“Highway construction in the Amazon continues despite cop commitments” – 13 November 2021

Peru’s adoption of the Glasgow Declaration on forest conservation and land-use comes despite ongoing private sector collusion with regional and local governments in the Amazon to build roads that threaten both the environment and indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. In a message to COP26 President Pedro Castillo expressed “our commitment to conservation and the sustainable use of our Amazon in the context of climate change and the fight against deforestation”…The construction of roads, often informally and without legal permits, are facilitating the spread of drug trafficking, illegal logging and mining, deforestation, human trafficking and illegal wildlife commerce. All of these threaten the lives and livelihoods of indigenous communities…On 2 November, In response to the illegal construction of one of these roads in Loreto region (LO 105), the Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL), the Institute for Forestry and Environmental Studies (Kené) and the Pachamama Alliance in Peru presented a writ in the fourth constitutional court in Lima. This seeks to stop the violation of the rights of the isolated peoples in the Yavarí Mirim Indigenous Reserve – rights to life, physical integrity and a clean environment.