An ongoing federal highway construction project in Peru threatens Maijuna, Kichwa, Bora and Huitoto peoples’ lands and two protected areas, according to Indigenous residents, local organizations and legal experts.
Many fear the highway will bring invasions, social conflicts, increased crime and environmental damage to the Peruvian Amazon.
Not all communities oppose the project, but they agree that the government must carry out prior consultation processes that it has failed to do in all but one community so far.
Legal experts have also called into question the government’s decision to divide the project into four parts, which they say is a mechanism used to obscure impacts and fast-track approvals.
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An ongoing federal highway project that will cross through protected areas and Indigenous lands in Peru’s Amazon is facing mounting concerns by Indigenous leaders and legal experts. Meant to help transport goods and people in the remote region, they say the highway will also help traffickers transport drugs, increase land invasions and put endangered wildlife habitats in jeopardy.
So far, impacts from the first stages of road construction have proven this to be the case.
The 188-kilometer (117-mile) Bellavista-Mazán-Salvador-El Estrecho highway aims to connect the provinces of Maynas and Putumayo in Loreto with the district of El Estrecho in Colombia. Some residents say the road will allow them greater access to markets and health centers. However, Maijuna, Kichwa, Bora, Huitoto and other communities are concerned about the lack of consultation by the government, which will give them greater say on the road’s outcomes. Only one community has been approached so far, and more consultations may be to come. But the fact that some communities indirectly impacted by the road were not consulted leaves many doubtful, sources say.
The first section of the road, which is now complete, runs from Peru’s Bellavista district to a town called Santo Tomás. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
The first section of the road, which is now complete, runs from Peru’s Bellavista district to a town called Santo Tomás. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
“[The road] not only threatens the territory but also the customs, living beings and the natural resources within these boundaries,” José Murayari, the vice president of the Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern Amazon (ORPIO), told Mongabay in a phone call. “We are not opposed to its construction, but we must understand that the road does not come with the package that is needed, such as education, health and food security. We demand that a sustainable road be built.”
If they could replan the project, Murayari said, an airport could perhaps bring more commercial opportunities.
First declared of public interest in 2011, the highway’s completion date is still unknown. The project has been divided into four parts, a move legal experts said, although legal, is used to obscure impacts and fast-track approvals.
The transportation ministry (MTC) and the consulting firm Consorcio Vial Atalaya, which is in charge of carrying out technical studies for this project, did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment before the time of publication.
The construction of the first section of the road has already led to deforestation along its route, raising fears about the devastation it will cause further along, where drug trafficking and illegal logging are already rampant. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
The construction of the first section of the road has already led to deforestation along its route, raising fears about the devastation it will cause further along, where drug trafficking and illegal logging are already rampant. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
Several communities live along the planned route, such as Centro Arenal, a Huitoto Indigenous community. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
Several communities live along the planned route, such as Centro Arenal, a Huitoto Indigenous community. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
Social and environmental impacts
Environmental organizations and legal experts, such as Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR) and Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA), are worried about the social and environmental impacts of the project, such as an increase in illegal logging and drug trafficking in Indigenous communities, regional protection areas and the proposed Medio Putumayo and Ere-Campuya conservation areas.
The first section of the road, which stretches 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Bellavista to Santo Tomás, was completed in 2021. According to a Huitoto leader from the Centro Arenal Native community, which is located near the start of the planned route, invasions, deforestation and land trafficking have increased since 2015, when the first section of the road was under construction.
“We have already noticed psychological, environmental, educational and health impacts,” Arthur Francis Cruz Ochoa, the leader of the Centro Arenal community, told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages. “There is a lot of drug trafficking already and this is a very, very big issue for us because there will be a lot of crime, there will be human trafficking, there will be many things that will cause migration and more.”
The first section of the road, which runs from Peru’s Bellavista district to a town called Santo Tomás, was completed in 2021. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
The first section of the road, which runs from Peru’s Bellavista district to a town called Santo Tomás, was completed in 2021. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
Although the environmental certification for the first section was approved before its construction, Bryan Jara, a legal specialist for SPDA’s environmental policy and governance program, told Mongabay it “underestimated the risks that the first section actually generated, such as the case of the invasion of territories of the Centro Arenal Native community or the generation of deforestation points that should be compensated.”
The Ministry of Transport (MTC) signed a contract with the consulting firm Consorcio Vial Atalaya in February 2024 to prepare the technical studies for the second section of the project, the 38.5-km (23.9-mi) Santo Tomás to Mazán route. This was supposed to be completed in January but has been delayed until later this year, Diego Saavedra, a DAR project leader said over a video call.
