Panel 8.1. Defending the commons in the Peruvian Amazon
Chairs: Christine Hunefeldt
For centuries, indigenous communities have successfully thrived in the Amazon regions, and with respectful collaboration using the forests and river resources. In the last decade, however, threats against these communities have increased throughout the Amazon basin. Illegal logging, illegal mining, and drug trafficking have led to the murder of 33 indigenous people defending their territories and common resources. Because of ineffective governmental support, these defenders, their organizations and communities have proposed communitarian and traditional strategies as well as innovative measures to protect the Amazonian “commons”. In this session we will share the experiences of these indigenous defenders as they try to protect their common territories, and will present feasible and realistic options for their survival.
Monday, June 16, 2025 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM Hasbrouck Hall HASA0124
From Community Early Warning Systems to Indigenous Territories: Formulas to Protect the Amazon Commons
online
Cesar Gamboa
Law Environment and Natural Resources DAR, Peru and Universidad de Salamanca, Spain
The threats to the communities that inhabit the Amazon forests are increasing, especially illegal mining, drug trafficking and organized crime have expanded into protected areas and even into indigenous community lands. Faced with this, these communities have designed and implemented autonomous mechanisms to protect their communal lands, however, have had to include broader coordination mechanisms, involving a group of communities from each river basin. This internal reflection and need for more effective protection implied an important element for the construction of indigenous territories, which would be a way of building their collective memory with the forests, but also to preserve their world, their culture and their forests. The paper presents this transition from building communal mechanisms to a much broader and more comprehensive one for indigenous territory.
