Protecting Indigenous Land in the Amazon

During the Village Earth Peru Project Coordinator’s last trip to Peru, the Shipibo leaders we were working with asked Village Earth to let the world know about the complex political situation with regard to land rights in the Peruvian Amazon.

Oil Development

According to our indigenous partners, the Peruvian government is currently in the process of a major land-grab. In fact, many suggest that Peru is violating ILO Convention 169 as well as the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, resolutions to which Peru is a signatory and which require free, prior and informed consent for all development projects on indigenous territories. During the past three months, PeruPetro (the state hydrocarbon licensing agency) and PetroVietnam (the state run Vietnamese oil company that recently leased the rights to extract oil in the Shipibo territory) were holding “informational” meetings for indigenous leaders in an obvious attempt to bypass their representative indigenous organizations. Importantly, the meetings are held months and even years after the Peruvian government has already leased indigenous people’s lands to oil companies, which means that indigenous people have no real opportunity to oppose development project on their lands. In reality, they hold the meetings only to inform the communities that oil exploration and later extraction will take place.

According to one Shipibo leader who attended one of these informational meetings, PeruPetro said “The contract has been signed, and there is nothing the communities can do about it.” The leader then commented “where was the consultation BEFORE they sold our lands? How can you sell someone’s lands and then only consult with them afterwards?” Another Shipibo leader likened this practice to someone entering your house and knocking after they are already inside and says “oh by the way, we’re going to be working inside your house.”

Another strategy of PeruPetro to appear that they have approval from indigenous communities is to ask indigenous leaders to sign paperwork. According to our sources, some of the leaders signed PeruPetro’s paperwork without even knowing what they were signing. There have been other reports of underhanded dealings by extractive industry representatives of getting indigenous leaders to sign blank pieces of paper and then attaching some type of contract that gives them permission to enter an indigenous community.

According to Shipibo leaders, they specifically asked PetroVietnam how the communities are going to benefit from oil development. One of PetroVietnam’s expressed goals in the material they passed out to indigenous leaders is to “enrich the quality of life in the communities and protect the environment”. Yet, at the meetings PetroVietnam never answered the question. Although Shipibo leaders are skeptical of oil development, if it is going to come anyway, they would at least like to be able to secure employment with the company. And when they asked if this was going to happen, the industry reps replied “Yes, but only those with the proper requisites and papers.” None of the indigenous leaders have any idea what that the proper requisites or papers were.

In response to these community concerns, Village Earth and our community partners have developed a “hydrocarbon awareness” workshop for Shipibo communities that receive very little information about oil development that will ultimately affect them. The workshop consists of giving communities information about the oil lot that they are located in and the company to whom the lot has been leased. This is followed by a video about the environmental contamination and devastation in the Rio Corrientes River Basin caused by oil exploitation, then followed by a discussion about the community’s rights and the problems associated with oil development. This workshop was developed as a defense against the flood of government and oil company propaganda, which claim that oil development will bring jobs to indigenous communities (oil companies generally hire very few indigenous workers) and that oil extraction technology has improved so much that they don't contaminate anymore (in fact, it is impossible to extract oil without contamination). We would finally end with a community strategic planning session to determine the priorities and sustainable development projects that communities would like to do as opposed to oil development. For example, one community decided they would like to carry out sustainable agro-forestry projects combined with reforestation to sell agricultural products for income generation without destroying the forest.

Government Settlement Schemes

Another challenge faced by indigenous communities in Peru's Amazon basin is the illegal colonization of their lands. Each day, thousands of acres of indigenous territories are cleared for settlement while the government turns a blind-eye. It is believed this is just an extension of the government’s broader agenda to privatize indigenous territories. In fact, low-level government bureaucrats within the Ministry of Agriculture have been caught selling 30-100 hectare parcels of indigenous territories to non-indigenous colonists. This is partly the result of a land titling process that is, according to the Shipibo and other indigenous peoples, utterly chaotic. However, through Village Earth’s mapping and surveying work we have been able to shed light on this problem.

In one community where we have been working for many years, the small walking trail that used to run through the far end of the community has now been widened and improved by the government in order to make it easier to travel between the district capital and a large pristine lake that many indigenous communities rely on for water and fishing. Non-indigenous fisherman are now overfishing the lake, oil companies are said to have discovered oil in this area, and of course with the expansion of roads comes loggers and more colonists. Along this particular road, over 80 allotments inside one indigenous community have already been sold to outsiders. Of course all of this is illegal under Peruvian law, but indigenous communities have little legal or political recourse in order to stop it. Village Earth is supporting grassroots community-organizing efforts precisely to stop these illegal settlements.

Bureaucratic Nightmare

While surveying territories and formalizing titles are clear strategies that indigenous communities can take to protect their lands, they face an uphill battle when dealing with government bureaucracy. In fact, the same government agencies that are supposed to title indigenous lands and small farm holders, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Commission to Formalize Informal Property (COFOPRI), are the source of many of the problems they are supposed to be solving. We have noted several examples of these agencies providing titles that overlap existing titles causing major problems between neighboring indigenous communities and also between indigenous and non-indigenous small farmers and communities. The indigenous communities we have been working with decided that visible demarcation of their territory (with signs notifying people when they enter community territory) and a committee within the community to constantly monitor their lands are the best ways to protect their lands. But oftentimes these communities’ borders are ambiguous because of the poor original titling process and overlapping titles. Yet, in a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and COFOPRI, COFOPRI stated that they are trying to stay out of these “social problems” by not being involved in the demarcation process of indigenous communities. So, it appears they have adopted an out-of-sight, out-of-mind policy. It is clear that this inaction on the part of COFOPRI will only make the situation worse.

At least from this whole experience Village Earth and the indigenous communities we work with are learning a lot about the political and legal process of protecting indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon. Slowly but surely, by working with indigenous rights organizations, other allies, and colonist settlers, we are hoping to mitigate the problems and find solutions that work for both parties. Through mapping and continued monitoring of indigenous lands, we will be able to take a proactive role in this process before it’s too late.

Although we have a long struggle ahead, the indigenous communities nor Village Earth have given up hope that it is possible for indigenous communities to determine their own futures without the presence extractive industries on indigenous territories.

Shipibo Radio Network

Photo: Participants in the 4-day hands-on community-based radio workshop with their handmade antennas, radio transmitters, and all the parts necessary for 4 complete radio stations throughout the Central Peruvian Amazon.

Village Earth has spent the past three months preparing for and implementing four community-based radio stations throughout the Ucayali Region of the Peruvian Amazon. In a strategic planning session with Village Earth in 2007, the Shipibo community leaders decided that the creation of their own radio stations to improve communication in the region is an important part of their vision for the future of the Shipibo Nation.

Photo: Building the Radio Transmitters.

In October 2009, the Shipibo achieved this goal with the help of Village Earth and Project Tupa of Free Radio Berkeley. Project Tupa traveled to Peru for a 4-day radio workshop where participants from four communities learned to build FM radio transmitters by-hand. The hands-on nature of the workshop will lend to the success of the radios because the participants are intimately familiar with every part and component of the radio, this will lead to the sustainability of the radio transmitters. They also learned to use soldering irons to solder small components onto the circuit boards. Project Tupa also taught the participants to scrap old electronics as a cheap way to get replacement parts. If a part were to burn out, the workshop participants would know where to find the parts and how to replace them without waiting for some technical expert or international funding.

Photo: It takes a lot of people working together to build a radio transmitter by hand in 4 days.

Photo: They learned to use soldering irons to solder small parts onto the circuit board of the amplifier.

In many remote regions of the Amazon, radio serves as one of the only means of getting news and information to communities. At the beginning of workshop, indigenous leaders talked about the importance and significance of indigenous-language and bi-lingual radio because the radio stations in the city require a certain amount of Spanish-language programming. Because each of the four radios will be controlled by an elected committee within each community, the communities will decide on the radio programming. Community members have already come up with program ideas such as an environmental education program, local news, and an oil awareness program to discuss oil exploitation in the region.

During the workshop the participants decided to form a radio network called “Red de Radio Emisora de la Amazonia Peruana “Xawanbo” (Radio Transmitter Network of the Peruvian Amazon “Macaw” in English). This radio network will be a point of access to resources for the radio network to share resources and information between the four community-based radio stations. More communities are already interested in joining this network and starting their own community-based radio station.

Photo: They learned to scrap old electronics for parts to build and repair their radio transmitters.

These radios will be an important tool in Shipibo cultural self-determination, defense of their lands and resources, and the development of their communities.

We are hoping to expand both the coverage area through more strategically-placed community-based radio stations, and also to expand the current radios programming capabilities by getting more equipment for field reporting (such as laptop computers and digital voice recorders). We also hope to provide more training in advanced radio programming and to continue to build the capacity of the radio network to be a strong, empowering force for the self-determination of the Shipibo Nation.

Thank you to First Peoples Worldwide for a Keepers of the Earth grant, Project Tupa for donating their time training, and to all of the Village Earth individual donors who helped make this possible!

The following map shows the transmission of the radio stations throughout the region. The four communities who received the radios were elected during a previous Village Earth workshop of indigenous leaders. As you can see there are still some gaps to fill in the region, and more communities in the region are asking to join the radio network.

