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Research Paper

The Amazon Basin Occupation: An Historical and Spatial


Approach to the Economic Patters and (Re) Composition of
Amazon Region in Peru

ESL 501
Instructor: Elizabeth Thacker

Author: Luis Escobedo

December 7th, 2010


The Amazon Basin Occupation: An Historical and Spatial Approach to the

Economic Patters and (Re) Composition of Amazon Region in Peru

Abstract

In the context of the North America Free Trade Agreement, Peruvian

president, Alan Garcia Perez, developed a total number of 99 proposals of

amendments, decrees and laws, which promotes forestry business,

agricultural land use change and wildlife regulations in the Amazon, despite

the Amazonian population’s will. As a result, this population staged the

largest and most violent regional strike in Peruvian history in July 2007 with a

death toll of 33 people among both policemen and civilians

Beyond this conflict and its unfortunate consequences, this article states that

the dramatic response of Amazonian population has been clearly a result of

Peruvian State economic interests, and it would be very naive to attribute it

to a single and isolated context. This document put on evidence that land

rights and political representation of the Amazonian population have been

inefficient and the economic development has responded to the

unsustainable dynamics of occupation, exploitation and integration to

national and international markets, motivated by national economic interests,

regardless of local demands.

Keywords: Amazon region, natural resources policies, population occupation, productive

occupation, land property, investment, peasants, indigenous.

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1. Introduction

“And against oil, (they) have created the figure of the native jungle

'not connected'; in other words ‘unknown but presumed’, so that millions of

hectares should not be explored, and Peruvian oil should remain

underground while the world is paying U.S. 90.00 per barrel. It is preferable

for them -dogs in the manager- to Peru continues importing and

impoverishing”. Alan Garcia Perez, President of the Republic of Peru1.

Garcia’s current administration put on national agenda an issue that

for long time was not openly discussed in Peru: the consolidation of an

economic development model based on the exploitation of natural resources

and its unfettered disposition to private investments. In this context, Garcia’s

government developed a total number of 99 proposals of amendments,

decrees and laws, which basically promotes forestry business, agricultural

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

possible legislation changes generated discomfort and aggressive reaction

amongst the population, both native/indigenous and urban, which resulted in

the largest and most violent regional strike in Peruvian history in July 2007.

Land rights and political representation of the Amazonian population

have a strong history of State’s2 intervention with the aim of integrating this

region to national and international markets. Moreover, this intention was

motivated by State’s economic interests, regardless of local demands.

Consequently, the Amazon region has experienced unsustainable dynamics

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

system of local government administration. In a sense, Garcia’s proposals

represent the classical idea of former politicians about the Amazon as

unpopulated and a vast region ready to be filled of investments.

As a result of decades of these governance failures, population in the

Amazon developed strong regional and local representation and their own

perspective of good practice in the territory, dismissing national interests and

political agenda. Therefore, these tragic events of 2007 have not been the

result of Garcia’s administration proposals, but for a historically and

systematic attempts to integrate Amazon region to the country, disregarding

local interests, creating resentment and distrust in what the State represent.

2. Literature review

There is little research analyzing economic policies in Peruvian

Amazon, linking the historically intervention of government with the

population occupation patterns and economic production. Notwithstanding,

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,

Varese (1972), describes the productive occupancy of Amazon basin ranging

from large, dense urban centers, linked to the national economy; to the small

but numerous and scattered indigenous population concentrations, which

living space extends from its consumption and production practices and,

therefore, any outside economic intervention depress Indigenous community

development.

The beginning of the Amazon basin occupation, according to Martinez

(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

political process characterized by the violent displacement and dispossession

of indigenous’ territory, irrational exploitation of natural resources,

manipulation of the law and the enrichment small economic powerful groups.

Furthermore, the author affirms that the State has had a leading role in

controlling the Amazonian basin, in terms of settlement directed schemes,

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.

