NCI-Peru Press Release: Celebrating the Declaration of the Maijuna-Kichwa Reserve in Peru’s Amazon
06/17/2015
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Minister of Environment of Peru, showing the national decree for the reserve. Photo Credit: SERNANP
NCI-PERU: We salute the declaration of the supreme decree that creates the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area (RCA).
>> Nature and Culture International congratulates the indigenous Maijuna and Kichwa people on the creation of the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area on June 17, 2015 through DS 008-2015-MINAM.
>> Furthermore, we salute the decision of the National Government of Peru and in particular the Ministry of Environment for the completion of this important process.
>> The new RCA is the result of a long and challenging process led by the indigenous Maijuna and Kichwa people in order to ensure their rights to preserve and manage the natural resources in their forests, their ancestral territories and their culture.
On Wednesday June 17, 2015, the Supreme Decree 008-2015-MINAM was published under the headline “Establishment of the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area, located in the Department of Loreto”.
The protected area encompasses 391,039.82 hectares (nearly 977,600 acres) of tropical rainforest in the districts of Putumayo, Napo, Mazán and Las Amazonas (province of Maynas) and Pebas (Mariscal Ramón Castilla), in the department of Loreto, on the border with Colombia.
With the creation of the Maijuna-Kichwa RCA, a long process that was initiated almost ten years ago in 2006 is reaching its end. This process began when representatives of the Maijuna people sent a petition to the former Regional President of Loreto requesting management authority to oversee their ancestral territories, located between the Napo and Putumayo river basins.
As part of the process, in June of 2013 the first Prior Consultation Law, which seeks to secure indigenous rights on all public processes, was successfully developed in the country, marking a milestone in the history of Peru. The same year, the Kichwa people from the Napo River joined the petition for the creation of the RCA, and the name of the proposed reserve changed to become the “Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area”.
The conservation initiative was led by the Federation of Natives Communities Maijuna (FECONAMAI), the Federation of Native Communities from the Mid-Napo, Curaray and Arabela (FECONAMNCUA) and the Regional Government of Loreto through their Program for the Conservation, Management and Use of the Biodidiversity of Loreto (PROCREL).
Since the beginning of this process, Nature and Culture International acknowledged first-hand the efforts of the indigenous Maijuna and Kichwa to conserve their forest and culture and provided most of the technical support required by the communities, the regional and the national authorities.
We would like to thank the valuable support of the following allied institutions: Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP), Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Blue Moon Fund, The Field Museum of Chicago, George Mason University, particularly Dr. Michael Gilmore, Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP), Organización Regional de Pueblos Indígenas del Oriente (ORPIO), Instituto del Bien Común (IBC), Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA), Vicariato San José del Amazonas, Municipalidad Distrital de Mazan, Municipalidad Distrital del Napo and the Municipalidad Provincial del Putumayo.
Furthermore, we would like to salute the important support of the Defensoría del Pueblo, congressman Víctor Isla, Loreto Regional Governor Lic. Fernando Melendez, Natural Protected Areas National Service of Peru (SERNANP), Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education.
>>> Nature and Culture International is a non-profit organization with a presence in eight regions in Peru that seeks to harmonize the development of local people with the conservation of nature.
Lima, Peru, June 17th, 2015
NATURALEZA Y CULTURA INTERNACIONAL
Translated from Spanish.