For more information, on do-it-yourself radio check out: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8336941/Micropower-Broadcasting-Primer

Peru Service Learning Trip

For more information or to fill out the application online check out Isla's website (www.isla-serve.org), 970-372-9515, info@isla-serve.org

Viva la Salsa! Latin Dance Party Fundraising Event

What: Village Earth is hosting a Latin Dance Party to benefit our work with indigenous communities in Peru. Lots of great music and even a quick dance lesson for those that want to learn to dance salsa! Also, beautiful and unique arts and crafts from indigenous artisans in the Peruvian Amazon. And beer will be provided by Odell's brewing company!

When: Friday, April 24, 2009, 7:30pm

Where: Club Tico in City Park. 1599 City Park Drive, Fort Collins, CO.

Who: Everyone's invited!!

Why: We are trying to raise money for the many projects we are working on to support the self-determination efforts and alternative development plans of the Shipibo people.

How: It's only $5 to get in at the door the night of the event. (We're not doing advanced ticket sales for this event.)

We hope to see you there! It's going to be lots of fun and all proceeds benefit Village Earth!

For more information contact Kristina Pearson at kristina@villageearth.org or 970-491-5754.

Isla creates new 8-week service learning trip to Peru starting June 20, 2009

Isla (International Service Learning Alliance) is excited to offer you their newest sustainable development and service-learning opportunity in the Ucayali Region of the Central Peruvian Amazon, hosted by Village Earth. People interested in ecotourism, environmental conservation, wildlife species research, and teaching English should apply at
http://isla-serve.org/apply.html

The deadline to apply has been extended to May 1, 2009.

This is a great opportunity to work with Village Earth in the field! Training for all of Isla's programs is provided by Village Earth.

Isla's Peru program is a great opportunity for small groups who want to learn, travel and serve together through sustainable development. Program fees are significantly reduced for groups of 2 to 10 people. Volunteer programs available from 2-8 weeks.

For more information contact Chelsea DeFoort at cdefoort@isla-serve.org or 970.372.9516.

Additional programs are available for the summer and fall of 2009 in Bulgaria, Ghana, and India.

Service-learning builds your professional profile while expanding your perspectives in global development. Isla offers you a unique experience by matching your skill sets and passion with their program partners across the globe. If you have felt the need to learn how to make a difference in your own life and share in the lives of your fellow citizens across oceans, now is your opportunity!

Village Earth Peru Study Tour

Above: Participants in the first annual Village Earth Peru study tour visiting the National Intercultural University of the Amazon to meet with indigenous leaders.

This June 2008 Village Earth offered a 9-day "study tour" to the Peruvian Amazon. The tour visited two Shipibo communities in the Ucayali region with whom Village Earth has a close working relationship. Participants received big welcomes from both communities which included traditional music and dance. The study tour visited reforestation projects, met with local indigenous leaders to learn about the reality of the region, and attended artisan exhibitions of traditional local crafts. Participants were also taken on jungle hikes where indigenous guides shared their knowledge of the forest, and even a jungle cruise where they were taught to fish for piranha and shoot a bow and arrow. This tour employed many local guides in each activity so that participants could learn directly from local people themselves. Participants even had the option to partake in special healing ceremonies with Shipibo shamans.

The purpose of this study tour was to explore and test the potential for community-owned and directed tourism that is not only fun for the tourists but also educational. Shipibo guides educated the participants about both their current and historical reality and the ways they are trying to transform their lives for the future and protect their forest livelihoods.

We made every effort, during the 9-day tour, to ensure that as much money as possible from the tour went directly to Shipibo communities, we hired all local guides, and participants stayed with local families or in communal tourist lodgings built by the community. Plus, the participants purchased many crafts directly from indigenous artisans. The participants got access to Shipibo communities and activities that few people have the privilege to experience. In all it was a great success and we look forward to hosting another tour next year.

If you have a group that is interested in organizing a similar tour you can contact Kristina Pearson at +1-970-491-5754 or kristina@villageearth.org

Above: Sunrise over Yarinacocha Lake in the Peruvian Amazon.

Training More Peruvian Activators

Above: Alejandra and Nixon present a map of Peru.

Nixon Yuimachi, a Shipibo artist, and Alejandra, who has been working with Shipibo women craft cooperatives, were both able to attend Village Earth/ the International Institute for Sustainable Development's "Participatory Practices for Sustainable Development" (PPSD) training course. The course was held in May 2008 at Colorado State University, and participants from all over the world attended. Nixon and Alejandra both found the workshop very useful to their future work with communities in Peru. Nixon plans to return home and create a community-based conservation area in order to protect the Amazon ecology, as well as an art school/ museum that will teach young Shipibo traditional Shipibo arts, as well as showcase arts from throughout the region.


Above: Nixon Yuimachi presents with Kristina Pearson from Village Earth about their work in the region to the workshop participants.

Helping Shipibo people to attend our training courses is part of Village Earth's strategy to build up a trained internal catalytic force. Indigenous leaders and change agents receive training in community mobilization and participatory techniques to work with communities toward their own vision for the future. Limber Gomez, a Shipibo leader who attended this training course last year, has been instrumental in forming a grassroots youth environmental organization as well as mobilizing the Ucayali region to work toward indigenous rights and environmental defense through his radio program, community work, and educational workshops using new techniques he learned in the PPSD course.

If you are interested in learning more about this workshop, or sponsoring a Shipibo participant to attend a future training, please visit: http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/IISD/Seminars.html

Organization of Mothers Craft Cooperative Revisited

Through their partnership with Village Earth, The Organization of Mothers craft cooperative was able to receive a small materials grant from Aid to Artisans.


The women were able to buy materials in bulk that could be shared between them and also a semi-industrial sewing machine to increase production. They felt that increasing craft production and making it a legitimate business activity is the best way in which they can increase their income but at the same time assert their right to cultural self-determination through their highly symbolic craftwork. The group has not only increased their sales and income, but the group has also doubled in size with many more women seeing the benefit of working together in a cooperative. The women also created a "materials bank" in which they must reinvest 30% of their sales back into their materials fund. Because the women use many natural materials in their art, they have a program of reforestation to cultivate and replant plants that provide natural fibers, dyes, and seeds that they use in their craftwork.

The most important impact the grant had is that the women are really at the point to take off in their business. They just need access to markets and they are ready to start selling and increasing production. They’ve got their cooperative procedures down, a materials fund, and a critical mass of women to really make a big impact in the well-being of the community. Everything is ready; it is just access to markets as the necessary next step.

Village Earth has been connecting the Organization of Mothers little by little to different national and international markets. If you would like to help the women by selling their crafts, please contact kristina@villageearth.org or +1-970-491-5754.

The women can arrange for international shipping of bulk orders.

Latin Dance Party/ Art Show Fundraiser

Join us for a "Journey to the Amazon: Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice in Peru"!

A fundraiser to support Village Earth's projects with indigenous communities of the Peruvian Amazon.

Latin Dance Party - Learn to dance salsa and other traditional Peruvian dances!
There will also be speakers, an art show, craft sale, and silent auction with arts and crafts by Shipibo artisans of the Peruvian Amazon. There will be lots of cool art and crafts for sale including hand-made jewelry!

Food and drinks will be provided by the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant! Their famous margaritas will be available!

Wednesday, April 23
7:00 - 8:30 pm (Dancing & drinks 'til 10:30pm)

Location: Agave Room (Above the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant in Old Town)
149 W. Mountain Ave.
Fort Collins, CO

Ticket Prices: $15 students; $25 non-students (All proceeds go to support indigenous community initiatives in the Peruvian Amazon!)
(TICKETS IN ADVANCE ONLY)
Available at www.villageearth.org or 970-491-5754

For more information, please contact Kristina Pearson at kristina@villageearth.org


Visit our sponsor - the Rocky Mountain Chronicle



PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Kristina Pearson
kristina@villageearth.org
491-5754

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOCAL NON-PROFIT ALLIES IN THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE AMAZON

April 15, 2008. Fort Collins, CO: The Amazon basin in Peru is quickly being sold off to oil companies, industrial-scale agricultural production, and loggers. “We indigenous peoples only want tranquility and happiness this is our development as said by our elders,” said Shipibo leader Limber Gomez who visited Fort Collins last August 2007. One Fort Collins non-profit has allied with indigenous communities in Peru to stop the sale of the Amazon and offer alternatives to the unsustainable path of development pursued by the corporations and the government. Village Earth, founded by long-time CSU professor and Peace Corps developer Dr. Maury Albertson, is making a difference.

Village Earth has been working internationally with indigenous communities to help them determine their own sustainable development initiatives. In Peru, Village Earth is working with native communities on many projects from clean water to opening an indigenous bank where entrepreneurs can take small loans to start businesses. With current concerns about global warming, awareness is increasing that sustainable development initiatives are extremely important in the Amazon since it is an area of global environmental importance for its roles in mitigating climate change.

Village Earth is offering the Northern Colorado community an opportunity to be a part of these important efforts. Wednesday, April 23 7:00-8:30pm Village Earth will have a Latin Dance and art show event “Journey to the Amazon: Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice in Peru” to raise funds for their various projects in the Peruvian Amazon. The event will be held in the Agave Room above the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant (149 W. Mountain Ave.). Tickets are $15 students; $25 non-students (Tickets are available in advance only.) For more information, contact Village Earth (491-5754) or www.villageearth.org.

