‘Response of the Kichwa people to Total Energies demanding to fully address their petition against human rights violations for the purchase of carbon credits from the Cordillera Azul National Park’, 09 May 2024

... The indigenous organisations, the Ethnic Council of the Kichwa Peoples of the Amazon (CEPKA), the Federation of Indigenous Kechwa Chazuta Amazonian Peoples (FEPIKECHA) and the Federation of Indigenous Kechwa Peoples of Bajo Huallaga San Martin (FEPIKBHSAM), and their regional organisation the Coordinator for the Development and Defence of the Indigenous Peoples of the San Martin Region (CODEPISAM), issued a letter of response to Total Nature Based Solutions (TENBS), part of the French corporate group Total Energies. ..

In July 2023, after almost a year of silence TENBS responded. However, for the Kichwa people this was a weak response and did not address their structural grievances...

...The rights as Kichwa people and ancestral owners of the forests overlain by the PNCAZ, and where TENBS has invested, have continued to be violated by its main managers, such as the National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (SERNANP) and the Centre for Conservation, Research and Management of Natural Areas (CIMA).

As such, they once again insist that TENBS can:

• Urge CIMA to ensure the correct application of its Human Rights Policy, in line with international and national law....
• Urge CIMA and SERNANP not to impede the demarcation of their collective territories within the PNCAZ, and to respect the proper application of ILO Convention 169 and Ministerial Resolution 0136-2022- MIDAGRI.
• Urge CIMA and SERNANP to ensure the full and effective participation of the Kichwa communities and representative organisations in the administration and management of the PNCAZ and its REDD+ project...
• Urge CIMA to guarantee the equitable distribution of benefits to the Kichwa communities and other affected indigenous peoples of the PNCAZ...
• Exhort CIMA to stop generating divisiveness and interference by disrespecting the structure of the Kichwa indigenous movement....

[...]

• Exhort CIMA to promote the construction of participative life plans in the native Kichwa communities affected by the PNCAZ and with the technical accompaniment of their representative organisations.

[...]

• Exhort SERNANP and CIMA to address in good faith, with political will and without delay, not one point but the entire Kichwa petition in relation to the PNCAZ, dealing with the pending issues....
• Report on how they are implementing their human rights due diligence obligation...
• Acknowledge through a letter to public opinion the conservation and climate change mitigation role of the Kichwa communities, indicating that the PNCAZ covers their ancestral territory and that it should be fairly recognised under the rights that protect them...

(Translated by the BHRRC)