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THE RIGHT TO LAND

Protecting indigenous peoples’ access to ancestral territories helps everyone breathe easier

April 16^th, 2018

The notion of distance takes on a whole new dimension when the surrounding territory is impenetrable. A good example of this is Nueva Luz de Arara, a native community situated within the Yurua river basin, in the Ucayali region of Peru.

Only a 50 minutes flight away from Pucallpa, the capital of Ucayali, the members of the Ashaninka indigenous community have to travel along the river for two or three days to reach Breu, their nearest town for trade and services within this part of Peru. If the river drops to its lowest levels, the trip can take up to six days.

© Renato Pajuelo/Diario de La República for UNDP

Beyond Breu, the Yurua River crosses the border into Brazil, and that’s where it ends. There are no physical links to connect the communities settled along the river basin with the rest of Peru, unless they journey by foot for hundreds of kilometres, through a dense and hostile jungle.

The Peruvian Amazon is populated by hundreds of native communities like Nueva Luz de Arara. Not all of them are so isolated, but a good number are not within easy reach of government services. And unfortunately, being isolated does not make them safe.

Many of these populations face constant threats, including drug trafficking, land trafficking and illegal logging and mining. These put pressure on the land, endangering the native communities’ physical and cultural survival and placing them in a position of extreme vulnerability.

Faced with such threats, one of the fundamental instruments to help the communities defend their territories is the recognition of their rights to the land.

To this end, a legal framework delineating indigenous populations’ land rights was drafted in the 1970s. Yet economic, logistical and human resources obstacles mean that the debt regarding land rights continues to be unresolved.

UNDP is working in Ucayali, San Martin, Loreto and other Amazonian regions within the country to overcome these barriers and ensure that indigenous communities have the necessary legal instruments to defend and preserve their ancestral territory.

The Shawi, Awajun, Kechwa, Ashaninka and Shipipo are some of the indigenous people we work with, together with the Ministry of the Environment. We work within the Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) framework, an agreement for cooperation between Peru, Germany and Norway. These communities have taught us to understand land as a unique treasure, essential for the continuity of future generations.

In Peru and around the world, indigenous people are leading the fight to protect our forests. Their dependence on the forests makes them the ideal stewards of this precious resource.

In the three Peruvian regions, 69 native communities have joined the initiative, working together with the Ministry of Agriculture and regional governments. Together they protect more than 300,000 hectares of forest.

Through this work, Peru is contributing to the world’s fight against climate change by helping to prevent deforestation, whilst at the same time fulfilling its commitments to promoting and protecting the collective rights of indigenous populations.

It is not a simple task, but it is exciting. It involves working across different spaces, with different actors. It involves understanding and sitting at the same table with parties that do not always share the same vision of things.

It implies assuming responsibilities and reaching places as far afield as Nueva Luz de Arara, mobilizing people and resources by land, air and water to carry out the necessary work so that communities are ensured ownership of the territories that they have inhabited since ancestral times.

The ends justify the effort. As Raul Casanto, an elderly resident of Yurua says:

"By protecting these forests, we indigenous people are contributing to the world’s health. That is why it is important to have this territory."

As he speaks, a group of boys and girls plays around him, as so many millions of children play around the planet. The difference is that they don’t all play in the middle of the world’s lungs, the vast forests that ensure the health of the air we all breathe.

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is taking place from 16 to 27 April at UN Headquarters in New York. The 2018 session has a special focus on "indigenous peoples’ collective rights to lands, territories and resources".