- Mongabay interviewed Julio Cusurichi Palacios, a prominent Indigenous leader from Peru, to hear his take on some of the latest and biggest events affecting Indigenous communities and forests in the country’s Amazon.
- Events include a resolution for oil palm that critics say could expand deforestation, delays in creating territories for isolated peoples, the passing of Pope Francis and the killing of Indigenous land defenders.
- Cusurichi Palacios and other Indigenous leaders came to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City to spotlight issues they face in their country.
- Julio Cusurichi Palacios has been a leader in Peru’s Amazon since the ’90s and currently serves on the national board of AIDESEP, a large Indigenous rights organization.
This is the first part of three interviews with Indigenous representatives attending the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues about the latest issues in their country’s Amazon forests. Read the interview about the Colombian Amazon here. The interview about the Brazilian Amazon is coming soon.
At one of the world’s largest gatherings of Indigenous peoples, the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City, leaders from across the globe came to spotlight issues they face in their country — often in front of their country’s government officials.
Among them was Julio Cusurichi Palacios, a prominent Indigenous leader from Peru, who spoke with us about his view on some of the latest and biggest events affecting Indigenous communities and forests in the country’s Amazon as well as the solutions he believes are needed.
Our conversation touched on a recent resolution to increase sustainable oil palm cultivation in the Amazon, an appeal hearing for illegal loggers convicted of killing four Indigenous leaders, Pope Francis’ passing and visit to the Amazon, and ongoing delays in the creation of territories for isolated peoples. More than half of Peru lies within the rainforest, and three Amazon regions — home to many Indigenous communities — lead the nation in tree cover loss, with more than 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of primary forest lost since 2001.
“The knowledge of Indigenous peoples must be strengthened,” Cusurichi Palacios said. “It can help, and perhaps even solve, the great problems and disasters facing our planet.”
A Shipibo leader from Madre de Dios, Cusurichi Palacios serves on the national board of AIDESEP, a large organization representing more than 2,400 Indigenous communities in Peru. A leader since the ’90s, Cusurichi Palacios won the environmental Goldman Award in 2007 for his work defending isolated and initially contacted peoples. He was president of his community, El Pilar, director of the local Indigenous federation FENAMAD and a deputy manager in the regional government of Madre de Dios.
This interview was translated from Spanish and edited for clarity. This is the first of three interviews with Indigenous Amazon leaders attending the U.N. forum.
Mongabay: What are the key objectives of your presence at the forum?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: We want to make our presence here visible. We want to position ourselves so that the great problems we have as Indigenous peoples are known. And so that this forum at the United Nations can make an impact in the states — in each state of each country — so that public policies in favor of our rights as Indigenous peoples can be developed.
Mongabay: At the forum, you’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on isolated and recently contacted people (also called uncontacted people). What are the main threats facing isolated peoples in Peru?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: Look, the main threat is the delay in the creation of territories for these peoples. In some cases, there are delays of eight years and even 20 years for the Peruvian government to create territorial reserves for these Indigenous brothers and sisters. The other case is the regulations that our rulers are bringing out, for example, the forestry law [an amendment that legalizes agricultural activities without certain environmental regulations]. It is a law that will legalize the invasion of the Amazonian territories, including in the territorial proposals.
The other threat is also the advance of road invasions, drug trafficking and illegal activities that threaten the principle of no contact with these isolated peoples. It’s also the principle of intangibility, which in one way or another includes the principle of no contact in the guidelines of the United Nations. When there is a road and when there are invasions because of some regulation that the government brings up, there is a contradiction. These are the great threats.
And added to this, when one also defends the rights of these peoples, many leaders are assassinated, many leaders are denounced. In my case, I am being denounced by a logging company, only for defending the rights of the isolated people.
Mongabay: And what do you think are the solutions?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: Now, what are our proposals to address this? We want the application of the international normative framework, ILO Convention 169, which Peru has ratified. And also, applying the norms on peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, we can accelerate the creation of the territorial reserves, with a control and surveillance system for these peoples.
There should also be support for programs by the communities that are surrounding the isolated reserves so that, in another way, they are the ones who can also protect these territories. I believe the other issue is that these bills, which, in one way or another, seek to disregard these Indigenous peoples, should be shelved.
Mongabay: Pope Francis died during your time at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Can you talk about what you think of his legacy, especially in Madre de Dios where he visited Indigenous Amazon leaders and where you’re from?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: Well, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with Pope Francis on Jan. 19, 2018, in Madre de Dios. There, we made known these problems that I am talking about. But the important thing about the pope is that he has spoken about the problems and he has helped strengthen the actions that we have been doing. For example, some of the important issues like the defense of the common home, the defense of nature, but also respect and justice for the Indigenous peoples. Few world leaders have spoken about our issues, and the pope said publicly the rights of Indigenous peoples were historically violated. That’s why the pope’s visit was important.
