Today the Regional Environmental Authority (ARA) of Loreto and the Center for the Development of the Amazonian Indigenous (CEDIA) signed a "Letter of Understanding for Interinstitutional Cooperation" at the ARA facilities in the city of Iquitos, Loreto. The presence of Juan Carlos Vilca, General Manager of the ARA; Perbis Saldaña, representative of the Forest and Wildlife Directorate; Andrea Tello, representative of the Directorate of Conservation and Biological Diversity; Rocío Mendoza, representative of the Directorate of Environmental Management; Frida Sánchez, representative of the Directorate of Territorial Planning and Spatial Data; and Lelis Rivera, Executive Director of CEDIA.
The Charter establishes the conditions for inter-institutional collaboration and joint work between ARA LORETO and CEDIA for the physical and legal sanitation of native communities adjacent to the proposals for Regional Conservation Areas: Tapiche - Blanco in the province of Requena and Aguas Calientes Maquía in the provinces of Ucayali and Requena. It also indicates the strategies to ensure the social, environmental and financial sustainability of the protected areas managed by GORE Loreto; as well as promoting the creation and appropriate use of regional standards that regulate the forest management of products that come from these areas.
CEDIA will provide technical and economic assistance to ARA LORETO, will strengthen its capacities through its Line bodies and decentralized offices in Alto Amazonas, Ucayali, Ramón Castilla, Datem del Marañón, Requena and Loreto. In addition, CEDIA will diagnose the current situation of acquired rights in the basins of the Tigre, Nahuapa, Tapiche, Blanco, Ucayali, Napo and Putumayo rivers. The sanitation actions of the forest concessions for timber purposes -exclusion and / or compensation- will be managed depending on their contractual status, for a subsequent resizing of the Permanent Production Forest (BPP) of Loreto, in cases where they overlap with rights of property of native and peasant communities or fragile ecosystems of interest for conservation.
Likewise, it will strengthen the capacities of community organizations and develop technical, administrative and / or legal mechanisms; and scientific studies and social processes for the establishment of the two ACR proposals mentioned above, the establishment of which will be led by the ARA LORETO.
The Letter of Understanding for inter-institutional cooperation is valid for 24 months and may be renewed or extended by agreement of the parties.
From CEDIA we are very happy to give continuity to the alliance already established with the ARA LORETO and we reaffirm our commitment to continue coordinating and working closely with said entity in order to contribute to the territorial justice of the communities and the conservation of sites. Priorities of Loreto through the establishment of the two RTAs.