May 28, 2018.- Today in the auditorium of the Regional Environmental Authority (ARA) of the Regional Government of Loreto, the Regional Transectoral Technical Commission for the Protection and Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and in Initial Contact was installed (PIACI) in the Department of Loreto, created by Regional Ordinance No. 011-2018-GRL / CR.
This Commission, also called “Mesa PIACI Loreto”, constitutes a space for dialogue between the Regional Government of Loreto, the Ministry of Culture, the Indigenous Federations, the Provincial Municipalities and civil society that will allow the adoption of measures and mechanisms for the protection of the PIACI in the Loreto Region.
The working meeting was chaired by the Regional Vice Governor of Loreto, Mr. Pedro Portocarrero Nogueira; and the Vice Minister of Interculturality, Mrs. Elena Burga Cabrera, accompanied by the members of the Regional Transectorial Technical Commission; Among them the representatives of the Regional General Management, the Regional Planning, Budget and Territorial Conditioning Management, the Social Development Management, the Loreto Regional Environmental Authority, the Regional Energy and Mines Directorate, the Regional Transport and Communications Directorate, the Regional Directorate of Health, the Ministry of Culture, the Provincial Municipality of Maynas, the Provincial Municipality of Requena, the Provincial Municipality of Ucayali, the Provincial Municipality of Ramón Castilla, the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO), the Organization Indigenous Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP) - represented by ORPIO and the Center for the Development of the Amazonian Indigenous (CEDIA).
The Vice Governor pointed out the importance of recognizing the Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI) and the role of the Regional Government of Loreto in this work, for his part, the Vice Minister of Interculturality congratulated the Regional Government of Loreto for the creation of the Mesa PIACI Loreto, and assume the commitment to protect the PIACI, being the first Commission that has been created by Regional Ordinance, constituting a space for trans-sectorial and intergovernmental interaction.
The Regional Management of Indigenous Affairs, which led this first meeting, presented the scope of the PIACI Loreto Table, as well as a diagnosis of the PIACI presence, providing information on the five requests for the creation of Indigenous Reserves in the Loreto region: Kakataibo (request north and south), Yavarí Mirim, Yavarí Tapiche, Sierra del Divisor Occidental (also known as “Kapanawa”) and Napo Tigre. Likewise, the Work Plan of the PIACI Loreto Regional Transectorial Technical Commission was socialized, the most important activities being the preparation and approval of the Internal Regulations, articulation of an Early Warning System, elaboration of a map of actors of the proposed areas of indigenous reserves, awareness meetings in the areas surrounding the Supreme Recognition Decrees, among others. Recommendations and contributions to the Work Plan will be delivered to the Technical Secretariat, which falls to the Sub-Management of Intersectoral Articulation of the Regional Management of Indigenous Affairs of GORE Loreto. The next session of the PIACI Loreto Board was agreed, for July 5, 2018, which will have as its agenda the approval of the Work Plan and the Internal Regulations, with the participation of all the members that comprise it.
From CEDIA we will continue to support the development of the PIACI Loreto Table, within the framework of the inter-institutional agreements that we maintain with the Regional Management of Indigenous Affairs of Loreto and with the Directorate of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact of the Ministry of Culture. We hope that spaces like this can facilitate the establishment of the Loreto Indigenous Reserves, which in some cases have been waiting for more than 20 years.