State of the Rainforest 2014

Peru: Watching the gates to isolated Amazon tribes

By David Hill

Five minutes’ walk away is the community ‘control post’. Built in 2008, it helps to stop outsiders entering their territory – called Dulce Gloria – but the main intention is actually to prevent loggers, narco- traffickers and others from entering the Murunahua Reserve further upriver. The reserve was established in 1997 with the stated intention of protecting almost half a million hectares in one of the remotest parts of Peru’s southeast Amazon, home to indigenous peoples living in ‘voluntary isolation’ – although no concrete means of doing that had been implemented at the time. The post offers a commanding view of the river Yurúa. It has its own boat, radio and office – although neither the satellite phone nor internet is working yet. Arlindo believes the post is still doing its job. The only people who go upriver are Ashéninka from two settlements between here and the reserve – but he thinks loggers will try to enter in the future. Currently the post employs two people. One is the coordinator, a Shipibo man called Pedro Monteluisa Romaina, who moves between Dulce Gloria, Breu and Pucallpa – the latter is a 50-minute plane flight from Peru has established five Territorial Reserves for indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. In addition five reserves have been proposed by the indigenous peoples’ movement and are currently awaiting the government’s decision. In the absence of protection efforts from the Peruvian authorities, the indigenous peoples’ movement has established a system of vigilance and control surrounding the Territorial Reserves, with financial support from Rainforest Foundation Norway. The system currently consists of ten watch-posts, some of them still under construction. The post personnel watch over the rivers leading into the reserves, prevent people from entering, and collect evidence of indigenous peoples living in isolation within and around the reserve borders. All these posts are located in the villages of indigenous peoples, and are managed by the indigenous peoples themselves through their representative organizations (see Huertas Castillo, 2014). As Arlindo explains, ‘this post is located at a strategic point for protecting the reserve, as well as our own territory.’

It was after dark and we were at Arlindo’s. A wood fire was burning, with three saucepans on the boil. Some people were standing, others sitting on the edge of or leaning against the house’s raised floor – about a metre off the ground and made of caipirona wood from the forest. There were just two things on the floor: a candle and a baby. Beyond, hanging from the ceiling, it was a mosquito net where Oliver, as the baby was called in Spanish, would soon sleep with his parents. Talk was lively. Arlindo waggled Oliver’s arms – ‘the future mayor!’ – And the community headman spoke of the sugarcane juice they had started producing. ‘Very smooth, not strong, not like how they make it in the factory.’ There were discussions about the weather and plans for the morning, and jokes at the expense of Portuguese- speakers and the missionaries who had once played such a key role in the community but were no longer around. ‘We’re all sinners here’, Arlindo said, laughing. Dinner was served by his wife: plantains, rice, manioc and fish. The men ate first, and then Arlindo’s wife and her companion, in their long, flowing cushma gowns. Music started up from another house – a Brazilian band, ironically – and then Arlindo’s wife began to dish out sweetened hot milk mixed with oats brought upriver from the only town in the region, Breu. The Territorial Corridor of the Pano, Arawak and Other Unidentified Indigenous Peoples Living in Isolation and Initial Contact consists of more than 80 000 square kilometres of tropical rainforest in southeastern Peru and Brazil, covering several nature protection areas and indigenous lands in both countries. The Territorial Corridor is home to six known indigenous groups or sub-groups of peoples living in isolation, and six that have recently been contacted, in addition to an unknown number of unidentified peoples. The area is of high ecological value, and comprising Manu National Park, Upper Purus National Park and the headwaters of several important rivers, including tributaries of the Amazon. Threats to the Territorial Corridor and the people living here include oil and gas extraction, logging, infrastructure development, gold mining, drug trafficking and evangelism.

Protecting the lands of indigenous peoples living in isolation Indigenous-led control and vigilance in Peru

The indigenous people’s movement in Peru and its allies in Brazil work to promote integral rights-based management of the entire area.

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014