A call for a binational protected area for uncontacted indigenous communities in the border area between Brazil and Peru.

Leading representatives of the main association for indigenous communities in the Amazon region are calling for a binational protected area for uncontacted indigenous communities in the border area between Brazil and Peru. On Monday night (local time) – during an informative side event of the Rio +20 Conference on Sustainable Development, organized by the Society for Threatened Peoples International (STPI) – the human rights activist Franz Fluch emphasized once more that the inhabitants of the rainforest have a right to live their traditional way of life. Deforestation, mining and the construction of power plants in the protected area should therefore be strictly prohibited. This would also be an important contribution to matters of global climate change, because an intact rain forest is of great importance here. Fluch emphasized that the original idea for the protected area was brought up by indigenous communities who are campaigning for population groups who live in voluntary isolation.

"Indigenous communities should be involved in negotiations about large construction sites, infrastructure measures and other projects on their territory, even outside of the protected area which is still to be established," said Fluch. Their right to a genuine free, prior and informed consent is regulated by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international conventions. These regulations should assure them to be equally represented in negotiations, including them to be able to reject any project. Nevertheless, this right is regularly ignored by the respective governments. "It is important for us, that the free, informed and prior consent of the Amazonian states is not only ratified but also implemented," stressed Marco Apurinã, Secretary General of the COIAB*.

The Society for Threatened Peoples International criticizes that the indigenous communities will not be mentioned in the conference's final document, which still has to be signed by the state representatives. In view of the human rights organization, it would be absolutely necessary to take the concept of free, informed and prior consent into consideration.

* At the side event in Rio, which was organized by the Society for Threatened Peoples International, there were speeches by representatives of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest, "Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana" (AIDESEP), the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin "Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica "(COICA) and the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazililan Amazon "Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira"(COIAB).