Press Releases

10/29/2024

Rainforest to make way for road – despite protests

“Road construction is a threat to Indigenous communities”

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) warns that a planned road construction project through the Amazon rainforest in Peru is a threat to Indigenous peoples: Road UC-105 is supposed to connect the village of Puerto Breu with Nueva Italia in the Ucayali region and continue to the border with Brazil. Several Indigenous communities have been protesting against the project since 2021, but the National Congress of Peru, the regional government of Ucayali, and the local government of the province of Atalaya are trying to push the project forward.

In a joint statement, several representatives of Indigenous organizations in Peru and Brazil are demanding that the project be stopped. They established a “cross-border commission”, criticizing that “…the construction of this completely illegal road violates the legal framework for the protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples as well as Peru’s commitments with regard to climate change.”

“The road construction project is a threat to various Indigenous cultures and communities. Further, the project is a serious threat to the region’s rich biodiversity,” stated Eliane Fernandes, STP expert on Indigenous peoples. “It is crucial that hat the Peruvian government respects and enforces the consultation rights of Indigenous peoples. In the scope of bilateral cooperation projects, the German Federal Government should act on the Peruvian government accordingly – and demand it to stop the construction of road UC-105,” Fernandes added.

According to the Indigenous representatives from the regions of Alto Yurúa, Juruá, and Alto Tamaya, it is very important for the Indigenous communities to protect the forests and the biodiversity. In their statement, they also point out the danger that their water sources – which are also of great historic and cultural significance – could be destroyed by projects like this, emphasizing the possible consequences to peoples living in voluntary isolation.

In their statement, which was fleshed out during a meeting of the “cross-border commission” at the beginning of October, the Indigenous representatives also demand:

  • a statement by the Peruvian authorities regarding the plans and further measures in connection with the construction of road UC-105 between Nueva Italia and Puerto Breu, for which additional technical studies and consultation processes are required;
  • immediate action by the Peruvian government to stop the illegal construction of road UC-105;  
  • a halt to all projects and measures that directly or indirectly affect Indigenous peoples and their territories and that were decided on without the necessary consultations. The rights of Indigenous communities are established in Law No. 29785 and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (ILO 169), which was ratified by the Peruvian state and, therefore, is binding for all authorities on the national, regional, and local level;
  • the foreign ministries of the governments of Peru and Brazil to join forces to stop the advance of drug trafficking as well as the influx of settlers into the regions of Alto Yurúa, Juruá, and Alto Tamaya;
  • the Peruvian and Brazilian governments to pay more attention to Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation as well as the Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (PIIRC) living in the border region of Alto Yurúa, Juruá, and Alto Tamaya;
  • the Peruvian government to finally provide support for the community of Alto Tamaya Saweto to help them defend their territory and establish justice for the victims of 2014;
  • the deployment of police forces to monitor the border region of Yurúa, Juruá, and Alto Tamaya to prevent illegal activities in the region.