_________________________________________________________________________

April 12, 2008

Dear Friend of Village Earth,

As a supporter of Village Earth YOU have the opportunity to make a difference. Join us for a fun evening of dancing and art in solidarity with Shipibo communities of the Peruvian Amazon. The Peruvian government is increasingly privatizing the land and resources of the Amazon rainforest. Traditionally held communal lands, non-titled indigenous lands, and forest areas of immense biodiversity will be sold to private landowners and foreign corporations under the new Ley de la Selva (Law of the Jungle). Many indigenous peoples and environmentalists are claiming that this law is just a facade to open up the Amazon to logging companies.

Help us stop the sale of the Amazon!

A note from Shipibo leader and Village Earth friend, Limber Gomez (pictured above, a member of the Organization for the Defense and Development of the Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon, ODDPIAP):

“Facing the threatening law Nº 840, called the “Law of the Jungle”, the indigenous peoples of the Ucayali region of Peru are in the process of uniting to discuss this turn of events, as well as the new alliance between the regional government and Peru Petro (the state-run oil licensing agency), so that we, the indigenous peoples, can form a regional front in the Ucayali.

Today more than ever before, we the indigenous peoples of the Ucayali are defending our lands and territories. We are not going to permit the contamination of our ecosystem and the environment by transnational corporations. The transnational corporations come with the story that they will give work to indigenous peoples when they enter our territories. Already we have been through this experience of lies and genocide many times before.

First comes our health and second our development. An old Shipibo elder has predicted that if we allow the exploitation of our resources, in time, Peru will convert to a desert as told by our concerned elders.

We indigenous peoples only want tranquility and happiness, this, this is our development as said by our elders.”

How does this concern you?

The destruction of the Amazon and the indigenous communities who call it home affects us all. With current concerns about global warming, awareness is increasing that the Amazon is an area of global environmental importance for its roles in cleaning the air and mitigating climate change. As well, the preservation of the wealth of species and cultures is invaluable to humanity.

“Thank you, Village Earth. You are helping us to make history”

- Cecilio Soria, (pictured above with his grandmothers) Shipibo
leader and host of the renowned radio program Indigenous Voice

Therefore, we invite you to be a part of helping the indigenous peoples of the Amazon determine their own futures and “make history” by attending this fundraising event:

Journey to the Amazon: Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice

This event will take place Wednesday, April 23 7-8:30 PM (drinks and dancing ‘til 10:30). The funds we raise at this event will be to support the many projects we are working on with indigenous communities in Peru.

For just $10,000, we can accomplish the following project activities this year:

• For $1000 - We can facilitate the second annual indigenous tribunal bringing community chiefs and indigenous leaders together to discuss their integrated development plan for the region and the defense of their forests in partnership with the new Shipibo organization ODDPIAP;
• For $4000 – We will set up and maintain an indigenous-run service center in Pucallpa, Peru where indigenous community members can get access to resources for their various projects. This service center will also be home to an indigenous bank from which ODDPIAP will begin a micro-loan program to promote small enterprise development;
• For $1000 - We can implement a clean water project using a new ceramic sand filter prototype that will be produced locally and will provide clean drinking water to remote indigenous communities in our continued partnership with the Engineers Without Borders Professional Chapter (Fort Collins);
• For $2000 – We can set-up and train local leaders in the operation of a community-based radio station in one remote indigenous community in collaboration with local community-based radio station KRFC. They can then broadcast throughout the region news and information in their own language and under their control;
• And finally for $2000 - We will bring two Shipibo leaders to attend the PPSD training here in Fort Collins this May 2008.

So please call (491-5754) or go online today (www.villageearth.org) to get your tickets (TICKETS AVAILABLE IN ADVANCE ONLY – Please RSVP by Friday, April 18)! Please invite your friends!

• Tickets for students are $15
• Tickets for non-students are $25

We hope to see you there! It’s going to be a fun event where you can learn different Latin and traditional Peruvian dances and enjoy food from the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant. If you have any questions, send me an e-mail at kristina@villageearth.org, or call us here at the office 491-5754. Thanks for your continued support of Village Earth!

PERUPETRO Presentation at the Road Show in Houston

Road Show Houston, February 8, 2008.

This video shows evidence of a speech that Cesar Sarasara from CONAP has said that CONAP is in favor of oil development in the Peruvian Amazon. This video also shows the intervention by Robert Guimaraez, of AIDESEP, during the presentation asking PeruPetro to stay off lands inhabited by uncontacted indigenous groups and environmentally fragile areas of the Amazon. This video also shows the protest at the event.

Amazon Anti-Oil Campaign

Thank you to all who supported this important campaign!

National and international allies staged an important protest outside the Houston Petroleum Club, while the vice president of AIDESEP (the Inter-ethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Amazon), Robert Guimaraes, took the opportunity to speak to potential investors and let them know the risks of investing in oil development in the Amazon.

Unfortunately, two of the three Shipibo delegates were not able to make the trip because their visas were denied by the US government. In many respects, this symbolizes the obstacles that indigenous people face in participating in global dialogue that are crucial in exercising the right to determine their own "development" path.

The good news is that Robert Guimaraes was able to deliver a powerful message to potential investors and to Perupetro, Peru's hydrocarbon licensing agency. Quoting Robert Guimaraes, "We request that you exclude those blocks that overlap communal indigenous territories. More that 80% of the population in Corrientes river, mostly children, have cadmium and lead in their blood. Just as for you there are things that cannot be negotiated, for us some things, like indigenous land, cannot be negotiated." The cadmium and lead that Robert refers to is the result of over 30 years of Oxy Petroleum operations in Northern Perú, where the Achuar people have been severely affected.

The Peruvian government's latest efforts to place the Amazon region in the hands of oil developers puts the entire Amazon at risk, especially indigenous people in voluntary isolation, and clearly violates international rights benchmarks such as Free, Prior and Informed Consent, contained in the recently approved UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (of which Peru is a signatory). It is precisely the Peruvian government's rather shameful attempt to manipulate, distort, and even suppress indigenous opposition to oil development that makes it so important to support indigenous leaders efforts to make their voices heard at international venues such as Perúpetro's Houston road-show. Otherwise, potential investors not only get a distorted view of indigenous opinion, but local indigenous people are excluded the global decision-making process that directly affect their lives.

Given that two of the delegates weren't able to come to Houston, we would like to continue with our efforts to support these types of crucial interventions. Perupetro is planning another event in August, again designed to divvy up the Amazon for even more oil development. With your continued support, we would like to help these delegates make their presence at this event as well. And hopefully the impact will be even greater.

KRFC Radio Program - Shipibo, The River of Life

To listen to the recent radio program on KRFC FM, independent community-based radio in Fort Collins, Colorado, click on the file link below:

Track01.cda

Limber Gomez, a Shipibo leader, was invited to do an interview on KRFC. He speaks about the hopes and challenges facing the Shipibo people, as well as about the community-based indigenous radio project they hope to do. For more information about this radio project, check out the below blog posting titled: Shipibo Radio Project

Below: Limber Gomez on his recent visit to Fort Collins.

Shipibo Radio Project

As one of the eight parts of the Shipibo peoples' plans for their self-determination and the "development" of their region, radio as a means of communication was of utmost importance. The Village Earth-Shipibo team has been in contact with Project Tupa, based out of Free Radio Berkeley. Project Tupa has a lot of experience in setting up easy to build and maintain low power transmitters for indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. Using locally-available materials, Project Tupa offers a 3-day workshop which teaches the communities how to maintain and repair the equipment themselves.

During Limber Gomez', a Shipibo leader, recent visit to the Fort Collins community, we had the good fortune to meet with the Fort Collins' community's local community-based radio station, KRFC 88.9 FM. The KRFC team is ready and excited to help out with this interesting project in any way they can.

The Shipibo people see that being in control of their own media is an important step in their struggle for self-determination. Right now, corporate media rules in the cities and extort exorbitant prices from indigenous peoples who want to make radio announcements or have their own radio programs, such as the long-running Indigenous Voice program that had to be cancelled due to lack of funding.This 3-day workshop, materials included, will leave the Shipibo people with 4 of their very own hand-built radio transmitters to be placed strategically throughout the region.

Village Earth, Project Tupa, KRFC, and the Shipibo people can undertake this project with a mere $6000. Unfortunately, radio projects are difficult to fund. However, radio can be an important tool in cultural revival (through the diffusion of indigenous language and music programs), for defense of indigenous and territorial rights (indigenous leaders can communicate issues of concerns with greater ease in this remote region), and for educational programs.

If you are interested in supporting this team and the Shipibo's efforts at determining their own rights and methods of communication, then you can make a 100% tax-deductible contribution through Village Earth. You can donate online using Pay Pal (clearly indicate your support for the Shipibo radio project), by using your credit card over the phone 970-491-5754, or by check sent to:
Village Earth
P.O. Box 797
Fort Collins, CO 80522

For more information, please contact the project coordinator: kristina@villageearth.org

86% of all Deforestation in Shipibo Heartland

Although the below reposted article suggests there is a decline in overall logging in the Peruvian Amazon it highlights a major threat to the Shipibo people - the fact that

"86 percent of all forest damage was concentrated in only two regions: the area around the Ucayali logging centre of Pucallpa, and along the associated road network."

That means that 86% of the 127,700 hectares lost per year of the Peruvian Amazon forest cover is in the Shipibo's and their indigenous neighbors' territories. Although maybe not technically within the legally allotted territories of the indigenous people according to the government - these remote forest lands serve as indigenous hunting grounds or other areas of important resource or spiritual significance. With global warming on much of the world's minds right now, protecting these forests is going to play a more critical role in the future of the planet. Right now these forests act as huge carbon sinks, and when cut down, are one of the number one emitters of greenhouse gases because of all the carbon and such that is released from these old forests as they are destroyed.

