State of the Rainforest 2014

Dulce Gloria community member and Ashéninka woman Rosa Pacaya Ruiz

ACONADYSH president Arlindo Ruiz Santos doing the cooking

An Ashéninka woman in Nuevo Eden preparing masato

has been collected over many years – but pressure from loggers and the oil and gas industry, combined with little or no political will, has made protecting the aislados’ a tremendous challenge. Funding for the Dulce Gloria post comes from the regional indigenous organization ORAU, supported by the Rainforest Foundation Norway. The Peruvian state has not spent a single sol on it. The ORAU president, Josué Faquín Fernández, a Shipibo man, says that serious challenges remain when it comes to protecting the Muruanahua Reserve. There are posts on other rivers, but one, the Inuya post, is ‘full’ of loggers and narco-traffickers. ‘It was very tough at first,’ he explains when we meet in Pucallpa. ‘The loggers and narco-traffickers threatened to kill us and burn down the post. But wewere smart.Wemade sure the local populationparticipated. Now the local population is committed to help protect the reserve.’ Recently a new, major threat has arisen. The government wants to create an oil and gas concession which would include areas bordering the reserve used by the aislados. ‘We respect their habitat and their culture, and we have the responsibility and obligation to protect them,’ Josué explains. ‘They live in the forest, and the forest is their market. That’s how they live.’

But what he had to say about the aislados wasn’t a laughing matter. He had been living in the settlement three years and seen them every summer.

‘They’ve turned up every year. They come to take stuff. Machetes, axes, pots, whatever they find lying about.’

Hector said he had had three distinct encounters: ‘Chitonahuas’ stealing some of his possessions; another group, ‘Mashco-Piro’, cutting tobacco plants; and then, last year, both groups turning up within 24 hours of each other – with a ‘Chitonahua’ woman heavily pregnant. The latter spent eight days in the vicinity, and on the third day the pregnant woman gave birth.

‘They were walking around right here. One of them left a machete behind.’

How many were there? What did they look like?

‘Men, women and children. They’re tall, painted yellow …’

The Murunahua Reserve is one of just five reserves established for aislados in Peru, and would be one of 10 if the government excepted proposals for another five. Evidence for establishing reserves for aislados

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014