Peru recognizes existence of five isolated indigenous peoples

On Friday, September 2, Peru recognized the existence of five indigenous peoples living in isolation in a remote Amazon forest area larger than Puerto Rico and bordering Ecuador.

The recognition comes nearly two decades after indigenous organizations from the Amazon called Peru in 2003 to protect these isolated peoples: the Aewa, Zaparo, Taushiro, Tagaeri, and Taromenane.

The Tagaeri and Taromenane are transboundary because they also live in Ecuador, where they have had a territory recognized by Ecuador since 2007.

The Ministry of Culture announced in a communiqué that the State had recognized the rights of Peruvians living in these five villages in the Loreto region through a supreme decree.

Deputy Minister Rocilda Nunta stressed that the recognition is an essential step for the creation of the Reserve Indigenous Napo, Tigre, and affluents, which they manage to ensure the protection of rights, habitat, and conditions for the existence of indigenous peoples in isolation.

The future reserve where the five recognized peoples live overlaps with two oil blocks, 67 and 39, operated by the Anglo-French company Perenco. In the middle of the year, the company filed a lawsuit to reverse the positive opinion of the Ministry of Culture, which had set the entire recognition process in motion.

The judge has not yet issued his ruling. Cuencas Sagradas Amazónicas, a coalition of indigenous organizations from the Amazon in Ecuador and Peru, told The Associated Press that the Peruvian state “has a historical debt to recognize the existence of these peoples.”

Peruvian law prohibits physical contact with fifteen other isolated peoples in other parts of the Amazon, including areas bordering Brazil. The main reason is the safety of the indigenous population: their immune system is very vulnerable to germs transmitted by other people.

With information from Latina Press

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