Below: This aerial photo from Google Earth shows the immense deforestation surrounding Pucallpa and its road network, some legally-titled Shipibo communities are seen in yellow.

Article Reposted from: InterPress Service News

ENVIRONMENT: Satellites Show Logging Decline in Peru's Amazon Region
By Stephen Leahy

TORONTO, Aug 18 (Tierramérica) - Rainforest conservation policies are reducing the rate of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon, but roads are unquestionably the drivers of change, new satellite data reveal.

Although Brazil's Amazon forests draw the most international attention, Peru's 661,000 square kilometres of rainforests are recognised as a unique and important ecosystem.

However, the impacts of human activities throughout the region were poorly understood, until a study published Aug. 10 in the journal Science.

"Peru's forest reserves and conservation areas appear to be working well," said Greg Asner, director of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, at Stanford University in California.

Deforestation and other disturbances of forested areas -- selective logging, oil exploration and mining -- increased about 127,700 hectares per year on average from 1999 to 2005, with just two percent occurring in protected areas, according to the study by Asner and colleagues.

By contrast, Brazil's four million-square-kilometre Amazon forest region loses 2.0 million to 2.4 million hectares annually, with about 10 percent occurring in protected areas.

Better land use policies and the remoteness of the forest in Peru are likely reasons why there has been much less forest loss there, Asner told Tierramérica. Peru has also long had a national forest policy that granted logging concessions, whereas Brazil has only recently implemented a similar system, he said.

Using a satellite-based forest disturbance detection system originally designed and used to measure forest loss in Brazil, along with on-the-ground fieldwork, the study found that 86 percent of all forest damage was concentrated in only two regions: the area around the Ucayali logging centre of Pucallpa, and along the associated road network.

The satellite data reveals a great deal of logging "leakage" outside the concession areas into nearby forests, he said. Although it is difficult to know precisely what is occurring, Asner suspects that once an area has been opened up to logging, concession-holders or others simply move into nearby areas.

The study clearly shows that deforestation follows the construction of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, which ultimately is directly connected with 23 percent of the total damage. "Roads are absolutely connected to deforestation," Asner said.

Loggers are chasing "red gold", the valuable wood of mahogany trees, which are still found in commercial quantities in the Peruvian Amazon, says David Hill, a campaigner for Survival International, a Britain-based non-governmental organisation supporting tribal peoples worldwide.

"'Tree laundering' is going on, with mahogany supposedly coming from legal concessions being brought in from outside," Hill told Tierramérica. It is very difficult to monitor or trace the origin of logs in such remote regions, he said.

"Legal logging concessions are facilitating illegal extraction," he explained.

The activist is dubious of Asner's findings that indigenous territories contained only 11 percent of the "forest disturbances".

"There is illegal logging in four of the five indigenous reserves set aside for uncontacted peoples" in Peru, he said.

These indigenous tribes by choice have not been in regular contact with the outside world. The common cold or flu is often fatal to them because they have not had previous exposure to the diseases and have not developed the appropriate immune defences.

Illegal loggers brought such diseases to the Nahua tribe in the 1980s and more than half of them died, Hill said.

While logging is the most urgent threat to these isolated indigenous communities, oil and gas exploration has also become a significant problem. Last month the Inter-Ethnic Association for Peruvian Jungle Development, AIDESEP, applied to the courts for a ban on oil exploration and drilling in parts of the Peruvian Amazon inhabited by uncontacted tribes.

Enforceable land rights would go a long way to helping indigenous people in Peru, Hill says.

But keeping extractive industries like loggers out is an enormous challenge for any country. Brazil has struggled with this, largely unsuccessfully, for decades.

"Logging is a multi-billion dollar industry in Brazil -- 80 percent of which is illegal, according to the government," says Bill Laurance, a tropical forest ecologist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution, in Balboa, Panama.

Deforestation rates have slowed in the past couple of years due to lower prices for soy and beef, and because of a crackdown on illegal logging, Laurance told Tierramérica.

That crackdown came after the 2005 murder of U.S.-born nun Dorothy Stang, who had been helping local people oppose illegal logging in the northern Brazilian state of Pará.

More than 100 people were arrested in a multi-million-dollar illegal logging network, including 40 people working for IBAMA, Brazil's federal environmental law enforcement agency, he said.

"Even Canada and the U.S. have trouble enforcing their logging rules in remote areas," he pointed out.

Slowing deforestation in the Amazon is an enormous challenge. The rise of so-called "carbon markets" offers some real hopes, if a country like Brazil can obtain credits for "avoided deforestation" and the corresponding reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, according to Laurance.

Brazil is the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases resulting from deforestation. The World Bank recently announced a 250-million-dollar pilot fund to pay tropical countries like Brazil for preserving their forests.

Avoided deforestation is an inexpensive and simple way to slow climate change and brings additional benefits, including preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity.

Accurate and ongoing measurements of standing forests and deforestation are absolutely crucial to making such as compensation system work, and Asner's group has the technology, says Laurance.

Previous satellite data and analysis by the group revealed higher rates of deforestation in Brazil than previous estimates. And although Peru's forest regions are frequently obscured by clouds, the new technology involving use of supercomputers can work around that problem.

By this time next year, thanks to a training plan and a compressed version of the study team's program, government officials, academics and non-governmental groups in Peru will able to update the forest change analysis on personal computers, he said.

Asner believes the program can be adapted to any tropical country and he plans to present it at the next stage of the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, to take place in December in Bali, Indonesia.

"What the Peru study shows is that we have a definitive tool for detecting deforestation and change," says Asner.

(*Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.) (END/2007)

Nuevo Sitio Web de la Nacion Shipiba

La presente pagina es dedicada a los pueblos amozonicos del ucayali, se construyo despues del I Tribunal de Jefes de comunidades indigenas del Ucayali, la cual, fue uno de nuestros acuerdos, con la finalidad de que los pueblos se comunique y den a conocer sus puntos de vistas,problematicas y sus posibles soluciones.

Sitio web de la Nacion Shipiba www.shipibonation.org/index.php

Gracias por entrar a nuestra pagina

ah y disculpenos hay algunos errores de articulacion, dentro de poco mejoraremos.

SINAMETSA-FILOSOFOLIBRE777

Community-based Geographic Tech Workshops

Land rights is a constantly recurring theme in our work with indigenous peoples throughout the world. And the Shipibo people have asked for our assistance in their struggles over territory. In June, the Village Earth Peru Project Coordinator held a community-based geographic technology workshop in the lower Ucayali. Leaders from two communities in the Calleria district joined forces to protect their land. Both communities were given legal titles to their land years ago, however, in the dynamic Amazonian environment their lands have changed dramatically since the initial titling. Half of what was once part of the community is now overtaken by the mighty Ucayali River with more and more of the community being washed away daily into the river as it changes course. Originally, indigenous communities changed location as the river moved, but now communities are forced to remain within government-imposed boundaries.

Forcing indigenous peoples to be subjugated within externally-imposed borders does not work in the dynamic environment of the Amazon. However, protecting indigenous land through titling and demarcation is a necessary evil right now in order to protect communities' rights to land and resources. Much of the strategy of the Peruvian government has been to conquer and divide indigenous territories. However, many indigenous leaders and activists are calling for a new way to think about indigenous territory - and to remind the world they have sustainably managed their forests for thousands of years. "The demand for territorial clarity and non-overlapping negotiations on land issues is predicated on an acceptance of the EuroAmerican way of viewing land, demarking and dividing the land and environment and relationships between people on the basis of European-derived notions of property, ownership, and jurisdiction."*

Therefore, these communities are looking to expand their legally allotted territories, in order to maintain a sufficient land base that can provide for their self-sustainability. Workshop participants learned how to mark and find way points, use the compass, and many other useful features of Geographic Positioning System (GPS) in order to accurately locate boundaries. Each community was given a GPS unit and they are currently marking the points to which they wish to expand their territories and then will send them to Village Earth, where using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, we can help them to create maps that they can use in their negotiations with the government.

Both communities expressed worry about the current land grab in the Amazon by non-indigenous colonists. Roads are slowly creeping into their remote district bringing more and more settlers taking forest resources from the indigenous inhabitants.

These communities still have an expensive and arduous process ahead of them in order to expand their allotted territories. And their are many more communities interested in Village Earth mapping and geographic technology workshops. If you would like to make a contribution to these important efforts, please contact: kristina@villageearth.org

Thank you to the community that provided lunch to the workshop participants!

*Alfred, Taiaiake. 2005. Wasase: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom. Broadview Press, Canada.

Geographic Technology as a Tool for Indigenous Empowerment

There is only one month left before the monumental Indigenous Tribunal in the Ucayali region of the Amazon!

As part of the Tribunal, Village Earth was asked to facilitate community mapping workshops for Shipibo Communities but we need your support to get the necessary resources to indigenous leaders.

We've bundled these resources into a low-cost and easy to use "Mapping Kit" that we would like to give to community representatives participating in our free mapping workshop.

You can help by purchasing one of these kits for a Shipibo community today!

Support Village Earth and the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon with your sponsorship of a Mapping Kit!
(Contributions of any amount are welcome, greatly appreciated, and 100% tax-deductible.)