Conflicts in the Amazon basin were based on the creation of conditions

that allowed capitalist production. According to Aramburu (1982), the State

has been the main protagonist of the transformation of the Amazon region,

reconfiguring economic dynamics and human settlements. On the one hand,

the State intended to integrate the country from agricultural production in

the Amazon, reducing the pressure for land acquisition in the highlands and

unifying the country through the construction of an internal market. On the

other hand, the combined action of the rapid population expansion and the

increasing pressure for productive land, determined an accelerated process

of deforestation. As a result, land owners extended their property, looking for

fertile land, overlapping its extension within indigenous territory.

The legal framework analysis developed by Barclay et al (1991), details

the State’s strategy to control the natural resources of the Amazon region for

a period of 50 years. The author explains how these political decisions

became the very foundation of the population occupation through this

historical facts: a) the geopolitical context, where Brazil’s population were

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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

colonization. Moreover, these migrants had benefits given by the State, in

terms of land ownership and crop production. Finally, the road development

from the coast to the Amazon generated occupation segmentation and

consolidated different economic activities -most of them illicit- such as river

mining and forest products, that differs from the State-controlled intentions.

While migrants, land owners and indigenous population fiercely

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

began a process of promoting investment and land concessions for oil

production, but it was only until 1980 when the State began to limit their

involvement in economic activities and started a process of liberalization of

land, modifying conditions for participation opportunities to private sector in

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

development of oil extraction and the environmental repercussion of this

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

mode of production in the Amazon region; hence, the formation of Indigenous

Federations. According to Stetson (2007), Indigenous population not only

resisted open market development in their territories, but the willingness of

many is to be recognized as legitimate political actors, who should be

consulted for any event that jeopardized its territory, as the International

Labor Organization states through the “Indigenous and Tribal Peoples

Convention” (C169).

3. Methodology

The present article has its basis on the temporal structure and spatial

impact of policies developed by Barclay (1991) and Barclay and Santos

(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

constitution of natural resources exploitation’s policies since the beginning of

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

or abandoned region, the authors selected a number of decrees and laws

created to improve investment conditions in the Amazon region, from each

president administration since 1921. In this sense, the authors prove that

every administration has concerned about the economic development of this

region, and therefore the presence of the State was constant.

The work of Napolitano and Ryan (2007) is a case-study policy analysis

that shows the contributions of open market policies in the population

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occupation patterns in the Southern Amazon region. The social context is the

voluntary isolation of indigenous communities in gas and oil productive

exploitation as a result of overlapping territory processes. The study is

addressed by both a survey and indigenous authorities’ interview in order to

rate the level of information about the productive settlement process, land

use change, open dialogue with investors and personal opinion about the

indigenous benefits from oil and gas.

Finally, Stetson (2008) reconstructs the history of oil development in

the last 20 years in a comparison study between Peruvian environment

conservation and investment policies with a special focus on 2000’s years.

Stetson focuses on laws and decrees publicized by both Ministry of Energy

and National Institution of Natural Resources and how they contradicted each

other in order to achieve their own goals.

4. Results

The State increases its interest in Amazon products in order to benefit

from international trade and to meet local demands, between 1940’s and

1960’s. In these terms, it was important to establish productive presence in

the Amazon given the increasing demand of international markets and the

competitiveness generated by Brazil's products in the local market. To

achieve this goal, the State proposed a set of policies such as taxes benefits

to large investments in agriculture and national integration based on the

construction of road infrastructure. The combination of the agricultural

development and the national road articulation would cover domestic and

external demand, but investors concentrated in rubber production,

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characterized for having only international demand and need specialized and

numerous labor force, specifically peasants.

Although the rubber boom benefited investors, peasant workers were

paid low salary. Given the lack of productivity diversity, little land availability

and pressure for Iquitos city growth peasants had to develop little parcels

systems to survive, generating peculiar occupation. At the beginning of

1920’s their settlement was already characterized by been scattered along

the rivers and current roads. Notwithstanding, they defined a pattern of

occupation that will be reproduced over time by other peasant migrants.

Consequently, Iquitos city grew because more population started to arrive

and, therefore, productivity and commerce increased.

Iquitos began to be the commercial heart of the Amazon region by

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.

