By Agilio Semperi, President of Machiguenga Council of the Urubamba River (COMARU); Jorge Pérez, President of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO); and Jamer Lopez, of the Aidesep Ucayali Regional Organization (ORAU).
“During the period of economic reactivation, provisions have been issued, which have only prioritized the boosting of large-scale economic activities, postponing measures to protect our rights. There is no activity for the economic reactivation in which the participation of indigenous organizations has been requested; there is no institution that has coordinated with us”. Jorge Pérez, President of ORPIO.
The measures promoted by the Government for economic reactivation within the framework of the sanitary emergency began to be implemented in Peru between April and May 2020. These measures, in Amazonian territories, prioritized the activities undertaken by large companies, and this progressed without even having approved a protection plan for indigenous peoples. Thus, we have witnessed new oil spills, confrontations for lack of care to communities in this context, but privileges for the companies to resume their activities.
In light of that, we ask ourselves, what have we faced as indigenous peoples in the context of economic reactivation and COVID-19? The sensation and evidence that we notice in our territories is that the State has prioritized the economy before health and security of those who are part of this country. This is based on three points: (i) late care to indigenous peoples by the State against COVID-19; (ii) an economic reactivation without sanitary protocols to protect the indigenous peoples who live near the reactivated projects and (iii) the issuance of regulations that aim to simplify procedures and impose virtuality as a means of involvement, conditions that end up intensifying the risks in our communities.
(i) Late care to Indigenous Peoples by the State against COVID-19: The regulations focused on the protection of indigenous peoples against COVID 19 have been a late response by the Government to the protection of the health of indigenous peoples. Since this provision was recently issued in May 2020, after the beginning of the first reactivation phase by Legislative Decree No. 1489, which establishes actions for the protection of indigenous and native peoples within the framework of the health emergency declared by COVID-19, which responsibilities that became evident were recently delegated and that should have been assumed by the Ministry of Culture (MINCU) and Ministry of Health (MINSA) from the beginning of the emergency.
However, this measure was not effective, it created more bureaucracy and slowed down efforts that should have been immediate. Given the situation, the most important measure was the creation of the indigenous COVID-19 Commands, at the initiative of the indigenous organizations themselves. This took shape and action in May and June 2020 and was the most effective response to the needs of the indigenous peoples. We prioritize the health and subsistence of our peoples. We deploy support networks among communities, villages; we appeal to the forest and rivers as living beings that provide us and allow us to subsist. Our subsistence goes in another direction, completely different from the idea of economic reactivation. It therefore becomes very important to protect and better manage our natural resources. No health policies and even less those of economic reactivation have allowed us to subsist on this pandemic, but the forest and our ancestral knowledge.
(ii) Economic reactivation without control mechanisms or supervision of sanitary protocols, so as not to affect indigenous peoples living in the reactivated project areas. A fundamental point is that each sector should and must ensure, both for the health protection of workers and the peoples living near the different projects (in which the risks of the activities resumed should be taken into account). In light of that, Supreme Decree No. 080-2020-PCM established the requirement to prepare and approve the sanitary protocols for each sector, following the general guidelines issued by the MINSA. However, no control or sanction mechanisms were established for non-compliance with the measures included in the sanitary protocols. Thus, threats to the security of vulnerable populations have been added to the lack of basic health services, even before the pandemic and where, in addition to the late assistance against COVID-19, extractive activities and infrastructure were already affecting our rights and territories with oil spills and contamination.
What we have noticed in our territories is that the large extractive companies did not stop during the pandemic. The benefits for them and the postponement for our peoples. We need to diseconomize the Amazon, stop seeing it without population, stop seeing it only as a source of resources to exploit. Diseconomization requires not only putting the market at the center of the measures, but also those who are part of it, thinking about our living conditions, our capacities and interests for development.
(iii) At the height of the pandemic, regulations have been issued to simplify processes and make standards flexible that intensify the risks in our communities: As indigenous organizations we have focused our efforts on containing COVID-19 in the communities. Meanwhile, in this context, measures that weaken environmental regulations have been issued and proposed, which in a certain way protect indigenous territories, ecosystems and protected natural areas, such as Ministerial Resolution No. 430-2020-MINEM/DM, which proposes a new Regulation for Hydrocarbons Exploration and Exploitation Activities, promoting extractive activities in Protected Natural Areas. Virtuality for involvement has been also emphasized and continues to be proposed when internet access conditions are very low in our communities. Community environmental monitoring as an action to be implemented during the development of projects was withdrawn from the Hydrocarbon Participation Regulation. Once again, the priority has been the economy, which we recognize as an important element for our societies, but the imbalance and the postponement of rights and services such as health, have condemned us to the high impacts of COVID-19. What we expect is to build a new social contract, a new coexistence agreement that includes us in the decisions made by the authorities of the State, and this participation must be adapted to our reality and cultural conditions. Let us hope that the pandemic will teach us this as a lesson.
How can we define the reactivation process that has been developing?
The reflection we have had as Indigenous Organizations after the first reactivation measures were taken a little more than a year is that this process has prioritized the boosting of the economy of large companies (many of which have not been paralyzed). However, these companies do not comply with the commitments assumed for remediation, or the new ones for sanitary protection. We need to strengthen the control and supervision, one that includes indigenous peoples.
It is evident that the thinking about prioritizing the economy with a macroeconomic approach, beyond that, there is no subject of reactivation for the communities. In other words, the local and indigenous economy has not been taken into account, the reactivation has only focused on the boosting of hydrocarbons, infrastructure and forestry companies (concessions).
It is also evident that the reactivation has not taken into account the expectations and participation of the indigenous peoples or their representatives. The strategy and measures prioritized for reactivation have been developed unilaterally without the participation of the Indigenous Organizations.
Economic reactivation will continue to be a policy of the State and the new government. In view of this, we hope that it will change its focus, generating a balance between rights and the economy. An economic reactivation that can have a rights-based approach, including the collective rights of indigenous peoples.
The bicentennial should give us the historic opportunity to build, as we said before, a new social contract, a new agreement between the indigenous peoples and the State. We must come closer to the diseconomization of the Amazon, strengthening mechanisms that not only recognize our participation as indigenous peoples, but also including our contribution in an effective manner; indigenous environmental monitoring that is coordinated with the national environmental management system, forestry oversight bodies that work in coordination with regional and national authorities, working to stop the illegal economies that have been causing so much damage to our territories. In short, build new development paths.
Our concern is still focused on the issues of oil companies, illegal mining, illegal logging, forest concessions and infrastructure projects, which have been never stopped and have intensified the threats to our territories. In the context of the Amazonian Indigenous Platform for Monitoring Chinese Investments, and in the spaces for dialog with the participation of indigenous organizations, we will continue moving forward with the development of reactivation guidelines to be discussed with the next government, which will encompass new measures developed with an indigenous vision, as well as proposals submitted to the State and that have been disregarded, such as the environmental chapter of the update of China-Peru FTA.