Each Mapping Kit will include a hand-held GPS unit and Map Book of their territory to be given to community leaders. Village Earth will then provide the instruction in how to use this technology to their advantage.

Mapping Kits will enable communities to:

• Identify their boundaries to determine if outside interests are illegally taking their resources or colonizing their lands.

• Identify illegal logging using the satellite imagery available in the map books.

• Map existing resources to establish a baseline for future comparisons of resource depletion/restoration

• Better manage and plan for the use of their limited resources.

Village Earth has been using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to create maps of indigenous territory combined with satellite images of the region. Some Shipibo leaders have already used these maps to dispute government and colonist land claims and build their case in support of indigenous land rights in the region.

Your contribution not only provides the mapping resources, but will help further the greater collective vision for the alternative development of the region based on indigenous knowledge and values. By supporting the Shipibo's efforts at mobilizing the region and these community-based mapping endeavors, together we can:

• Organize indigenous communities in the Ucayali region to increase their economic and political clout to determine their own futures
• Teach GPS technology to indigenous leaders so they no longer have to rely on expensive and biased government GPS technicians
• Support Shipibo efforts to reclaim and restore indigenous land stewardship practices.

Protecting Shipibo Territory

"During the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down - more than in all the previous 450 years since European colonization began."*

Yet, the Shipibo have sustainably managed their forests for many generations. However, an aggressive program of Amazonian "development" has been promoted during the past 50 years, which has fragmented Shipibo territory by the incursion of non-indigenous colonists, government "development" projects, and foreign corporations exploiting the land by logging, hydrocarbon extraction, and industrial-scale agriculture. However, protecting indigenous land rights has come to the forefront in their struggles for self-determination as the Peruvian government continues to open up the farthest reaches of the Amazon basin for oil exploration and other extractive enterprises.

Below: This map, originally created by the Instituto del Bien Comun and given to a Village Earth representative by AIDESEP, shows indigenous communities, protected areas, and oil concessions in Peru.

Protection and defense of indigenous territory was decided as the most important focus area out of their plan for self-determination of the region's indigenous inhabitants from the last Village Earth-Shipibo regional workshop.

To aid the Shipibo in the protection and defense of their territory, Village Earth created map books of the region using GIS layers of the native titled communities (as provided by the Sistema de Informacion sobre Comunidades Nativas de la Amazonia Peruana [SICNA] of the Instituto del Bien Comun [IBC]) and colonist settlements overlaid onto satellite images. Satellite images are an interesting mapping medium because they show vegetation cover, as well as land degradation based on the light reflected from different vegetation or soil types.

Below: A Village Earth program coordinator conducting a mapping workshop in one Shipibo community in Masisea district.

As well, Village Earth held a Geographic Positioning System (GPS) workshop and gave hand held GPS units to Shipibo leaders so they can continue to use the technology to protect their lands.

After the Village Earth mapping workshops, two Shipibo communities have begun the process of increasing their legally-titled land in order to protect more forest from outside exploitation, as well as remove illegally settled non-indigenous colonists using their new map books and GPS points. Shipibo jefes (chiefs) even asked a Village Earth representative to attend meetings with them at the local AIDESEP and Defensoria del Pueblo offices in Pucallpa - local NGOs that work to protect and defend indigenous rights in Peru. We, accompanied by reps from Defensoria del Pueblo, then attended meetings with the local Ministry of Agriculture in Pucallpa, the branch of government that deals with indigenous land titling.

As well, these Village Earth initiatives have increased intercommunity cooperation and participants in the workshops now have a greater consciousness of their geography.

Empowering indigenous peoples by providing the training and materials to use geographic technology, in turn, allows for self-determination of their way of life - since their land and resources are inextricably linked with their culture, economy, and physical health.

Issues of land and territory will be a hot topic throughout the Indigenous Tribunal being held in June of this year. This will be a seminal event in mobilizing and organizing their communities to better protect their land and resources. The outcome of this Indigenous Tribunal will be to form a grassroots, indigenous organization in the region to direct their own path to self-determination which includes forming an indigenous working group on environmental conservation.

Thousands of hectares of highly biodiverse forest and the accompanying watershed have the potential to be protected the indigenous inhabitants taking a stand against the market forces of globalization.

*Wallace, Scott. "Last of the Amazon" in National Geographic. January 2007.

Oil Companies to Begin Drilling in Masisea

Above: This map shows the different exploration and exploitation blocks leased out by the Peruvian government to the oil companies.

Below: A view of the proposed drilling area as seen from satellite images.

The Shipibo expressed their grave concern about the exploitation of Block 114 which is home to dozens of Shipibo and other indigenous communities. Not only are the communities living within the confines of Block 114 worried, but also those downstream because of the expected water contamination from the oil sites.

PanAndean Resources has purchased the rights to Block 114 and is expected to begin drilling in 2008.

Pan Andean Resources is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Here is an excerpt from their website:

"Block 114 located in Central Peru: 1.85 million acres;
At least 10 anticline structures identified in Block:
Estimated oil resources in block: 400 millions Barrels; API of oil: 30 – 35°;
Easy river access to refineries. Exploration commenced Q3 2006.
First phase involves reprocessing and interpretation of 500 kilometres of seismic followed by 150 kilometres of new seismic and one well.
Technical and environmental work in progress on Rio Caco structure.
Drilling up to 3 wells on Rio Caco to be completed by April 2008.
Block 114, located in the Ucayali Sub Andean Basin, north of the world-class Camisea gas-condensate field, with proven and probable reserves in the range of 15 TCF of natural gas and 600 million barrels of condensate. Block 114 is located to the south of important oil and gas fields such as Maquia, Aguas Calientes and Aguaytia. The immediate focus will be on confirmation and production drilling of the Rio Caco Structure. Potential recoverable reserves are in the range of 90 million barrels. Production would reach 30,000 barrels per day in 2012. The Work Plan will be to carry out the required Environmental Impact and Technical Evaluation work, in order to be drilling the Rio Caco confirmation well beginning in August-September 2007. Should that well be successful, three additional wells would be drilled as soon as practical and production would be flowing beginning in March-April 2008."

There is no mention of the thousands of indigenous people that inhabit the region, nor the possible consequences to the health of the world's largest remaining tropical forest, nor to the world's largest watershed.

According to Peruvian Law: "The Organic Law for Hydrocarbons, Law N° 26221, was enacted on August 19, 1993, coming into effect on November 18, 1993. Such norm was modified by Law No. 26734 as of December 30 1996, No. 26817 as of June 23, 1997, and Law No. 27343 as of September 01, 2000, No. 27377 as of December 06, and Law No. 27391 as of December 29, 2000. This norm, which is intended to foster the investments in fuel resource exploration and exploitation activities, created PERUPETRO S.A. as a Private Law State Company of the Energy and Mining Sector.

Considering such law, the Government promotes the development of Fuel Resource activities based on the free competition and access to the economic activity, guaranteeing the juridical stability of the contracts according to provisions set forth in article 62° of the Constitution of Peru.Likewise, it guarantees the Contractors the stability of the taxation and foreign exchange regimes in force to the date of the signing of the contract.

Law No. 26221 sets that Fuel Resources exploration and exploitation activities will be carried out under the form of License Contracts as well as Service Agreements or other contract modalities authorized by the Ministry of Energy and Mining, and governed by the Private Law, and which after being approved and signed, may only be modified according to a written agreement signed by both parties. Likewise, any modification must be approved by Supreme Decree." (Source: PeruPetro.com)

However, also according to Article 89 of the Peruvian Constitution:

"Rural and Native Communities are legally recognized and enjoy legal status. They are autonomous in terms of their organization, communal working, use and free disposal of their land, as well as economically and administratively within the framework established by law. Ownership of their land is imprescriptible except in the case of abandonment described in the preceding article. The government respects the cultural identity of the Rural and Native Communities."

Although indigenous communities are given the legal titles to their land, their is little protection afforded to these communities under Peruvian law against foreign companies contaminating their watersheds and destroying their forests.

According to the International Labour Organization's Convention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal peoples in Independent Countries:

Article 15

1. The rights of the peoples concerned to the natural resources pertaining to their lands shall be specially safeguarded. These rights include the right of these peoples to participate in the use, management and conservation of these resources.

2. In cases in which the State retains the ownership of mineral or sub-surface resources or rights to other resources pertaining to lands, governments shall establish or maintain procedures through which they shall consult these peoples, with a view to ascertaining whether and to what degree their interests would be prejudiced, before undertaking or permitting any programmes for the exploration or exploitation of such resources pertaining to their lands. The peoples concerned shall wherever possible participate in the benefits of such activities, and shall receive fair compensation for any damages which they may sustain as a result of such activities.

For more information about the destruction caused to the environment and indigenous communities by oil companies, check out Amazon Watch and Oilwatch. There are hundreds of resources available on the internet documenting the destruction to the world's indigenous and other marginalized communities and their environments around the world by oil companies.

No matter how environmentally-friendly these oil companies claim to be, it is impossible to extract oil in such a fragile environment without damaging the ecological integrity of the region.

The Shipibo depend upon their rivers and forests for their subsistence and livelihoods. Their economy, culture, and health depend upon their access to healthy ecosystems.

Village Earth is working with communities to help them protect and defend their territories and environments.

What can you do to help?

