Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
ESL 501
Instructor: Elizabeth Thacker
Abstract
agricultural land use change and wildlife regulations in the Amazon, despite
largest and most violent regional strike in Peruvian history in July 2007 with a
Beyond this conflict and its unfortunate consequences, this article states that
to a single and isolated context. This document put on evidence that land
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1. Introduction
“And against oil, (they) have created the figure of the native jungle
underground while the world is paying U.S. 90.00 per barrel. It is preferable
for long time was not openly discussed in Peru: the consolidation of an
land use change and wildlife regulations in the Amazon basin, in order to
produce economic growth in the region and, therefore, in the country. These
the largest and most violent regional strike in Peruvian history in July 2007.
have a strong history of State’s2 intervention with the aim of integrating this
1
Garcia, A. (October 28th, 2007). Extract retrieved from “El Sindrome del Perro del Hortelano”.
Diario El Comercio (Lima, Peru), p. a4. Accesed October 17th 2010.
2
From now on, we will call State to organized political community, living under a government.
In this sense, we are not going to describe any particular government but the State as an
entity of government.
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of population occupation, natural resources exploitation and inefficient
Amazon developed strong regional and local representation and their own
political agenda. Therefore, these tragic events of 2007 have not been the
local interests, creating resentment and distrust in what the State represent.
2. Literature review
the majority of research has been done from the perspective of native people
and its long struggle against private investments in its territory. To exemplify,
from large, dense urban centers, linked to the national economy; to the small
living space extends from its consumption and production practices and,
development.
(1976), has been started since Peruvian Republic was born. The author
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asserts that the incidence of the state in the Amazon region was a long
manipulation of the law and the enrichment small economic powerful groups.
Furthermore, the author affirms that the State has had a leading role in
investment policies, and with the enactment of laws specifically to benefit the
latter. As a consequence, these processes have left deep social and spatial
conflicts.
has been the main protagonist of the transformation of the Amazon region,
the Amazon, reducing the pressure for land acquisition in the highlands and
other hand, the combined action of the rapid population expansion and the
the State’s strategy to control the natural resources of the Amazon region for
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expanded rapidly; b) the lack of agricultural productivity, where the land in
the Andes was reorganized and intensively used; and c) the inaccessibility of
the Amazon region, were the lead problems that the State had to deal with in
the last 50 years of the 20th century. The author asserts that, in order to
populate the political boundaries with Brazil, the State promote the Amazon
terms of land ownership and crop production. Finally, the road development
mining and forest products, that differs from the State-controlled intentions.
struggled for their land locally, land concession for oil production had already
been fully franchised or reserved for the state, by the end of 1960. Contrary
to popular belief, according to Rodriguez (1991), since the 1920’s the State
production, but it was only until 1980 when the State began to limit their
the regional economy, in order to survive to the economic crisis (Glave 1997).
The last thirty years of the occupation of the Amazon region has been
the result of State incentives, and was described by several authors (Glave
1997; Barclay and Santos 2002; Garcia and Alvarez 2007; Napolitano and
Ryan 2007 and Stetson 2008). The review of this literature focuses on the
activity. On the contrary, this 30-year period has also formed and developed
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strong local representations as a result of antagonist positions to the state
consulted for any event that jeopardized its territory, as the International
Convention” (C169).
3. Methodology
The present article has its basis on the temporal structure and spatial
(2002) for the period of 1940 and 1990. The analysis of the 2000’s policies’
impact is supported by the works of Napolitano and Ryan (2007) and Stetson
(2008).
