Peru: Kichwa communities achieve legal victory after violation of their territorial rights and exclusion from carbon credit benefits

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vista de montaña cubierta de árboles al atardecer amazonia peru cordillera azul

 

Last December, in a landmark case for the fight of indigenous peoples against exclusionary conservation in Peru, the Bellavista Mixed Court ordered government entities to grant title to the ancestral territory of the Kichwa Native Community of Puerto Franco—located in the department of San Martín—, to annul forestry concessions, and to conduct prior consultation on the creation of the Cordillera Azul National Park (PNCAZ) and its Master Plan; guaranteeing the community's access to natural resources and its participation in the management of the park, which includes the distribution of benefits from the sale of carbon credits that has occurred behind their backs since 2008.

 

The ruling is a response to the injunction filed in 2020 by the community and the Ethnic Council of the Kichwa Peoples of the Amazon with the aim of protecting the right to communal property, which includes access to and control of natural resources in their territory, as well as prior consultation on acts and administrative measures that have deprived the community of its territory and imposed an exclusionary conservation scheme with the creation of the PNCAZ to certify a REDD+ project (conservation and increase of carbon reserves and sustainable forest management as a measure of mitigating climate change).

 

The case revealed violations of the internationally recognized rights of Indigenous communities during the implementation of a carbon credit project promoted under the Paris Agreement. This is because the creation of the park affected the enjoyment of territorial rights by at least 29 Kichwa communities, who did not benefit from the distribution of funds—tens of millions of dollars in carbon credits—derived from the sale of ecosystem services provided by their ancestral territories.


More information here

 

Tema
Rights of nature
Citizen participation
Environmental protection
Violation of human rights