May 29, 2018.- Yesterday the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) opened the XVI PUCP Amazon Week with the Roundtable "Titling and territory in the Peruvian Amazon." It was attended by Juan Luis Dammert, representative of the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief - Oxfam; Ermeto Tuesta, representative of the Institute for the Common Good (IBC); and Alberto Romero, representative of the Center for the Development of the Amazonian Indigenous (CEDIA).
After the welcoming words of the organizing team, Juan Luis Dammert gave way with his presentation "Large-scale plantations and their relationship with titling agendas in the Peruvian Amazon." Later, Ermeto Tuesta spoke about the Information System on Native Communities and the Titling Process from the experience of the IBC and, finally, Alberto Romero, President of CEDIA, spoke about the “Effects and repercussions of the physical and legal sanitation of native communities”.
His presentation had a historical and legal focus. He indicated that previously, preference was given to colonization rules since the Amazon was seen as an empty space. Likewise, these norms collide with the worldview of the indigenous people for whom the territory encompasses everything that surrounds them and not only the areas for crops and pastures that the State determines can be titled.
He indicated that although the titling process has several limitations, it currently grants them benefits since it guarantees ownership of the communal territory, stabilizes the community's social system, strengthens its cultural identity and allows them to access projects related to the use of the community. forest - for example, the National Forest Conservation Program - or implement natural resource management plans for commercial purposes.
He asserted that among the difficulties that the titling process presents is: the classification of lands that determines that the State only titles a part of the community as property and another part as a transfer in use; the presence of Permanent Production Forests (BPP) that are superimposed on the territory of native communities; the limited personnel and logistical capacity that the State has to attend to requests from the communities that request their degrees; and the little training of the competent state sector personnel to carry out the titling activities, which results in problems and inconveniences for the communities that are titled.
Likewise, he indicated that, taking this panorama into account, the role of Non-Governmental Organizations - NGOs, such as CEDIA, is to provide technical, financial, logistical and personnel assistance to the State entities in charge of executing communal titling actions. He also asserted that of the 1,330 to 1,400 communities that have been titled so far, at least the 70% has been possible thanks to the intervention and support of NGOs.
At the end of the Roundtable, he affirmed that the fact that a native community obtains its property title is not enough, it must be trained and strengthen its communal organization so that it can defend itself and know its rights.
The XVI Amazon Week will be held until June 1 of this year in the Grade Room of the Faculty of Social Sciences - PUCP. For information on the development of activities between here.