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Self-determination, conservation and Tarimat Pujut in the Wampís Nation

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BY SHAPIOM NONINGO & FREDERICA BARCLAY FOR DEBATES INDÍGENAS

Despite progress at the international level, the environmentalism movement and the Peruvian state have not yet fully recognized the role played by Indigenous Peoples in the protection of Amazonian biodiversity. For the communities, man and nature form a whole and, as such, they take advantage of the benefits of the forests, while at the same time imposing limits on their extraction. The Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation seeks to implement a comprehensive system of territorial control based on traditional teachings, constant monitoring, Indigenous justice and "sustainable bio-businesses". 

In her report to the United Nations General Assembly in 2016, the then UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, was moderately optimistic about the Durban Programme of Action of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) proposed in 2003. The specialist read a paradigm shift in environmental conservation based on the recognition of acting in accordance with the rights of Indigenous Peoples, migratory peoples and local communities. "There is still a long way to go to achieve these three goals of the Durban Programme of Action," concluded Tauli- Corpuz.

In recent years we have witnessed some positive changes in the international environmental movement in response to the demand of Amazonian Indigenous Peoples for the right to ownership of their territories. The new approach of the environmental institutions themselves has contributed to this: recognizing the Indigenous protection of forests and jungles, which conserve a large part of the Amazon's biodiversity, is one of the keys to the future of humanity. But then, what is missing?

IWGIA DebatesIndigenas Peru Septiembre2023 2The Wampís people, located in the Peruvian Amazon, have existed for more than 7,000 years and have a symbiotic attachment to nature. Photo: Candy Sotomayor

A cultural system that respects the reproduction of life

A key element for environmentalism to assume this new approach of respect for Indigenous rights is the recognition of self-determination. This presupposes that both environmentalism and the environmental institutions of the State recognize, first and foremost, Indigenous ownership of their territories. Another fundamental aspect is the need to understand the distance that exists between the classical landscape conservationist approach and the intervention of nature proposed by landscape conservationism, as opposed to the cultural system of Indigenous Peoples.

Originally, the landscape approach to environmentalism proposed prohibiting the access of local inhabitants to their natural resources to the point of promoting their expulsion in order to promote tourism for enjoyment and amusement. On the other hand, the intervention approach to nature is a more technocratic, economic and even commercial perspective that, based on the objective of conservation, categorizes spaces and assigns them categories of use or non-use.

In contrast, the logic of Indigenous "conservation" is a cultural system that rejects the separation between human society and nature, giving rise to a mutual interdependence. From this cosmovision, it is a mistake for man to perceive himself as something alien to nature and to exploit nature intensively from a vision of superiority. In the Indigenous cultural system, both society and nature are part of an integral whole and act within the framework of rules of relationship and mutual dependence. Hence, the Wampís Nation speaks of "nature's bounties" to refer to what outsiders call "natural resources".

One of the principles of Tarimat Pujut (good living or fulfilled life, in the Wampís language) recognizes the "exhaustibility" of nature's goods over time, which is why their culture prescribes practices that respect and care for nature. Hence, children and young people have grown up learning from their families about the use of these benefits and, at the same time, about the limits that they must impose on their use.

IWGIA DebatesIndigenas Peru Septiembre2023 3The practices of respect and care for nature are passed from generation to generation. Photo: Jacob Balzani

Territorial control of the Wampís Nation

Where the State, missionaries or socioeconomic processes have concentrated Indigenous populations in permanent settlements, there tends to be a rapid deterioration of local resources, especially fauna. The cultural change promoted by schools leads to localized and rapid depletion of certain resources. The range of "development" options does not include the continuity of cultural practices that address needs in a sustainable manner. For this reason, the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW- Gobierno Territorial Autónomo de la Nación Wampís) sees the need to reform the educational curriculum, create opportunities for "sustainable bio-businesses" and devise new instruments for the protection of their territory.

Consumerism and external models exert pressure on the bounties of nature and increasingly threaten the security of territories. Therefore, within the framework of autonomy and the right to self-determination, the GTANW proposes to implement a comprehensive system of territorial control based on traditional teachings, the establishment of covenants for nature in perpetuity as well as the use of modern tools. These tools include constant monitoring of the state of forests, water bodies and wildlife to reinforce agreements and prevent damage as the market valorizes resources that are at risk of being depleted through intensive and irrational exploitation.

The other tool promoted by the GTANW is the cultural and dynamic zoning of the territory, using categories based on local values, perceptions, needs and knowledge. The Wampís zoning recognizes six categories, from the most restricted in their uses and culturally protected to different zones of use. This macro zoning functioning at the level of communal spaces is still pending, always understanding that the territory is a common legacy inherited from the ancestors. Naturally, the internal covenants for the protection of the environment and the application of zoning require the strengthening of the Indigenous justice system.

