STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
47
Peru: Watching the gates to isolated Amazon tribes
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.
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.
As Arlindo explains, ‘this post is located at a strategic point for
protecting the reserve, as well as our own territory.’
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
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.
The indigenous people’s movement in Peru and its allies in Brazil
work to promote integral rights-based management of the entire area.
Protecting the lands of indigenous peoples living in isolation
Indigenous-led control and vigilance in Peru
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).
By
David Hill