Mongabay: The conclave expects to meet and elect the new pope in early May. How do you want the new pope to relate to Indigenous peoples, including isolated peoples?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: We are going to give spiritual strength from our territories so that the Catholic Church continues to choose a character who can continue what Pope Francis positioned in 2018. Justice does not have to just be about economic activities, and we all share the same life. We recommend someone who has that same vision, that same commitment to humanity. Let us hope that the new pope is a person who can continue implementing the position the pope who passed away has been talking about.
Mongabay: Bioeconomies may have great potential for the Amazon, researchers say. Studies say a standing Amazon could create an $8 billion bioeconomy. But at the moment, Indigenous peoples reap the smallest share of profits and have difficulty getting their products to markets. What do you think is the potential of the bioeconomy? And how can communities and policymakers tackle challenges it faces?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: If the bioeconomy is going to be in accordance with what is being done now, in other words taking out the resources that exist in the territories and only a group of transnational businesspeople are going to benefit, it is going to continue with the same plundering, the same injustice and the same contamination that’s destroying the Amazon.
So, I think it should be an economy that also protects resources and biodiversity and not one that bleeds the territory and results in these big [environmental] disasters. I believe that the knowledge of Indigenous peoples must be strengthened and that it can help perhaps solve the great problems and disasters on the planet.
Mongabay: On March 22 this year, the ministry of agriculture issued a ministerial resolution called the Management Instrument for the Sustainable Development of Palm Oil in Peru. The resolution seeks to expand the agricultural frontier and the production of palm oil, as well as to improve competitiveness in the palm oil chain with a sustainability focus. Critics say it will increase deforestation and did not involve Indigenous organizations in the development of the standard. Do you have any comments on this resolution?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: We think this is one more norm that our Peruvian government is introducing to facilitate the handing over of the territories for this activity, which, in practice, will pollute, will accelerate biodiversity loss. We do not agree with this because it is a norm that facilitates extractivists to continue eating up the Amazon.
Mongabay: The justice of Ucayali is now holding an appeal hearing for illegal loggers convicted of killing four Indigenous leaders 11 years ago from the Ashéninka Alto Tamaya-Saweto community. In 2024, the loggers were sentenced to 28 years and three months in prison. Public prosecutors are asking for tougher sentences while defendants plead not guilty and seek to annul the sentence altogether. Do you have a comment on this?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: Yes. AIDESEP is part of the defense of these Indigenous brothers who were killed. In the Amazon, there are more than 35 leaders who were killed for defending the territory and the Amazon. For these four brothers of the Saweto community, after about nine years of a judicial process, it has now started from zero. But AIDESEP, we are there doing the defense and we believe that the judicial authority must find those responsible as soon as possible.
If not, this would be a scandal. Because we will see that those who have money will win a judicial process and not the ones who have the truth. So, I think that here I make a very strong call to the judicial authorities in Peru that they should already have results of this judicial process where four Indigenous brothers have left their wives, their children, their communities. Nevertheless, justice is very slow.
From here, I also call on the international organizations, the embassies, which of course are vigilant. May there be justice as soon as possible, not only for the four killed, but for the 35 Indigenous leaders who have died defending the territory and defending the Amazon.
Mongabay: What is AIDESEP preparing for the upcoming U.N. climate conference in Belém, Brazil (also known as COP30)?
Julio Cusurichi Palacios: We have already begun preparing. AIDESEP has a document called AGA, the ‘big agenda of the Indigenous peoples.’ It has 13 points, and we are going to use it as an institutional document. We are working on the issue of health, education, Indigenous economies, women’s and children’s programs, etc. We are working to include it in the conference’s agenda.
This is very important because AIDESEP is coming up with a proposal to see how this can be converted into public policies so the government in Peru can integrate it into the government’s plan. It is an important step, but we hope the authorities will react, taking into account that Peru is a multicultural and multilingual country.
Banner image: A Shipibo leader from Madre de Dios, Cusurichi Palacios serves on the national board of AIDESEP, a large organization representing more than 2,400 Indigenous communities in Peru.
‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
Citation:
Casas, G. G., Baselly-Villanueva, J. R., Limeira, M. M., Torres, C. M., & Leite, H. G. (2023). Classifying the risk of forest loss in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest: An alternative approach for sustainable forest management using artificial intelligence. Trees, Forests and People. doi:10.2139/ssrn.4486512
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