Barclay (1991) and Barclay and Santos (2002) detail minutely the
the Peruvian Republic based on archive research. Since the main object of
these publications was to prove that the Amazon region was not a forgotten
president administration since 1921. In this sense, the authors prove that
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occupation patterns in the Southern Amazon region. The social context is the
rate the level of information about the productive settlement process, land
use change, open dialogue with investors and personal opinion about the
and National Institution of Natural Resources and how they contradicted each
4. Results
from international trade and to meet local demands, between 1940’s and
the Amazon given the increasing demand of international markets and the
achieve this goal, the State proposed a set of policies such as taxes benefits
development and the national road articulation would cover domestic and
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characterized for having only international demand and need specialized and
paid low salary. Given the lack of productivity diversity, little land availability
and pressure for Iquitos city growth peasants had to develop little parcels
1950’s. On the one hand, this growth helped State’s intention to fill the
region with investments because Iquitos centralized firms and human capital.
indigenous territory. Thus, indigenous population showed for the first time
that they were strongly affected by the expansion of land and agricultural
investment.
violent relationship with peasant workers, having violent interaction for more
planning issues.
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In order to legitimate policy decisions, the State created the National
Institute of Land Use Planning (NILUP) and the National institute of Natural
Resources (NINR) by mid 1970’s. NILUP was created with the main purpose of
against peasants. NINR’s purpose was to identify areas for expanding the
in the State was intensified and violence rate rise immediately. Indigenous
population radicalized their position arguing that they need to protect their
territory and, for that purpose, they demanded borders’ mapping. The State
responded to this claim with a new law that protected investors land
acquisitions but it also stopped offering land until indigenous territory were
mapped.
the first Amazon region strike, this entity achieved the promise of recognition
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However, the State promoted large land extensions for agricultural purposes,
but this time it also offered even larger extensions to mining and oil
economic recovery and even though agricultural development would help, oil,
gas and gold had better international prices. The adoption of this productive
turn was settled after the implementation of the General Mining Law. To
exemplify, this law stated that all mineral resources are property of Peruvian
State and the rights over mineral resources are granted by concession in
Fearing about the environmental degradation indexes for the first five
years of the decade, the State started to promote conservation programs and
illustrate, the State created the National Protected Areas System consisting in
Forest and Wildlife Conservation that confirmed that forests are national
and Amazon Peasants Law that regulated ownership rights of the land both
for peasants and indigenous population. This law recognizes indigenous and
local communities territory, allowing its demarcation and titling and named
11
In order to complement the Native Communities Law, the State created
the most outstanding findings was that more than 70% of indigenous
community territories have not had property titles, and that was the principal
published new oil and gas findings in order to catch the attention of
finish the mapping process. As a result, the tension between State and
5. Discussion
exploitation policies in the Amazon region, and stated that even though this
access to land. Moreover, this conflicts were intensified through time, been
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the very basis of current conflicts between indigenous communities and the
Peruvian State.
rubber production in large extensions and the need for labor force
The State concern about indigenous population started right after the
Peruvian State tried to solve this conflict directly with indigenous leaders, and
at the same time they negotiated and assured investment’s flux of in the
6. Conclusions
mining and forestry. The growth of rural and urban areas has been largely
13
The development of Iquitos city, as part of the occupation of the
Amazon region after rubber boom was of utmost importance for the future
presence worked not only to maintain national borders with Colombia and
process and population’s high expectations of job supply and quality of life
improvement, given the large amount of private investments and the new
Peruvian State to confront crisis. Policies promoted open land market after
the recognition of the indigenous right over their territory back in 1980,
dialogue proposal.
Peruvian State historical will is that the Amazon region has to be full
have more acceptance and strength given the support of non indigenous
population in the Amazon region showed in the regional strike on July 2007
involved in the decisions, especially if these have to deal with territory. In this
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context, the lack of indigenous land register and mapping reduces its
7. References
Ediciones CIPA.
http://www.flacsoandes.org/dspace/handle/10469/37
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7. EFE Agency (Lima). (June 4th, 2010). Los heridos y deudos del Baguazo
isolation and the impacts of gas exploitation on health and rights in the
IOPscience.
10. Stetson, G. (2008). Indigenous politics, the state, and oil development
11. Varese, S. (1972). The forest Indians in the present political situation of
Affairs (IWGIA).
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