• You can donate to Village Earth's efforts to help protect indigenous land in the Peruvian Amazon.
• Lessen your dependence on oil and oil-based products. In the global market economy, only when demand for oil drops will drilling cease. Therefore, the future lies in YOUR hands.
• Write to these companies and let them know that you disapprove of drilling for oil on or near indigenous lands in the ecologically-fragile Amazon region:
  
  Dr. John Teeling
  Pan Andean Resources
  162, Clontarf Road
  Dublin 3
  Ireland
  
  
  Below: The indigenous people of Masisea are learning to use GPS through a Village Earth initiative, so that they can monitor their lands and borders.
  

Village Earth/ EWB Partnership

Above: The people of Santa Rosa de Dinamarca and Village Earth representative, Kristina Pearson, dancing in the Umisha Festival. Kristina met with the community in February 2007 to begin project preparations.

The Engineers Without Borders (EWB) University of Colorado chapter made the original visit to the Ucayali Region with Village Earth in 2006. They participated in the January 2006 regional workshop and documentary film production. They also offered their services to the Shipibo.

One Shipibo community, Santa Rosa de Dinamarca in Masisea District, took the initiative and submitted a project application for a clean water project in their community. The Fort Collins Professional Chapter of EWB agreed to take on this project. We are very excited to work together and it is great that we are both based in Fort Collins allowing us to meet periodically to discuss project planning.

Santa Rosa de Dinamarca like many Shipibo communities is suffering from lack of clean drinking water. Wells have been installed, however, half are not currently functioning. The present situation reflects the past disconnect between non-governmental organizations (NGOs), funding agencies, and Shipibo communities. The Shipibo complained to us that NGOs came and installed wells in their communities using a design from somewhere else. Therefore, the wells do not function properly in their tropical rainforest environment. This shows the importance of building off local, indigenous knowledge and how local environmental conditions are an essential consideration before taking on any project. As well, local people were not trained in how to install or maintain these wells themselves, so when they break down they remain dormant and unrepaired.

Before the wells, Shipibo communities obtained their water from the rivers and lakes surrounding their communities. However with the increase in pollution from upstream, these water sources became highly contaminated. Population centers upstream dump their waste, there is contamination from oil exploitation, and increased sedimentation from logging have all polluted the watershed making the water unsafe for consumption. However, since their wells are not very deep (10 meters at the most) it is most likely that the water in the wells is actually connected to the rest of the contaminated watershed. Therefore, EWB is going to look into the possibility of digging deeper to reach the pure, clean water aquifers.

Below: The community's watershed

Parasites and other gastrointestinal illnesses are a problem especially for children in this community because of the lack of clean water. Clean water is an essential part of creating sustainable, healthy human communities. Only when people have the basic necessities of life covered (clean water, food security, clothing, shelter) can they begin to take their own self-determination seriously and work for a better future.

Below: Young Shipibo girl from Santa Rosa de Dinamarca

Village Earth and Engineers Without Borders are excited about our partnership and will be visiting the region for an assessment trip immediately following the Indigenous Tribunal event in late June. Village Earth will continue to empower communities to direct their own "development" processes. EWB will be assessing the local situation and doing topographic surveys in order to better understand the local environment, as well as assess community wants and needs.

There is a lot of potential for future collaborations between Village Earth, EWB, and the Shipibo people to be working with all communities in need in such projects as sanitation, construction, fishfarming, and survey work to help out with land issues.

If you are interested in supporting this project, contributions can be made through Village Earth or you can attend EWB's first fundraising event on April 27. For more information, check out the EWB Fort Collins Professional Chapter's project website.

Above: The Umisha Festival in Santa Rosa de Dinamarca.

First Indigenous Tribunal of the Ucayali

As a follow-up and outcome to the Village Earth Regional Organizational workshop in January 2007, a group of Shipibo leaders have decided to hold the first ever 'Indigenous Tribunal' as they call it. This Tribunal will be a gathering of leaders from all 120 Shipibo communities throughout the region. They are also inviting local NGOs and leaders from other regional indigenous groups such as the Ashaninka. This is an event of historic importance because the Shipibo have not had a regional meeting of this magnitude for over 30 years, and even then never did it have the possibility for such far-reaching impacts as the Indigenous Tribunal being organized at present.

Below: Participants in the January workshop who were elected to the Transitory Committee responsible for organizing the Indigenous Tribunal.

The organizers of this event have asked Village Earth to be a co-facilitator - to continue with a regional visioning process with the participation of all delegates present at the Tribunal. This will be the largest strategic planning that the Village Earth team has done to-date and could possibly have the most far-reaching impacts as well. 480 leaders are estimated to attend this event representing around 40,000 indigenous peoples throughout the Ucayali region. All parties involved hope that this will be the key event in mobilizing and organizing the region to begin the process of a truly community-based, sustainable form of alternative "development" - to empower the region toward active self-determination.

The Shipibo people realized that only by working together at the regional level will they ever really be able to implement their own vision for the future based on the values and wisdom of the majority indigenous population of the region. Some of the specific objectives as written in their project plan are as follows:

• To bring together leaders, authorities, students, technicians, and indigenous professionals of the region to search together the true development of the indigenous population with a united organization with strategic allies both national and international
  


• To inform and motivate the jefes (chiefs) of the communities about the importance of cultural revival and the care of our lands
  


• To achieve the participation and commitment of the jefes and leaders of the indigenous communities to form a work group for environmental conservation and sustainable development


• To strengthen the communication channel between indigenous and foreign organizations for the development of our communities.

Art and cultural performances will also play a big part in the three-day Tribunal with cultural and artistic presentations planned each evening and also for the opening and closing ceremonies.

Above: This group of orphaned children will be performing traditional Shipibo song and dance at the June event.

The organizing committee of the Tribunal is building off of the transnational legal framework that is currently so popular in the discourse about indigenous rights. For example:

• International Labour Organization Convention 169
• Declaration of the First International Decade of Indigenous Peoples
• Declaration of the Second International Decade of Indigenous Peoples
• Proposal of Regimen of the Protection of Collective Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples of INDECOPÍ
• Law N° 22175 of Native Communities
• Declaration of Río de Janeiro in 1992
• Summit of the Americas, Miami; 1994
  
• Declaration for the Summit of Sustainable Development in Santa Cruz de la Sierra 1996
• Summit of Santiago 1997
• Agenda 21 (Cap. 25 and 26)National Strategy for the participation in Sustainable Development (OFA)
  

The organizing committee writes, "In the last 50 years, the Amazonian cultures have been suffering from an aggressive Western acculturation. The [Peruvian] government underwent a neoliberal political shift without considering the consequences upon the indigenous peoples. Many indigenous peoples were forced to leave their cultures as they migrated to the big cities in search of a better opportunity." The objective of the Tribunal is so "that the communities be the protagonists of their own development, and the local, national, and foreign authorities take care of and support us in our own program of development."

Five themed expositions will be presented during the Tribunal:

1. The Role of the Jefes
   
2. Indigenous Reality
   
3. The Political Situation
   
4. National Political and Economic Reality
   
5. United Communities
   

At the end of the event, there will be an election of leaders to form the new grassroots regional organization of indigenous peoples.

This is such an important event for the future of indigenous self-determination throughout the Peruvian Amazon. Please help us to support the Shipibo by making a financial contribution today. The estimated budget for the Tribunal is approximately $9000 USD in order to provide food and transportation for even the most remote community leaders to be able to attend. As well, the organizing committee is undertaking an extensive media campaign and hopes to print posters, invitations to regional leaders, and hold press conferences.

Please help us support the future generations of Shipibo leaders and the ecological integrity of the Amazon Basin.

If you interested in supporting the Shipibo's efforts at organizing the region, you can contribute directly through Pay Pal on the website. Or you can send a check or money order to:

Village Earth

P.O. Box 797

Fort Collins, CO 80522 USA

or call the Village Earth office at: +1-970-491-5754 to make a contribution using your credit card.

If you would like more information about the Indigenous Tribunal in June, please contact: Kristina Pearson

Shipibo Regional Organizational Workshop

Above: Enjoying a relaxing evening after the workshop.

Village Earth was asked by some prominent Shipibo leaders a few months back to facilitate another regional workshop this time with more of an emphasis on intercommunity cooperation. So the Village Earth team returned for a 7-day workshop in early January. Twenty-four Shipibo leaders participated representing six communities in four different districts throughout the Ucayali. The workshop began with a review of past Village Earth-Shipibo collaborations and a viewing of the Village Earth/Shipibo documentary film, "The Children of the Anaconda". Then we began a district-wide mapping session so community members would be begin to think beyond their own borders. This brought up an array of environmental issues as participants discussed sharing forest and river resources with neighboring communities, but also the destruction being wrought by logging and oil companies in the region.

Below: Shipibo children participated by drawing their own map of their community and then presented it to the group. For community initiatives to be truly sustainable, children, too, must always be involved in the process.

Village Earth would like to facilitate collaboration between our project partners, and both the Lakota and Shipibo have expressed much interest in working together in the future as they face many of the same issues being the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas. We decided to do a viewing of the Village Earth-produced documentary film "Rezonomics" which highlights the economic situation on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Although they inhabit vastly different environments, the Shipibo found many similarities in their struggles and learned from the Lakota new ways to think about many of their issues.

This was followed by a discussion on the roles and activities of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in Shipibo country. This led to a very interesting discussion about NGOs and top-down funding models which many times inhibits NGOs from being responsive to community needs and truly participatory community-based development. The Shipibo have dealt with NGO after NGO letting them down with failed promises. However, this is not purely the fault of the NGO. The Shipibo, too, recognize that they need to be proactive and organized when soliciting the assistance of NGOs. Only when both parties are in consensus and work through the Shipibo model of community organization is there the potential to have successful collaborations.

