Peru rejects creation of Amazon reserve to protect uncontacted tribes,
drawing Indigenous outcry
[September 06, 2025]
By STEVEN GRATTAN
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Peru’s Congress rejected Friday a proposal to
create a long-delayed Amazon reserve meant to protect uncontacted
Indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation along the border with
Brazil.
Advocates for the reserve say the decision leaves the remote forest
vulnerable to logging, mining and other incursions, and deals a setback
to a plan that has languished for more than two decades despite legal
obligations to establish it.
Francisco Hernández Cayetano, president of the Federation of Ticuna and
Yagua Communities of the Lower Amazon, said the commission’s rejection
“shows its anti-Indigenous face in the 21st century” and signals it does
not care about “the environment, the water, the culture and everything
as a whole.”
He told The Associated Press that without Indigenous peoples, the Amazon
and its tributaries “would already have been wiped out” and called the
decision “a very hard blow from our own state, which should instead
protect us.” He said his group plans to conduct additional studies and
take further action before resubmitting the proposal to the Ministry of
Culture, adding that the years of delay have only served to “promote
more bills against Indigenous peoples to strip them of their territory.”
The 1.17 million-hectare (2.9 million-acre) Yavari Mirim Indigenous
Reserve — roughly the size of Jamaica — would have protected five
uncontacted tribes from outside encroachment for the first time. The
Matses, Matis, Korubo, Kulina-Pano and Flecheiro, also known as Tavakina,
live in voluntary isolation with no sustained contact with the outside
world, leaving them highly vulnerable to disease and exploitation.
Indigenous communities across Peru’s Amazon face mounting threats from
illegal logging, mining, oil and gas drilling, and drug trafficking.
The proposal faced pushback from logging concession holders and regional
business groups in Loreto, Peru’s largest region, located in the
country’s far northeast where the reserve would be located. Some
lawmakers also objected, arguing that creating the reserve would block
economic development and restrict access to valuable natural resources.
Supporters of these industries questioned whether there was sufficient
evidence of uncontacted peoples in the area, saying the territory had
been tied up for nearly two decades without final approval.
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In this undated photo provided by the Organization of Indigenous
Peoples of the Eastern Amazon, a home belonging to an uncontacted
Indigenous group is visible in the Loreto region of the Peruvian
Amazon. (ORPIO via AP)
The Ministry of Culture, tasked with protecting Indigenous
communities, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
“Today’s decision is devastating for the future of Indigenous people
facing grave threats not only to their health and well-being but
their very survival,” said John Walsh, director for drug policy and
the Andes at WOLA, a U.S.-based human rights group. “Despite its
clear legal obligations, Peru’s government seems content to open the
door to extractive industries to carve up the land and cast aside
the rights of those who live there.”
The rejection comes during a congressional push to amend Peru’s
Indigenous Peoples in Isolation law to mandate regular reviews of
reserves and give lawmakers greater power to alter or scrap them.
Supporters say proposals like Yavari Mirim have languished for
nearly 20 years due to what they call insufficient evidence of
uncontacted peoples. Indigenous groups warn the changes would erode
the law and undo hard-won safeguards.
“Despite overwhelming evidence of uncontacted Indigenous peoples in
the area, the vote was eight against and five in favor,” said Julio
Cusurichi, who heads the program for Indigenous Peoples in Isolation
and Initial Contact at AIDESEP, a national federation representing
Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon. “This puts the lives
of these peoples in danger and shows that the government obeys
extractive interests, not the rights of highly vulnerable Indigenous
brothers and sisters.”
Cusurichi called the decision “a concrete violation of the rights of
these peoples.”
“No economic activity in the world should be placed above the rights
to life and territory of these peoples,” he said.
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