On the other hand indigenous population started to demonstrate evident

dissatisfaction: Peasants were violently expelled if they to pass through

indigenous territory. Thus, indigenous population showed for the first time

that they were strongly affected by the expansion of land and agricultural

investment.

Over time, indigenous communities developed an antagonist and

violent relationship with peasant workers, having violent interaction for more

than 20 years. As a result, in 1970 indigenous population decided to

constitute local administration entities, conformed by their own ethnic

leaders, in order to be represented in the eyes of the State, especially on land

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

generate dialogue with indigenous leaders given the context of violence

against peasants. NINR’s purpose was to identify areas for expanding the

agricultural frontier in the Amazon region. Consequently, indigenous distrust

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.

Despite the efforts to control its population growing rate Iquitos

became larger, at the beginning of 1980’s. In order to improve population’s

quality of life, the State strengthened urban development policies and

implemented services like water sewage and electricity, constructed more

schools and invest in health facilities, emphasizing the differences with

indigenous settlements. Indigenous reacted creating a National Entity of

Indigenous Social Mobilization, which had strong impact on the development

and reorganization of indigenous property. By the end on 1980’s, and after

the first Amazon region strike, this entity achieved the promise of recognition

of indigenous territory as inalienable.

As a consequence of the worst economic crisis of Peruvian history, the

legal framework of early 1990’s gave favorable conditions for investments

engaged in the management of agro-industrial projects in the Amazon region.

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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

industries. The State needed a big amount of money injection to addressed

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

exchange of royalty for Peruvian State. Consequently, the Amazon region

experienced one of the worst environmental impacts: turning to be an

agrarian region to become the host region of combustible and gold

production without regional planning.

Fearing about the environmental degradation indexes for the first five

years of the decade, the State started to promote conservation programs and

developed legal framework to protect water resources and forest. To

illustrate, the State created the National Protected Areas System consisting in

territory exclusively dedicated to the protection and maintenance of

biodiversity and natural resources. Another example is the developing of the

Forest and Wildlife Conservation that confirmed that forests are national

treasures and established mechanism to rational exploitation and

reforestation. Additionally, the State implemented the Native Communities

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

their land as Inalienable and indefeasible.

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In order to complement the Native Communities Law, the State created

a very important entity, the Native communities Commission, to analyze land

problems of indigenous population, during the first years of 2000’s. One of

the most outstanding findings was that more than 70% of indigenous

community territories have not had property titles, and that was the principal

reason for been invaded by foreign investment, overlapping their territory

with large scale productive activities. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy

published new oil and gas findings in order to catch the attention of

international investors. As a result, the Peruvian State had stopped the

process of mapping indigenous territory.

In the context of the implementation of North America Free Trade

Agreement (NAFTA), Peruvian Congress discussed the amendments and laws

proposals for Garcia’s administration in order to promote private investment

in forestry and agricultural products, by mid 2000’s. Given the first

recognition of territorial gaps in the indigenous community, Indigenous

Federations refuses to start a dialogue with the State until it compromise to

finish the mapping process. As a result, the tension between State and

indigenous representation became violent concluding with a death toll of 33

people among indigenous and policeman.

5. Discussion

This paper starts with a historical reconstruction of natural resources

exploitation policies in the Amazon region, and stated that even though this

process promoted regional growth it also generated conflicts in terms of

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.

Although, Peruvian State promoted the Amazon region investment

colonization as a mechanism to produce more food supply, the real profits

were on the rubber production. Consequently, investments were located for

rubber production in large extensions and the need for labor force

encouraged population migration. After the rubber economic boom disparities

between peasant workers and investors extended, being reflected in the

contrast of Iquitos city and peasant rural settlements.

The State concern about indigenous population started right after the

first signs of violence and disagreement with land conflict process,

establishing unfavorable conditions for the continuation of investments.

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

region modifying land access policies. Peruvian State’s historical

contradiction generated mistrust amongst indigenous population. As a result,

they strongly rejected national authorities and constructed their own.