This led us to the discussion of 'So, what has been successful?' What has worked before and how did they organize to make it happen? This is an important part of the Village Earth process because we want to encourage communities to build off of past successes instead of reinventing the wheel each time. Many community projects had been successful before - from communal construction projects to fish farms. Then we questioned, "How did the communities organize themselves in order to make these projects happen?"

Above: One influential Shipibo leader, Limber Gomez, draws out the model of intra and inter-community governance that the Shipibo people use to organize themselves. This highlighted the disconnect between the way NGOs were entering the communities and beginning their work and the way in which Shipibo communities build consensus and participation for projects.

Shipibo communities already have their own consensus-building processes in which the community authorities hold assemblies where everybody is welcomed and encouraged to attend. From this point, committees are democratically-elected to take on different project aspects which then report back to the authorities and the community during the assemblies. They have their own treasurers and methods for financial accountability. Although this seems like such common sense, it is surprising how many outsiders come in thinking they have the answers or that the Shipibo don't know how to manage their own finances or run their own projects. Yet, the Shipibo are actually running their community affairs with incredible organizational capacity which is only disrupted when outsiders try to impose top-down funding and project management.

We then began the strategic planning session with a five-year vision emphasizing regional unity. This was really a question from the heart - what do they really feel for their community and their people, as opposed to just thinking about what material goods they would like to have. This really forced them to look deep inside themselves to come up with their comprehensive vision collectively. Their vision consisted of four main emphasis areas: Community Development, Formation of Shipibo Professionals (business leaders, doctors, engineers, lawyers), Cultural Revival, and the creation of Micro-enterprises.

This led to the question, "What obstacles are holding you back from achieving your vision?" The participants really focused on obstacles they could change themselves instead of focusing on larger global systemic issues that might seem more daunting to overcome. We then moved onto Strategic Directions where participants looked at what they can do in the next year to overcome their obstacles and begin to move toward their vision. The Strategic Directions really got the participants involved and thinking about what they can actually do to achieve their own vision for the future.

Below: All participants were involved in putting their ideas onto the board throughout the visioning process. These young men were rearranging the group's ideas into coherent groupings for the Strategic Directions phase of the workshop.

Finally, the workshop reached its pinnacle in the Action Planning phase. Participants mapped out their plans for the next three months - practical actions that they can actually take to move toward their vision and be active agents in their own "development" process. Eight aspects were deemed the most important areas for action. They are:

• First and foremost -- protect and defend 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
  

A committee was formed for each of these eight areas, tasks were assigned, timelines and budgets were drawn up, and finally they were presented back to the group.

Above: Leaders of the group planning actions to protect indigenous territory present their plan back to the group for approval.

These eight areas will be further discussed in forthcoming Blog postings. A Transitory Committee was democratically-elected amongst the participants (with at least one representative of each community present in the workshop) to hold an Indigenous Tribunal in June. This June event will be the follow-up to this workshop and it is Village Earth's great honor that the Shipibo have asked Village Earth to return and co-facilitate this historic event. The Tribunal will be a gathering of Indigenous leaders from all 120 Shipibo communities, as well as other regional indigenous groups, to discuss their own alternative plan for "A Better Ucayali".

All in all, this Regional Organizational Workshop was an incredibly empowering event and a great learning experience for all involved. The Shipibo have expressed to the Village Earth team how happy and grateful they are for our support for their self-determination. Yet, when we asked "Who came up with this plan?", the participants realized that it was completely decided and directed by them with Village Earth only providing the framework from which to begin to question and think about some of these important issues.

Village Earth is honored to work with these amazing individuals that participated in this workshop and the Shipibo people as a whole. And we feel privileged to be invited to co-facilitate their landmark Indigenous Tribunal in June 2007.

Above: Village Earth facilitators Kristina Pearson and David Bartecchi dance with the group as the Shipibo band plays in the background. The community organized a farewell party on the last evening of the workshop to celebrate the achievements of the group.

Below: A special thank you to Mayer Kirkpatrick, Mateo Arevalo, and Freddy Arevalo for their hardwork and dedication to this project.




Above: Thank you to Ralf (Village Earth's media specialist), and Chloe (Village Earth's Poet Laureate) for their hardwork and help throughout the workshop.

Below: A very special thank you to Flora - an amazing volunteer who gave so much of her time to help with translations and facilitating the workshop.

And most of all - THANK YOU to all of our donors - without you none of this would have been possible!

Tourism Opens New Doors, Creates New Challenges, for Traditional Healers in Peru

By Proctor, Rachel

January 31, 2001 Cultural Survival Quarterly Issue 24.4

Mateo Arevalo, 43, was born into a family of traditional healers, or curanderos, in the Shipibo community of San Francisco de Yarinacocha in Peru. When he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and learn curandismo, he was taught to prepare a ceremonial drink from a woody vine scientists call Banisteriopsis caapi and curanderos call "ayahuasca," a Quechua word meaning "vine of the soul." He drank the brew regularly during his two-year training period to induce physical purging and intense visions of the spirit world. It was the spirits that provided his real training and that allow him and other curanderos to diagnose and treat patients.

While Arevalo's forefathers put such knowledge to local use, generally treating their neighbors on a pro bono basis, Arevalo is proud to apply it to a wider audience. When foreigners started showing up in San Francisco about 10 years ago seeking the hallucinogen for healing, enlightenment, or a good trip, he took advantage of the opportunity to earn extra income. He now leads posh ayahuasca retreats in jungle lodges for foreigners, and hosts shamanism students in his home for three- or six-month courses.

"I am an innovator, adding to my ancestral knowledge," he explains. "We, the Shipibos, are like any other human community -- we need to grow and change. We can't just stay the same so that the tourists can stare at the naked Indians in feathers and the anthropologists can treat us like a living museum." Arevalo's innovations let him earn $200 per month from shamanism students and $30 per person for one-time ceremonies while most of his neighbors hawk handicrafts for pennies. And he is not the only shaman to bring in such sums. Ayahuasca has shown itself capable of summoning more than visions and spirits -- it also calls an ever-growing number of new-agers and thrillseekers willing to pay $30-$50 for a night's work. Ayahuasca ceremonies can be purchased in most major tourist destinations in Peru, and numerous jungle lodges now offer ceremonies or retreats, the latter costing in the neighborhood of $700-$1,500 a week.

But ayahuasca's new marketability has brought traditional healing to a dangerous crossroads. Tourist dollars could allow shamans to support themselves while continuing to treat their neighbors for little or nothing, but it could just as easily allow a privileged few to abandon their communities for a more affluent life in tourist towns or jungle lodges.

It is ironic that even a decade ago the main threat to traditional healing was lack of interest. Traditional shamanism promised little in the way of material rewards to young Shipibos all too aware of the need for jobs that pay cash. Leslie Taylor, an American specialist in rainforest plants, says that only a minority of shamans she met in her trips to the Amazon had apprentices. "A lot of the shamans didn't have apprentices because [traditional healing] was considered old knowledge, and the kids wanted what was new," she says. "They wanted what the outsiders had, what was in the city: the radios, the colored flip-flops. They didn't want to stay in the jungle and learn traditional medicine when Western pharmaceuticals seemed to work much faster."

Arevalo agrees that the young were never interested in his work -- until now. These days, he receives many requests for training from young Shipibos who see the possibilities in a bottle of ayahuasca. Interest in healing, on the other hand, is still on the wane. "The young who ask me to teach them do not want to be curanderos," said Arevalo, who insists that his work with tourists does not interfere with his commitment to the health of the community. "They are only interested in giving ayahuasca to the tourists."

The problem is not innovation per se. It is that once a shaman has innovated, a whole new world opens to him, one that often separates him from his community. Antonio Muñoz hopes to carry tradition into modernity. The 40-year-old shaman learned traditional healing from his father, but never practiced because, as he says, "to be a traditional doctor in the village is to live in the worst possible poverty." He moved to Lima, where he met psychotherapist Pio Vucetich. The two now offer therapy in which patients take ayahuasca as a tool for analysis and as a way to confront their fears and traumas. "My work is much more sophisticated than that of other curanderos," he says. "In traditional healing, the shaman took the ayahuasca to acquire the powers of the plants: to diagnose the illness and discover a cure. But how much more effective will it be if the patient takes the medicine himself? I give ayahuasca like any other doctor gives a prescription." Muñoz, like Arevalo, considers his work an innovation that combines the best of the old with the best of the new. He thinks those who don't incorporate outside elements into their healing are hopelessly stuck in the past. "Other curanderos need to learn from the science of psychotherapy to better treat their patients," he says. "We need to advance, to offer our alternative healing to the whole world." Even so, he himself does not work with members of his community because he finds there is no demand for his "sophisticated" technique in San Francisco. He spends most of his time treating his regular patients in Lima, or wealthy Peruvians or foreigners on special week-long sessions (cost, $500) in San Francisco. Why should he stay in the village, argues Muñoz, when there are so many who appreciate his technique in the cities? The question arises: what will happen to the sick in the communities if the shamans are all at international ayahuasca conventions?