Based on this territorial control system, GTANW has been promoting the training and coordination of environmental monitors who report to the Wampís and communal authorities, which calls for early prevention. The most recent case is that of gold miners who had been present near the Paish Nain Historic Hill, in the territory of the Boca Ayambis community, in the Kanús river basin. The intervention of the GTANW succeeded in getting the illegal miners to leave the area peacefully. On other occasions, under the protection of the right to territory, zoning and national regulations, coordination happened with national authorities to intervene and develop joint operations, either against subsurface mining or illegal logging.

IWGIA DebatesIndigenas Peru Septiembre2023 4GTANW authorities talk with the population about the eviction of illegal miners in Boca Ayambis. Photo: Wampís Nation

Misunderstandings with Environmentalism in the Wampís Territory

Thanks to this cultural system, the Wampís Nation has for centuries cared for the Kampankias mountain range, a critical area for their ancestral territory as well as the source of many of the tributaries that feed the Kanús (Santiago) and Kankaim (Morona) river basins. Indeed, the mountain range connects in many ways these two basins that make up the Wampís territory. Thus, in addition to being a vital area for animal reproduction, for the Wampís it is a place of spiritual strengthening with high cultural value.

In January 1999, Peruvian environmental authorities unilaterally established the Santiago Comainas Reserved Zone in response to the complex nature of the Kampankias geological formation and the importance of its conservation. Officials did not care that this arbitrary decision divided the Wampís territory in two. It is not surprising that, since then, the Wampís have considered this protected area and the supposed creation of a communal reserve as an attempt to expropriate their territory.

The original decree that established the reserved zone covered an area substantially larger than the current one and even overlapped the titles of dozens of communities of the Wampís and Awajún peoples. Following protests that caused upheavals and put at risk social order (these protests were finally ended with the 2009 Baguazo), the National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP - Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas) resized the reserved zone but moved ahead with their intention to expropriate Kampankias. Since then, there have been several crisis situations each time SERNANP attempted to move forward with studies for the categorization of the territory.

The conflict reflects the approach of the Peruvian environmental institutions, which, like an absolute sovereign, points out on a map and decides where protected areas should be created. But it turns out that the area it intends to categorize has been Wampís territory for more than 7,000 years. Thus, while the "new environmental paradigm" of Durban indicated that conservation areas should take into account Indigenous Peoples, the Peruvian State ignored both Indigenous rights and the commitments acquired through Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

To date, the Peruvian State continues to maintain that it does not matter to them how much the Indigenous Peoples demand as subjects with rights. For the State, the only communities that exist are those the State has granted property titles, ignoring the reality of the Indigenous Peoples and their territories.

IWGIA DebatesIndigenas Peru Septiembre2023 5The Peruvian State is unaware of Indigenous rights and the commitments assumed through international instruments. Photo: Pablo Lasansky / IWGIA

Conclusions

In Peru, the closest that environmentalism comes to the new Durban paradigm, which calls for the participation of the original inhabitants in the management of protected areas, is the establishment of communal reserves. Their administration is under a special regime that consists of the signing of contracts with the State in which the surrounding communities participate. The establishment of communal reserves means that part of the ancestral territory is registered as a protected area of the Peruvian State. In exchange for state control over this portion of Indigenous lands, the communities obtain the "right of participation", which constitutes a whitewashing of a territorial expropriation.

Currently, there are a dozen communal reserves in Indigenous territories in the Amazon. Initially, these contracts were signed to preserve areas that the State refused to title as Indigenous communities. However, in 1997, the Natural Protected Areas Law No. 26834 integrated the communal reserves into the National System of Natural Areas Protected by the State (SINANPE) and in 2001 granted them a special regime. Later, even though communal reserves do not exclude overlapping with oil fields, the organizations and communities accepted the new regime because it was the only alternative to extractive projects.

In the case of the Santiago Comainas Reserved Zone, the environmental institution plans to establish a communal reserve on the Kampankias Mountain Range. Although during the brief transitional government of Francisco Sagasti (2020-2021), the GTANW managed to get the then Minister of Environment Gabriel Quijandría to commit to a moratorium on actions aimed at categorization of the territory, as of August 2021 everything returned to its normal course. Thus, the State ignored the arguments and rights of the Wampís Nation and showed no interest in the actions carried out by the GTANW to protect their territory.

There is always the expectation that the Peruvian State will end up recognizing, sooner rather than later, the Indigenous peoples and their territories, at the same time that the environmental authorities understand that it is possible to conserve critical areas based on other agreements and collaboration covenants. For its part, in the Protocol of Relationship, Agreement and Dialogue of Mutual Respect between the Wampís Nation and the Peruvian State, the GTANW has offered channels for dialogue for the drafting of agreed-upon proposals.

Shapiom Noningo is the Technical Secretary of GTANW.

Frederica Barclay is an anthropologist, historian and member of the Center for Public Policy and Human Rights - Peru Equidad.

 

Tags: Indigenous Debates

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