Deforestation is haunting the main Peruvian reserve and its indigenous communities

A recent report has revealed a spike in deforestation in the buffer zone of one of the most protected areas in the world, Peru’s Amarakaeri Communal Reserve.

Between 2001 and 2023, 19,978 hectares (49,367 acres) of forest were lost in the reserve’s buffer zone, which is home to the ancestral lands of the Harakbut, Yine and Matsiguenka indigenous peoples. According to the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) report, there are several factors explaining this trend, including illegal mining, coca cultivation and airstrip construction, and new road developments.

Amarakaeri is co-managed by ECA Amarakaeri, an indigenous organization representing communities in the buffer zone, and SERNANP, the Peruvian Protected Areas Agency. It is home to many endangered and endemic species, such as harpy eagles (Harpia harpyja) and spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus), and in 2018 was named to the Green List of the IUCN, the global conservation authority, for areas that are “effectively managed and governed fairly, with long-term positive impacts for people and nature.”

“About five years ago, probably the most threatened protected area was the Tambopata National Reserve,” said Sidney Novoa, co-author of the MAAP report and director of conservation technology at Peruvian NGO Conservación Amazónica-ACCA. “But in recent years, Amarakaeri has risen on this list of most endangered protected areas in southern Peru. If the pressure increases, they will eventually lose this category (IUCN Green List).”

In Sabaluyoc and Itahuanía, south and southwest of the reserve, the illegal cultivation of coca for the production of cocaine is the main cause of deforestation. Between 2017 and 2022, the amount of land around Amarakaeri covered in illegal coca cultivation increased by almost 160%, according to data from DEVIDA, the Peruvian anti-drug commission.

“The issue of illegal crops in the Southwest concerns us,” Novoa said. “For now, the people involved in this activity have enough land outside the protected area to produce coca. If the threat continues over time, they will likely move within the (protected) area.”

Walter Quertehuari Dariquebe, president of the ECA Amarakaeri, told Mongabay that “colliding with the issue of drug trafficking means seeking your death.” He added: “What should we do?”

It is not just illegal activities that are driving deforestation in Amarakaeri: according to the MAAP report, the construction of the Nuevo Edén-Boca Manú highway in the northwestern sector of the reserve has led to the loss of 407 hectares of primary forest since the 19th century. project started in 2015.

More recently, the government has proposed a new 96-kilometer (59-mile) extension of the highway, from Boca Manú to Boca Colorado. The MAAP report warns that this could impact Amarakaeri and other protected areas, such as the Manú National Park and the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve, as it would allow organized crime groups easier access to those areas, jeopardizing the lives of indigenous peoples who living in voluntary isolation would be at risk. pass through this sector. If the project is approved, MAAP estimates it could lead to more than 11,350 hectares of deforestation over the next decade.

In 2023, indigenous leaders of Madre de Dios released a public statement urging the Peruvian Congress to reject a bill that would declare the proposed Boca Manú-Boca Colorado expansion, as well as other road projects in the country, as of national importance . They said this would violate “our collective rights to the territory, to prior consultation, to the lives of our brothers in isolation and first contact, and ignores our views as indigenous organizations representative of Madre de Dios.”

They also wrote in their statement that they are not “against development projects for our region. However, we believe it is important that the development includes our vision and protection of the area.”

In addition to the expansion of illegal coca production and new road projects, the MAAP report also identified illegal mining in the buffer zone east of Amarakaeri. Quertehuari Dariquebe blamed the mining activity for contaminating nearby water sources, poisoning fish and local communities. Because of this, he said, community members suffer from health problems and babies are born with serious health problems.

Quertehuari Dariquebe said the state is doing “virtually nothing” to address problems in the reserve’s buffer zone, where indigenous communities live and are most affected. The effects could easily spread within the reserve if problems there continue unabated, he added.

“There is still a big gap for surveillance and control actions in protected natural areas and their buffer zones to be more effective,” Fredy Mamani, head of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, told Mongabay. “SERNANP, together with the ECA Amarakaeri, has already made efforts to reduce these gaps in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, but our institution does not exercise control in the buffer zone and has no influence where these threats occur.”

Banner image: The Amarakaeri Municipal Reserve is home to many endangered and endemic species, such as harpy eagles. Image by Nathan Rupert via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

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