Even if practitioners of traditional medicine do move away from healing and into tourism, it would seem at first glance that ayahuasca tourism can, at the very least, help to preserve a tradition that might otherwise be forgotten. But because foreign consumers of ayahuasca often come with romanticized images of what a South American shaman should be, shamans have an incentive to alter their discourse to fit expectations. Federica LeClerc, a French anthropologist studying the use of medicinal plants by Shipibo women, says that this is already a common phenomenon, and one that she considers to bring some positive results. "The Shipibos are very assimilated," says LeClerc. "The healers use the Bible, which isn't `really' part of their culture, but for them, it's as traditional as anything else. Then foreigners come, only looking for the natural, and the shamans change what they're saying to please them. So in some ways, tourism is bringing about a recovery of the past." At the same time, new foreign elements are becoming a part of the practice of some shamans. The Lima-based organization Ayahuasca-Wasi, for example, offers week-long experimental seminars in "Amazonian Shamanism" which also include meditation and "Tibetan Philosophy centered on Impermanence." Arevalo has found the need to incorporate such ideas to please his customers. He feels, however, that this syncretism is part of his human right to increase his knowledge and that it is a positive exchange of information between cultures.

One foreign element that no one appreciates, however, is outsides' desire to capitalize on interest in ayahuasca without providing any benefits to the community. The most egregious example is the 1986 U.S. patent on ayahuasca by an American pharmacology student. Under pressure from indigenous groups, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1999 rejected the patent, but the Committee for International Environmental Law, which represented the indigenous groups, argues that the patent was overturned on a narrow technicality that does not provide sufficient protection of indigenous groups' biological knowledge.

In addition to concerns over compensation for their intellectual property, the patent's challengers warned that removing the plant from its traditional role could have devastating results, citing the existing gulf between the traditional use of the coca leaf in the Andes and the abuse of cocaine in the North. Just which adaptations and innovations are appropriate is a matter of considerable debate. The older generation of shamans in San Francisco, those who continue to heal their neighbors (or at least learned to do so, even if it no longer fits easily into their schedules), unanimously found ayahuasca-selling by those who do not heal inappropriate. Muñoz, who does not give ayahuasca recreationally, considers any ayahuasca tourism without a healing element to be a misuse. "If you go to the doctor, it's because you're sick," he said. "But sadly, in our country curanderos give ayahuasca to any tourist who asks for it. Ayahuasca should not be used as a recreational drug."

Taylor argues that as more and more people from the North seek out natural remedies to physical ailments, some profit-seeking shamans may sham "medical" treatments, which she considers not only inappropriate, but dangerous. "I met a woman who had all kinds of health problems -- she was a year out of a kidney transplant and could barely walk," she says. "Ayahuasca is incredibly hard on the body, especially the liver and kidneys, and this is why in traditional healing it is the shaman who takes ayahuasca, not the patient. But this woman was in contact with a shaman who wanted to give her ayahuasca in a healing ceremony. To give ayahuasca to someone that sick would have been criminal."

Straddling the past and the future is Rodolfo Valles, one of the rare young Shipibos learning curandismo in San Francisco. Throughout his life he has seen his father curing members of his community free of charge. Now, at 19, he has begun the fasting and ayahuasca-induced training sessions that will culminate in his first healing, which he hopes he will achieve within a year. He plans to earn the money he needs to buy that which the jungle does not provide by teaching languages in a nearby mestizo town, and thinks any shaman who charges for his services is a fraud. Yet when asked if he would do ceremonies for tourists if the opportunity arose, he demonstrates conflicted feelings. "It makes me ashamed when shamans charge the tourists for their ceremonies," Valles says. "But if people want to know about our reality and about Shipibo culture, I want to show them." He plans to get around his moral qualms by adopting the technique of many shamans: requesting a voluntary donation rather than charging a set fee. Furthermore, he insists that his primary concern will always be the sick in his community. "I want to be a shaman because I want to help people," he says. "I see so many needs in my community, so many sick people who can't afford medicine at the pharmacy."

The question remains as to what Valles will do once the opportunity to work with foreigners does arrive. It is a poignant question, for as Arevalo said, why shouldn't a shaman innovate? Why shouldn't he profit materially from his knowledge? If Valles is like the rest of the shamans of San Francisco, he will say yes to the foreigners. And hopefully he will fulfill his dream of continuing to say yes to his neighbors. If shamans are too busy entertaining tourists to help their communities, one can't say that a tradition has been preserved. It will have mutated into an empty commercial endeavor that does little to preserve Shipibo heritage or help the community as a whole.

References & further reading

Interviews (all interviews took place in the year 2000):
Mateo Arevalo, shaman, Pucallpa, April 2; Yarinacocha, April 12
Federica LeClerc, anthropologist, Yarinacocha, April 1
Antonio Muñoz, shaman, San Francisco de Yarinacocha, April 7
Lucio Muñoz, shaman, San Francisco de Yarinacocha, April 6
Martin Muñoz Pacalla, shaman, San Francisco de Yarinacocha, April 6
Gilber Reategui Sangama, son of mestizo shaman, Nueva Luz de Fatima, Ap. 4
Alberto Reategui Silvano, mestizo shaman, Nueva Luz de Fatima, April 5
Leslie Taylor, owner, Raintree Nutrition, Inc., Lima, April 27
Rodolfo Valles Vallera, shaman trainee, San Francisco de Yarinacocha, Ap. 11
Other resources:
Ayahuasca-Wasi Transpersonal Shamanism Research Project. www.ayahuasca-wasi.com
The Center for International Environmental Law. www.ciel.org/ptorejection.html
SpiritQuest. www.biopark.org/sprtqu3.html
Trimble, Diane (2000, March 22). Taking Psychedelics Seriously. San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc.

Shipibo Youth Fine Arts Center

Above: Nixon Yuimachi painting the Shipibo legend of the chuyachaqui in his Youth Fine Arts Center.

A group of Shipibo youth, led by Nixon Yuimachi, in the indigenous community of San Francisco de Yarinacocha have begun forming a youth group for those interested in learning and teaching about the traditional Shipibo fine arts. The art center has commenced operations in Nixon's home in San Francisco, yet they have a dream of expanding into a new location. They would like to construct an art center with lodging also available for Shipibo youth who have to travel from far away communities to attend week-long art workshops. They could construct this new center and also purchase art supplies in bulk to get the center functioning at their desired capacity for only about $300 USD. The art center will be free to anyone wishing to attend classes (Shipibo, Peruvians, and foreigners alike) and all who staff the center are volunteers. The only expenses are art supplies, although many paints, dyes, and other supplies are available naturally on the art center grounds. They would also like to be able to provide travel scholarships for youth from far away communities who cannot afford to travel to San Francisco de Yarinacocha. They plan to maintain their programs through the sale of their art both locally, nationally, and internationally. They are looking for international connections to people interested in helping to sell their art in international markets.

Above: An intricate painting of a shamanic vision where the shaman connects with Mother Earth in a dream world full of medicinal plants and important Shipibo symbols.

Below: An interpretation of Shipibo life in the past as painted by the art center youth.

Above: A beautifully intricate painting of a Shipibo women elder.

Shipibo art is unique in that most supplies are made from naturally-available resources the Shipibo cultivate or that are gathered wild from the surrounding forests. It is also unique for its cultural designs, an important symbol of Shipibo identity. Many paintings are inspired by Shipibo legends, history, nature, and also from shamanic visions of other worlds. Also, many paintings are done collaboratively with many youth contributing to each painting.

Above: A shamanic vision painted by Nixon Yuimachi and donated to Village Earth in order to raise money for future collaborative projects between the Shipibo people and Village Earth.

If you are interested in purchasing a piece of art or supporting the Youth Fine Arts Center, please contact Village Earth's Peru project coordinator, Kristina Pearson: kristina@villageearth.org or call Village Earth's main office: 1-970-491-5754

Santa Teresita, Ucayali, Peru

The indigenous community of Santa Teresita lies on the shores of Cashibococha, a pristine lake near to Pucallpa. Jaime Flores Diaz invited Village Earth to their community for an afternoon of cultural performances. Jaime began this performance group a few years ago after taking in several orphaned children. He began to teach them traditional Shipibo song and dance. Jaime learned many Shipibo songs from his father who was a traditional healer of his community. Jaime was worried that this knowledge would be lost, so he decided to impart his wisdom onto his adopted children.

Below: Jaime Flores Diaz, a cultural visionary for his people

Jaime is interested to teach more Shipibo youth traditional Shipibo song, dance, and even theater. He is currently looking for funding to construct a cultural center in Santa Teresita that will be open to all Shipibo interested in regaining their knowledge of the traditional performing arts. They will also be available for performances for tourists. Not only will youth be regaining an important cultural aspect in the performing arts, but they are also learning so much more about other aspects of Shipibo culture such as traditional clothing and jewelry design. They are also gaining more confindence in themselves - young people are once again proud to be Shipibo.

This project fits into the larger regional plan for the alternative development of the Shipibo nation. One of the eight key aspects of the Shipibo regional plan is to rescue their culture and bring it back from the brink of extinction to once again be a vibrant, flourishing way of life that distinguishes them from the Western world. Cultural exchange was an important component of each communities' plans - cultural exchange from the elders to the youth and also between Shipibo communities and the tourists who come to visit them.

If you are interested in helping to support Jaime's dream of a Shipibo cultural center in Santa Teresita, please contact Village Earth's Peru project coordinator, Kristina Pearson: kristina@villageearth.org
or call the Village Earth main office: 1-970-491-5754