld in a landmark ruling by the Bellavista Mixed Court, a decision that was later overturned by the Juanjuí Mixed Chamber. Now, the outcome of the case will be in the hands of the Constitutional Court. 

For this reason, representatives of the community and its representative organisation, the Ethnic Council of the Kichwa Peoples of the Amazon (Consejo Étnico de los Pueblos Kichwas de la Amazonía – CEPKA), will be present at the court to make their voices heard before the judges.

“We are now before the Constitutional Court. We want an order to be issued for the titling of our entire territory, because that is our aim; we are the owners of that territory, we are the ancestral holders of the land and we live here,” says Pedro Fasabi, head of the Puerto Franco Indigenous community, hours before the hearing. 

Fasabi and a delegation will travel to Iquitos seeking a ruling that upholds their territorial rights, having come a long way. “We won at first instance – all was well. At the second instance, we lost. Why? Perhaps because the judges did not do their job properly. I think it is very important to make it known that we will always demand what is rightfully ours,” he adds. 

For its part, the Constitutional Court’s Plenary Session announced that it plans to hear 12 constitutional cases during Friday’s hearing, including the landmark Puerto Franco case. It was also announced that this new decentralised public hearing will begin at 9.15am. It is expected that, in the coming weeks, the court will issue a ruling which, in the case of the Kichwa community, could be historic. 

“We, as an organised community, hope that the green light will be given to the people of Puerto Franco, a community full of hope. May it be for their children, for their grandchildren, that this problem may come to an end. This is not a problem that has arisen overnight; it is a long-standing issue, fought for wholeheartedly by men and women in defence of their collective rights. That is why we want the courts to deliver a final verdict in favour of the communities in the San Martín region,” said Inocente Sangama, president of CEPKA. 

In 2020, the community and CEPKA brought a legal action before the courts against the Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI), the Regional Agrarian Directorate of the San Martín Regional Government (GORESAM), two forestry concessions (Agrupación Maderera Alto Biavo S.A.C. and that held by Eisen Paredes), the National Forestry and Wildlife Service (SERFOR) and the National Service for State-Protected Natural Areas (SERNANP), and the Cordillera Azul National Park (PNCAZ) Authority over a series of violations of their territorial rights. 

“The Constitutional Court has the opportunity to overturn the ruling of the Juanjuí Mixed Chamber, which disregarded the pre-existing status and territorial rights of the Puerto Franco Indigenous community, and validated actions carried out without prior consultation, such as the creation of the PNCAZ and forestry concessions on communal land, favouring a restrictive interpretation that undermines the constitutional and international protection of Indigenous Peoples’ territory,” says Cristina Gavancho, a lawyer at the Institute for Legal Defence (IDL). 

Puerto Franco’s main demand has been for full title to its territory, in opposition to a conservation model – in this case implemented by the PNCAZ – which was developed without the involvement of the Kichwa Indigenous People in the Amazon region of San Martín, lacking transparency and in breach of rights protection procedures such as prior consultation. 

In December 2024, the Bellavista Mixed Court had ordered the granting of title to the Puerto Franco community’s territory, the annulment of forestry concessions, the conduct of prior consultation on the creation of the PNCAZ, and a guarantee of the community’s access to natural resources and its participation in the management of the park, which included the sharing of benefits from the sale of carbon credits. 

In this regard, in April 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) sent a formal communication to the Peruvian State regarding the impact on the human rights and territories of the Kichwa people and other Indigenous Peoples caused by the Cordillera Azul National Park (PNCAZ) and its REDD+ project—which is internationally known for selling tens of millions of carbon credits to large companies without consulting the Kichwa communities. 

“This case calls upon the Constitutional Court to determine whether a judicial decision may disregard the pre-existence of an Indigenous People on the grounds of the date of their administrative recognition, restrict communal ownership of ancestral territories under the category of forest lands or protected natural areas, and validate state acts adopted without prior consultation despite ILO Convention No.169 being in force. 

“What is at issue is the scope of indigenous property rights, the state’s obligation to provide comprehensive land titling, the review of compliance with international standards in the face of restrictive domestic regulations, and the nullity of administrative measures that directly affected the community without guaranteeing participation, consent or the fair distribution of benefits, given that the PNCAZ is also currently implementing a REDD+ project on these territories, administered by CIMA,” adds lawyer Cristina Gavancho. 

All in all, the Puerto Franco Indigenous community hopes that the Constitutional Court will rule in their favour and issue a judgement that serves as a starting point for challenging a form of conservation that excludes Indigenous Peoples. 

The decision could be historic, given that there are other communities in Peru affected by imposed or exclusionary conservation models. 

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