César Ipenza, a Peruvian environmental lawyer and outspoken critic of the recent legislative action, told Mongabay this will “benefit actors who have previously failed to comply with the requirements demanded in the forestry law, weakening the protection of forests and environmental management, ignoring the rights of Indigenous peoples and encouraging new deforestation.”
According to an analysis by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Ministry of the Environment, the new revised law may impact at least 3,000 cases of forest crimes still open across the country, including cases involving more than 4,000 hectares (about 9,880 acres) of illegal deforestation. In total, there are 10,000 cases that could be affected.
“In principle, what it does is wipe the slate clean,” said Ipenza. “Many of the criminal cases faced by people who have deforested will no longer be penalized.”
Another change included in the bill is that land use authorizations will no longer be a matter for the Ministry of the Environment — a government body that promotes the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources — but rather, the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation, which promotes the development of agricultural activities, will deal with these authorizations.
Threats to Indigenous lands
José Francisco Calí Tzay, the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, released a statement Jan. 31, arguing these changes could also “legalise and encourage the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples from their lands.”
According to Wilfredo Tsamash Cabrera, president of the Coordinator of Development and Defense of the Indigenous Peoples of the San Martín region, at stake is the fate of Indigenous lands, as the law allows for the formalization of land titles for exclusive agricultural activities in disputed areas. As a result, several Indigenous communities awaiting official land titles could be impacted by landowners seeking to expand agricultural activities on their ancestral lands.
An Indigenous man in Peru. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler
“Approximately a third of the Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon have not been titled, leaving them without legal security and vulnerable against third parties,” Tzay said. “Indigenous peoples in situations of isolation and initial contact would be particularly vulnerable to regulatory change, which could threaten their physical and cultural survival.”
According to the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest, this approval was “carried out without respecting the right to consultation of the legislative measures and flagrantly and systematically violating the constitutional and international legal framework that protects our rights as Indigenous peoples.”
Motion of unconstitutionality
A group of civil society organizations and lawyers have filed a motion with the Constitutional Court, arguing the new revision and the way it was approved, without adequate deliberation and consultation processes, violated the Constitution. The organizations involved include the Institute of Legal Defense, the Episcopal Commission for Social Action and two lawyers, Ipenza and Patricia Torres Muñoz.
“We are requesting that the Constitutional Court declares this law as unconstitutional because it affects fundamental rights, such as the right to enjoy a balanced environment suitable for life, and also, for example, the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable use of natural resources,” Ipenza said. “The claim has been received but not admitted.”
On Jan. 17, the president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola, stated in a live interview that the government is “committed to the protection of our Native peoples and our environment … so we are going to have a balanced decision that will also use constitutional mechanisms to debate this issue again.”
Banner image: Recently cleared land for an oil palm plantation in Peru. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay.
Aimee Gabay is a staff features writer with Mongabay. Find her on Twitter: @aimeegabay
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Agriculture, Amazon Conservation, Amazon Logging, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forests, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Groups, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Supply Chain
Amazon, Latin America, Peru, South America
Source link : https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/critics-decry-controversial-bill-that-loosens-deforestation-restrictions-in-peru/
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Publish date : 2024-02-09 03:00:00
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