The fourth section of the road, which is by far the longest (147.4 km, or 91.6 mi), will run through the 395,620-hectare (977,600-acre) Maijuna-Kichwa reserve — an area larger than California’s Yosemite National Park and home to around 4,500 Indigenous Maijuna and Kichwa residents. Various species, such as the tapir (Tapiridae), jaguar (Panthera onca) and endangered giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), will be affected.
The construction of the first section of the road has already caused significant deforestation along its route. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
The construction of the first section of the road has already caused significant deforestation along its route. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
It will also impact the 434,129-hectare (1.1 million -acre) Ampiyacu-Apayacu reserve, which is home to 18 Native communities that live along the Ampiyacu-Apayacu river basins, as well as swamp forests and alluvial plains. Both regional conservation areas are part of a biological corridor that also includes Yaguas National Park in Peru and Cahuinarí and Amacayacu national parks in Colombia.
In some cases, impacts farther along the route are already being felt. Arlen Ribeira, the president of the Federation of Native Border Communities of Putumayo (FECONAFROPU), told Mongabay over a phone call that he has received threats on two occasions from Colombian drug traffickers who approached him near a river in Putumayo where his Huitoto community lives. The armed men showed him statements he sent to the government about the road and told him to stop denouncing the road “or else.”
For many years, drug traffickers have transported drugs in the area. “This road suits them,” Ribeira said.
While some Indigenous communities are in favor of the highway project, many fear the road will increase deforestation, invasions and drug trafficking within their ancestral lands. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
While some Indigenous communities are in favor of the highway project, many fear the road will increase deforestation, invasions and drug trafficking within their ancestral lands. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
Lack of consultation
Communities and Indigenous organizations, such as the FECONAFROPU and ORPIO, told Mongabay the government has not yet carried out a consultation process with affected communities, despite being required to do so by law. The only community that is undergoing the process of consultation is the Centro Arenal community.
In 2011, the Peruvian government passed a law that stated Indigenous peoples must be consulted before development projects are approved on their ancestral lands. Consent, however, is not required by national law, though it is recognized as an Indigenous right by the United Nations. At first, Peru had an exception to the rule that said prior consultation did not apply to public services. But this rule was eliminated in 2018.
The consultation process is broken down into seven stages, which include the identification of affected populations followed by the joint preparation of a consultation plan, the presentation of information about the potential impacts, the population’s own internal evaluations and subsequent discussions.
The Centro Arenal community is currently in the fourth stage, known as the information stage. Cruz told Mongabay the process has been suspended on several occasions because the MTC had not provided sufficient information for them to be able to analyze and evaluate the impacts.
The Centro Arenal community, which is located 20 minutes from the city of Iquitos in Loreto, is the only community that has been consulted by the government so far. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
The Centro Arenal community, which is located 20 minutes from the city of Iquitos in Loreto, is the only community that has been consulted by the government so far. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
Despite the legal recognition of prior consultation as a basic right in Peru, Saavedra said there are several issues with the country’s consultation law.
An element of this process that has been under dispute for some time is the definition of areas of direct and indirect impact, Saavedra said. “It is discretionary. There is no technical guide that helps them define exactly and transparently what the area of direct impact of a project is and what the area of indirect impact is.”
As a result, he explained, decisions such as who needs to be consulted are up to the entity in charge, such as the MTC.
In the case of the Bellavista-Mazán-Salvador-El Estrecho highway, the MTC has decided to only consult the communities in the direct impact zone, he said, which means many others that will likely be affected will not be consulted. “When we have insisted, the Ministry of Transport has always argued that they are not within the zone; it will not impact them.”
Jara also raised concerns about the government’s decision to divide the project into four sections. This is not illegal but it is a maneuver, also known as project splitting, frequently used by governments and developers around the world to obscure a project’s impacts and fast-track approvals, Saavedra said.
Governments and developers can bypass stricter environmental regulations by dividing the project into separate parts, allowing them to avoid the more comprehensive environmental assessment that comes with larger projects, César Ipenza, a Peruvian environmental lawyer, told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages.
He said this is “a common problem used to try and get around the law because it doesn’t allow for a comprehensive reading of the projects and its impacts.”
Citation:
Enríquez-de-Salamanca, A. (2016). Project splitting in environmental impact assessment. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 34:2, 152-159. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2016.1159425
Banner image: The first section of the road, which is now complete, runs from Peru’s Bellavista district to a town called Santo Tomás. Image by Vico Mendez / SPDA.
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