In the early 1980s, international development agencies were pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the "development" of the Peruvian Amazon. This consisted of confiscating indigenous territories and turning them over to market-oriented individuals, who would then develop the "jungle" by replacing it with cow pastures. Experts justified these colonization and deforestation projects by saving that Indians didn't know how to use their lands rationally.
How Much?
The Pichis-Paleazu Special Project had $86 million budget.
Much has happened since a development scheme was first announced for the
half-million hectares of tropical forest which form the Pichis and
Pichis and Palcazu River valleys of central Peru. Because this land on
the eastern slopes of the Andes was understood to be less densely
populated and potentially more productive than the Andean highlands, yet
relatively close to Lima's markets, the Peruvian government saw the
valleys as sources for food and lumber, to be worked by colonists,
surplus population from the nation's highlands and coast. A Special
Projects Office for the Pichis-Palcazu Project was established in the
Ministry of Agriculture in 1978 and had concentrated on titling land in
the area, but when the Belaunde government was inaugurated in July 1979,
Peru announced a greatly accelerated program.
Who is behind it?
In September 1980 the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) "was asked", an
tentatively agreed, to finance essential infrastructure in the valleys -
roads, centers for collecting and redistributing goods, and equipment
to clear and prepare land.
Various sources reported that 15,000 colonists would eventually be
settled in the area. In anticipation, land speculators and other
entrepreneurs quickly focused on the valleys. Development hopes,
however, hung on the premise that the land was up for grabs and awaited
intensive exploitation with nearly bursting fertility. The native
people, Amuesha and Campa who had been occupying and working this land
for centuries but were left unmentioned in the initial reports and
agreements, thought otherwise. So did many other people who, in turn,
alerted a network of individuals and organizations throughout the world.
Martinez and Miller's subsequent report revealed a social situation far
more complex than that suggested by the initial newspaper articles. They
first noted that most large-scale development and colonization projects
not only fail to achieve their constructive goals, but leave ecological
destruction and displaced native people in their wake. The
Pichis-Palcazu Project would probably not be an exception. They stated
that "there are numerous constraints to development in the region due to
problems of existing ethnic conflicts, land tenure disputes, social
stratification, existence of poor institutional
infrastructure...monopolistic economic activities, and forestry
extraction concessions." In the Pichis-Palcazu area, much of the land
was occupied but was still untitled, opening the way for problems with
land speculators while also inhibiting local development projects.
Miller and Martinez recommended that, before any development program was
initiated or any road-building undertaken, land titling was essential.
Colonization, they argued, should be de-emphasized in favor of local
development.
At present, an extremely exploitative and hierarchical social system
exists in the valleys, with native people generally disadvantaged as a
group.
What ?
The government plans to take away their recognition [as communities],
take away their legal titles, refuse to grant land titles to communities
without them, relocate untitled native communities on the lands of
those with title, and allow timber extraction concessions on native
lands."
Human Price of Relocation
It is probable in view of past experience with colonization of the
Peruvian humid forest region that the environment present in this region
will in itself constitute a major problem to success of the project.
Elsewhere, as for instance in the Tingo-Maria-Pucallpa Highway, the
Huallaga Central area, the Cosnipata, neither planned nor spontaneous
colonization by immigrant groups for outside the region can be termed in
any way to be successful.
A history of repeated failures and retreats
accompanied by resource devastation characterizes these places, [where]
one currently survives only because of the illicit market for coca
leaves. If the Palcazu Project is not to be another sad repetition of
these failures and, eventually a rural slum area, it is essential that
project planning be based firmly on what is practicable and realistic in
terms of the physical environment - climate, soils, topography,
drainage, and biological resources of the basin itself.
Politicians give the right to companies to destroy the environment with the oil sands.
