The Regional Counsel of the Regional Government of Loreto approved a Regional Ordinance for the creation of the Regional Conservation Area Ampiyacu – Apayacu (ACRAA) on December 9th, in the native community of Nueva Esperanza, Loreto. The new conservation area is 433,100 hectares of Amazon rain forests between the Ampiyacu and Apayacu river basins.
The recognition of this area has been requested by the 3,000 residents of five native communities for over twenty years. One of the purposes of the declaration was to guarantee their access to the ancient territories and to the natural resources of the area.
The conservation area protects the Apayacu and Ampiyacu rivers, on which the ethnic groups of Bora, Huitoto, Ocaina, Palm, and Quechua that inhabit the zone in 16 native communities, depend for their subsistence and cultural continuity.
Likewise, upon protecting the headwaters and courses of the rivers Ampiyacu, Apayacu, Yaguasyacu and Zumún, the ACR Ampiyacu – Apayacu represents an important opportunity for the clean water sources conservation that is indispensable to maintain the quality of life of the native populations along the banks of these basins, as well as for the city of Pebas.
The session was presided by the delegated counselor, Mrs. Flower Norm Arazábal, and the ordinance was adopted unanimously. This conservation ordinance proposal presented by the Confederacy of Native Communities of the River, Apayacu (FECONA) and the Palm Towns Confederacy of the Rivers Orosa and Apayacu (FEPYROA) was received in a very positive manner. The Institute of Common good (IBC) led by Biologist Aldo Villanueva Zaravia and members of the technical team of the Program of Use, Management and Conservation of the Natural Resources of the Loreto Region (PROCREL) had provided effective technical support. Also contributing was René Vásquez, president of the Native Community of New Hope located in the bank of the river Ampiyacu, as the host of the event and represented more than three thousand beneficiaries of this new Area of Regional Conservation. The extraordinary session was accompanied and enlivened by traditional dances of the groups Ocaina, Huitoto, Palm and Bora, and typical forest foods of these four native towns were served.
At the ceremony, there was a table of honor for president of the Regional Government of Loreto, Yván Vásquez and for invited authorities including the Regional Manager of Natural Resources and Management of the Environment the Biologist Víctor Montreuil Frias and the Forest Technical Administrator and of Wild Fauna (INRENA) - Iquitos, Nélida Barbagelata Ramírez. Likewise, the Biologist José Álvarez Alonso, of the Institute of Investigations of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP), Richard Chase Smith, director of the Institute of Common good, Manuel Ramírez, vice president of the Regional Organization of Native Towns of the East (ORPIO) and the Native Manager of Pebas, Robert Velásquez, representing the Mayor-Sonia Ruth Almeida were all attended. Importantly there were delegations of 18 native communities of the rivers Ampiyacu, Apayacu and of Pebas.
The president of the Regional Government, Yván Vásquez, drawing a distinction between his regional policy and Peru’s national one argued for the importance of stimulating regional development to provide for a better life for local people-and for alleviating poverty compared to a national policy which is focused primarily on foreign exchange and servicing its national debt which he argued result in abject poverty.
