Yesterday, officials from the Ucayali Regional Agrarian Directorate (DRA) met in the city of Pucallpa, in charge of the process of physical and legal sanitation of peasant and native communities of said department and the Executive Director of the Center for the Development of the Amazonian Indigenous (CEDIA), the Anthrop. Lelis Rivera. He explained to the officials the steps to follow so that riverside or mestizo communities become peasant communities, achieve their recognition and land titling, and can continue to carry out their subsistence and resource management activities. Likewise, representatives of the Ucayali Forest Chamber of Commerce and the National Forest Confederation - CONAFOR attended.
Officials strengthened their capacities with respect to the process of recognition and titling of peasant communities. In addition, the meeting discussed the case of the peasant community of Jacaya, whose titling process has not yet begun as it overlaps with Permanent Production Forests (BPP).
Although there is Ministerial Resolution No. 547 that facilitates the process of recognition and titling of native communities that are within the BPP, the norm does not mention what steps to follow in the case of peasant women. However, the Executive Director of CEDIA indicated that this is feasible and made reference to the experiences of rural communities of Loreto that have already obtained their property title. He pointed out that the peasant and native communities that overlap with BPP and that are owners and owners before the creation of the same can assert their right. He also indicated that when the titling process begins there are a series of obstacles linked to the classification of land that today have been overcome. The only obstacle that remains to be overcome is the overlap with BPP, since they are property of the State under the jurisdiction of SERFOR.
The peasant community must have legal proof that exists prior to the creation of the BPP. In this sense, the Jacaya community has proof of living in the same place for more than 60 years as a populated center. This evidence is sufficient for SERFOR to recognize them as a peasant community.
The case of this peasant community has served to indicate that the recognition and titling process is viable for other communities that, above all, overlap with BPP.
Regional governments were invited to also concern themselves with individual properties; legal physical sanitation in the Amazon should be a tool for the better use of forests and lands for the development of sustainable activities.