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Amazon
People
Juan Vincent Calle lifts crude oil from an unlined oil pit. It was built by an oil company on his land but he has not been compensated for the damage the pollution has done to his livestock.
© WWF-Canon / James Frankham
Indigenous communities protecting their environment
Extremely rich in biological and cultural diversity, the Abanico del Pastaza Wetlands Complex and the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve in northeastern Peru are priority areas for conservation efforts in the Amazon. Since 1999, WWF has helped more than 50 indigenous communities from the Candoshi, Achuar, Quechua, Urarina and Cocama peoples manage threats to the area and protect themselves from the negative effects of commercial oil development and overfishing.
Decades of petroleum production polluted drinking water and commercial overfishing reduced fish populations - the main source of food and income for these communities. Through local partner organizations such as Racimos de Ungarahui and Fundación Amazonia, WWF has trained indigenous groups so that they can better defend their right to the sustainable use of natural resources in their territories by oil and commercial fishing companies. A crucial part of this work is strengthening their negotiation skills and teaching local communities to use their legal system more effectively.
Drawing on this support, indigenous peoples in Peru's Abanico del Pastaza Wetlands Complex and the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve successfully advocated for environmental standards, preventing further damage from petroleum extraction and commercial overfishing. Where the environment had already been harmed, they negotiated for plans to repair or lessen the damage.
In 2006, WWF helped the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes River (FECONACO) pursue an agreement between the Achuar people and Pluspetrol - an Argentinean oil company - in which Pluspetrol pledged to clean contaminated wetlands in the Peruvian Amazon basin after decades of pollution. In previous years more than 1 million barrels a day of salty and hot waters were released into freshwater rivers and streams, causing severe damage to the entire ecosystem. Now WWF supports monitors from the Achuar people who supervise the clean-up process to ensure that good environmental practices are followed.
Sustainable fishing with the Candoshi people
Candoshi woman preparing fish caught in Lake Rimachi
© WWF / Aldo Soto
Located in the Peruvian Amazon, Lake Rimachi is the biggest lake in the Amazon Basin and part of the Candoshi indigenous community's territory. Because the Candoshi depend upon the lake for their day-to-day survival, its declining health - caused by overfishing - was an urgent problem for this community. To meet conservation and livelihood needs, WWF partnered with representatives of 28 Candoshi communities to provide funding, training and assistance so they could shape and implement sustainable fishing policies in Lake Rimachi and the waters throughout their territories.
Sustainable fishing is crucial to the long-term survival of the Candoshi and their natural resources. Together with the local government, WWF is also working to improve the livelihoods of Candoshi communities by linking them directly to markets to sell their fish. In this way, they avoid middlemen and take home more of the income earned from fish sales.
In the Amazon Basin, WWF's collaboration with the Candoshi and other local groups reduces overfishing and promotes healthy migratory fish populations for sustainable local use. WWF will use this project as a model of innovative aquatic resource regulation by indigenous communities that can be replicated in other areas of the Peruvian Amazon.
Through the efforts of WWF and a Peruvian non-governmental organization, the Association for Integral Research and Development (AIDER), five Shipibo-Konibo communities living along the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon now manage their own forests, harvest the trees, and market the lumber following a long-term plan that will sustain the forest and maintain its variety of species.
The Shipibo-Konibo along the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon
© WWF / Jennifer Biringer
In a considerable achievement, more than 86,000 acres of rainforest belonging to these communities obtained certification to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in November 2005. It was the first forest in Peru to achieve the exacting FSC label that certifies the use of strict environmental and social standards. Now, hardwoods from these indigenous communities are beginning to make their way to international markets with help from WWF's Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN), which connects suppliers that are certified or committed to achieving certification with buyers committed to obtaining products from well-managed forests.
The Shipibo-Konibo project began in the late 1990s, when representatives from AIDER talked with the national association of indigenous people about an economic development program for the Shipibo-Konibo. The mission of AIDER is to improve the quality of life for marginalized Peruvians through the development of skills.
The breakthrough for the Shipibo-Konibo, the point when people became convinced of the value of community forestry, came three years after the project started when they shipped lumber to Pucallpa and were paid for it. Lumber from the community forests is now sold primarily to sawmills and wood flooring exporters in Pucallpa, several of which are committed to responsible purchasing or chain of custody certification with WWF-Peru. Six months after completing the certification process the communities have more demand than they can fill.
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