6. Conclusions

As we can see, the occupation of the Amazon region of Loreto started

as part of the planned process of occupation driven by the state to ease

production of food, but this carried to serious problems in terms of private

land ownership and economic production concessions, both agricultural,

mining and forestry. The growth of rural and urban areas has been largely

promoted by economic fronts, attracted by the development of Iquitos city.

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The development of Iquitos city, as part of the occupation of the

Amazon region after rubber boom was of utmost importance for the future

population settlement. The idea of maintaining a physical/institutional

presence worked not only to maintain national borders with Colombia and

Ecuador, but also to compete in the international market with Brazils

products. However, the investment planning did not consider migration

process and population’s high expectations of job supply and quality of life

improvement, given the large amount of private investments and the new

development of roads infrastructure.

Policy regulations in 1990’s represented a desperate reaction from

Peruvian State to confront crisis. Policies promoted open land market after

the recognition of the indigenous right over their territory back in 1980,

losing consistency amongst Amazon population. Opening land market to

international private resources and transferring ownership right to mining

companies through concession decreased the exclusive use of territory that

indigenous fought for many years. As a result, indigenous representatives

and Peruvian State staged a communication breakdown, rejecting every

dialogue proposal.

Peruvian State historical will is that the Amazon region has to be full

conceded to foreign investments. However, this time Indigenous Federations

have more acceptance and strength given the support of non indigenous

population in the Amazon region showed in the regional strike on July 2007

and for the first time back in 1980’s.

It is very important for a democratic process that every stakeholder is

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

possibility of participation and will create similar conflicts.

7. References

1. Aramburu, Carlos. (1982). Colonización en la amazonía. Lima (Peru).

Ediciones CIPA.

2. Barclay, F. (1991). Amazonía 1940-1990: El extravío de una ilusión.

Lima (Perú). Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú - CISEPA

3. Barclay, F and Santos Granero, F. (2002). La frontera domesticada.

Historia económica y social de Loreto, 1850-2000. Lima (Perú). Fondo

Editorial de la Pontifica Universidad Católica del Peru.

4. García, A. (October 28th, 2007). Extract retrieved from “El Síndrome

del Perro del Hortelano”. Diario El Comercio (Lima, Peru), p. a4.

Accesed October 17th 2010.

5. Hinojosa, D; Ricco, R and Toasa, A. (2009) ¿Peru come o se deja

comer? La matanza de Bagua y los decretos ejecutivos. Letras Verdes

Nº 4 (August 2009). Journal of the Social and Environmental Program of

the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) – Quito,

Ecuador. ISNN Nº 1390-4280. This article has been downloaded from:

http://www.flacsoandes.org/dspace/handle/10469/37

6. Inoach, G. (December, 2007). Diferencia entre el perro del Hortelano y

el perro del monte. Response letter to Alan Garcia’s article “El

síndrome del perro del hortelano”. Retrieved on October 17th, 2010

from AIDESEP website: http://www.aidesep.org.pe/index.php?id=13

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7. EFE Agency (Lima). (June 4th, 2010). Los heridos y deudos del Baguazo

demandan ‘justicia y reparación’. Diario El Comercio –e-version.

Retrieved on 20th October, 2010.

8. Martinez, H. (1976). Las colonizaciones selváticas dirigidas en el Perú:

antecedentes, actualidad y perspectivas. Lima (Peru). Centro de

Estudios de Población y Desarrollo.

9. Napolitano, D. and Ryan, A. (2007). The dilemma of contact: voluntary

isolation and the impacts of gas exploitation on health and rights in the

Kugapakori Nahua Reserve, Peruvian Amazon. Environmental Research

Letters Volume 2 Nº 4, 1-12. This article has been downloaded from

IOPscience.

10. Stetson, G. (2008). Indigenous politics, the state, and oil development

in the Peruvian Amazon. Conference Papers-Western Political Science

Association, 1-31. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database.

11. Varese, S. (1972). The forest Indians in the present political situation of

Peru. Copenhagen (Danmark).International Work Group for Indigenous

Affairs (IWGIA).

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