Shipibo Leaders Unite to Form Organization for the Defense and Development of Indigenous Communities

Above: The Electoral Committee chosen during the Tribunal to oversee the election of officers for their new grassroots indigenous organization.

Over a two day period June 21st and 22nd over 30 Shipibo jefes (democratically elected community leaders) representing their communities along the Ucayali River in Peru's Amazon Basin came together for the first "Tribunal of Shipibo Jefe's" to discuss pressing issues faced by the Shipibo Nation such as the rapid increase in oil exploration and drilling in the region, illegal logging, education, and economic development. In a landmark decision, the Tribunal formed an organization to represent the Shipibo Nation on these issues and that no time should be wasted in its creation and by the end of the second day the Tribunal elected representatives to lead the their newly formed "Organization for the Defense and Development of the Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon" or ODDPIAP.

In January 2007 Village Earth facilitated a community strategic planning workshop where community leaders from the region came together to create a vision for their communities, identify the obstacles to achieving that vision and then identifying the practical strategies towards eliminating the obstacles that will move them towards their vision. Their vision included:

• Protection and defense of Shipibo territory
  
• Broader regional unity
  
• Cultural revival
  
• University scholarships for their children
  
• Small business development
  
• An Indigenous Bank to facilitate economic development
  
• Promoting indigenous foods for better nutrition
  
• Shipibo-run radio stations broadcasting throughout the region

It was decided by the group that while at the community-level there was a sufficient level organization through their system of community leaders and assemblies, there was no such organization to connect the individual Shipibo communities along the Ucayali River. This creates several problem when dealing with dealing with outside entities such as Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), entities with the Peruvian local, state, and national government, and corporations on shared issues such as illegal logging and oil and gas exploration and extraction as well as community development. Naturally, the absence of a unified voice makes it difficult to challenge threats to their region but also, the group decided that greater accountability is needed to ensure that NGO and Government resources are shared more equitably between the different Shipibo communities throughout the region. Thus, the idea for a Tribunal of Indigenous Leaders was born to rectify the problems of the underserved indigenous communities.

The Transitory Commission worked hard for 5 months to prepare for the Tribunal. Although funding issues cut it short, the Tribunal was highly successful in bringing indigenous leaders together to discuss shared challenges and hopes. Oil exploitation was a hot topic because many of the oil blocks located in the Ucayali region have recently been sold off to multinational oil companies. As well, indigenous leaders revisited the vision for the region that came out of the Village Earth workshop in January earlier this year. The leaders came to a consensus that in order to move forward on their vision, the creation of a grassroots indigenous organization was necessary.