Indigenous federations in Peru urge UK to act over threats to “isolated brothers” in remote Amazon
Appeal made in context of high-profile tropical forest conservation initiative and dangers posed by industrial-scale logging
How often do functionaries from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) receive urgent letters from indigenous federations representing literally dozens of indigenous peoples and hundreds of indigenous communities in the Amazon? Not often, I imagine, but that is what has just happened. The reason: serious concern about the lands, lives and futures of the indigenous peoples living in “isolation” in two of the Peruvian Amazon’s most remote, most inaccessible regions.
This approach by five federations to the FCDO derives from the UK government’s decision to join, last May, a high-profile, multi-million pound and somewhat polemical tropical forest conservation initiative involving Peru, Norway and Germany. Dating from 2014 and titled “Cooperation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) and promoting sustainable development in Peru”, the basic premise is that Norway - possibly with Germany too - channels huge sums of money to Peru so that the latter can significantly decrease deforestation and forest degradation, and thereby contribute to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.
Peru was an obvious partner for such an initiative because it has more tropical forest than any other country in the world except Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Initially, 300 million Norwegian kroner was promised over several years, on the condition that targets were met, but now it is scheduled to be up to six times that - more than US$200 million - by 2025, again on the condition that targets are met. According to Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), roughly US$13 million at today’s exchange rates have been disbursed so far.
At the time of the UK’s joining, the FCDO issued a statement describing the initiative as a “new international alliance to preserve [the] Peruvian Amazon rainforest” - arguably slightly misleading or something of an overstatement, especially given the fact that the UK itself didn’t commit any funds of its own. Lord Zac Goldsmith, the FCDO’s Minister for Pacific and the Environment who signed the agreement on the UK’s behalf, was quoted as saying he was “delighted the UK is taking steps to strengthen our partnership with Peru to work together on halting deforestation and protecting biodiversity.”
No doubt the FCDO wasn’t expecting it, but it’s because the UK has joined that initiative that the indigenous federations have now reached out to them, along with its European partners and the US. As they explain in their letter, one of the potential recipients of the next tranche of Norway’s funds, the Loreto region’s government (GOREL), has established almost 50 obviously illegal logging concessions which violate the rights and endanger the lives of indigenous peoples in “isolation” in two areas in the north-eastern Peruvian Amazon, while another potential recipient, SERFOR, the national forests authority, has been ignoring requests to annul those concessions. As a result, the federations are urging Norway, Germany and the UK to ensure no money is disbursed to either institution until the concessions have been abolished.
The timing of the federations’ approach is particularly critical because the Norwegians recently announced, at the United Nations climate change conference held in November last year in Scotland, that they would pay US$10 million to Peru for “achieved policy milestones in the period 2018-2020.” However, that money has not been transferred yet because it was promised on the condition that the initiative’s partners agree on a “financial mechanism” and an “updated implementation plan” - neither of which has happened.
Four of the logging concessions that the federations are so concerned about overlap the new, supposedly off-limits Yavari Tapiche Reserve for indigenous peoples in “isolation”, as I’ve reported on previously, and a further 43 concessions overlap the proposed Yavari Mirim Reserve for other indigenous peoples in “isolation.” The total area of the existing reserve and proposed reserve covered by the concessions amounts to almost 300,000 hectares, or almost three quarters of a million acres. As the federations explain, the concessions violate not only a 2006 Peruvian human rights law on indigenous peoples in “isolation”, but 2015 forestry laws too.
That the federations should appeal to the UK and its partners, in the context of this initiative, about the dangers to the Yavari Tapiche Reserve in particular is deeply ironic given that the Norwegians cite the reserve as an example of the initiative’s success. The very first “important result” listed by NICFI in its statement from last November about the next US$10 million is the establishment of this reserve, which is described as “equivalent to the size of Jamaica” and inhabited by “uncontacted and vulnerable indigenous groups deep in the Amazon rainforest.”
“[These logging concessions] don’t just constitute a set of legal transgressions, but they have created a grave and imminent risk to the lives, health and integrity of the indigenous peoples in isolation, who are extremely vulnerable socially, culturally and immunologically - even more so during a healthcare emergency like the Covid-19 pandemic,” wrote the presidents of the five federations, AIDESEP, ORPIO, ORAU, FENAMAD and CORPIAA, to FCDO functionaries in Peru, as well as Norwegian, German, US and Peruvian functionaries too.
According to the federations, they have raised this issue of the overlapping concessions repeatedly with GOREL and SERFOR, but have never received any reply. This apparent lack of indifference from both state institutions is made even more frustrating and concerning by the fact that before the Yavari Tapiche Reserve was established it had been agreed that the concessions would be relocated or annulled, and that the huge area out of which GOREL can create concessions, known as a Bosque de Producción Permanente (BPP), would be redrawn so no new concessions could overlap it in the future.
In addition, the federations note in their letter “with deep surprise and concern” that some of the Norwegian funds are scheduled to be spent on promoting Loreto’s logging industry, and that therefore if funds are disbursed they are requesting that no new concessions include reserves or proposed reserves for indigenous peoples in “isolation”, and that human rights laws and forestry laws are respected.
“Before financing any activity by GOREL or SERFOR as part of the second phase of the Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) [as the initiative is formally known] or the Program for the Promotion and Sustainable Management of Forest Production in Peru [another initiative to be funded partially by Germany’s development bank], we respectfully request that the JDI member countries and the German development bank, as part of their commitments to protecting the fundamental rights to life and health of the indigenous peoples in isolation in the Peruvian Amazon, follow up with SERFOR and GOREL to ensure that these 47 illegal logging concessions are annulled once and for all,” the five federations write. “At the same time, we respectfully request that you take the necessary actions to follow up with GOREL and SERFOR to ensure they comply with Law 28736 [from 2006] and its Regulations, as well as the agreements of the 27th session of the Multi-Sector Commission regarding redrawing the Permanent Production Forests and relocating and annulling the concessions overlapping the Yavarí Tapiche Reserve.”
Will the UK heed such urgent calls and take action? Neither the FCDO functionaries in Peru who reportedly received the letter, nor Goldsmith, nor the UK Embassy in Lima have responded to my questions, but the Norwegians, at least, tell me they “have read the [federations’] letter with great concern.”
“We continue working closely with JDI partners and local partners, to support efforts in Peru to tackle deforestation,” says a NICFI spokesperson. “This includes engaging with the indigenous peoples and local communities, and civil society representatives, who are a critical part of the solution to protecting the forests. Promoting the establishment of indigenous reserves and their protection is an important part of our partnership with Peru, and we will follow up the issues raised in the letter with the indigenous federations and Peruvian authorities.”