Amazonia Beyond Borders: Indigenous Land Protection for an Indigenous Group in Voluntary Isolation

This article looks at the land protection efforts by the Manxineru, whose lands are affected by numerous actors: state agencies, enterprises and transnational mega-extraction projects. We draw especially from the experiences, activities, and articulation of the Manxineru in protection of the land for the Yine Hosha Hajene (Mascho-Piro), their kin living in voluntary isolation, who circulate more in the Manxineru’s demarcated territory in the Brazilian-Peruvian border area. The article presents Manxineru’s key land protection practices that have been strengthening the social networks of different actors as a go-between with other Indigenous group and authorities of the dominant society, as well as managing better their own forest resource use, gathering economies, and hunting practices for healthy relations of human-environment assemblage. Indigenous knowledge and perspectives for the protection of ancestral land, beyond the borders of the state-set Indigenous reserves and protected areas, have become crucial in creating new governance models. By these methods, the Manxineru have managed to cope with differing economic interests and values in living that oppose and ignore their human-environment relationality and interactions. Yet, as we will point out, the mosaic of different Indigenous areas and conservation still need the implementation of state protective activities by a variety of governmental actors.

Can multi-stakeholder forums mediate indigenous rights and development priorities? Insights from the Peruvian Amazon

The protection of indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact (PIACI) is one of the most complex issues in the human rights and environmental agenda. The implementation of frameworks to protect PIACI involves addressing conflicts by the advance of public and private initiatives and interests in their territories. This paper focuses on PIACI Roundtable, a multi-stakeholder forum (MSF) established in Peru's Loreto region to contribute to protecting these groups. The MSF sought to address the long-standing delays in the creation of five Indigenous Reserves for PIACI in Loreto's forests. The paper argues that MSFs may be fruitful spaces to raise awareness of the rights of vulnerable peoples and coordinate the implementation of supporting actions, but only when participants hold a shared respect for those recognised rights. If not, MSFs may become spaces where powerful actors relegate recognised rights to a perspective among others.

GIS and the A'i of Colombia

This paper presents the work of the WCS with the A'i Indigenous people in Colombia as part of a USAID-funded project between 2009 and 2011. The project had several dimensions that make it unusual. Unlike conventional “counter-mapping” attempts to represent Indigenous land claims as a counter to government representations, the project sought to create maps and analyses that represent prior land assignments to the A'i by the Colombian government itself. These land assignments were not supported by geo-referenced maps and, in the case of Indigenous “reserves” the original boundary markers were only known to the oldest of the A'i people. Analysis of forest cover in lands controlled by the A'i reveal that they are highly protective of forests; indeed their collective identity is strongly related to forest cover. The process described also illustrates the difficult position many Indigenous Amazonians face in an era of drug wars, uncontrolled colonization, and in the case of Colombia, the lack of follow-up to the political and social measures envisioned in the 1991 Constitution.

O OURO CANIBAL: A TERRA VISTA PELA PERSPECTIVA CAPITALISTA E XAMÂNICA

RESUMOObjetivo: O objetivo deste artigo é comprovar que a reserva indígena é indispensável para a preservação cultural, social e religiosa das tribos, pois está atrelada à proteção do habitat como garantia de seus costumes, credos e tradições, restando à Constituição de 1988 garantir o amparo às tribos indígenas com o uso dessas reservas.Metodologia: O estudo foi baseado em uma pesquisa bibliográfica e legislativa das Constituições de 1934 e 1988, bem como no posicionamento do Supremo Tribunal Federal, contido na Súmula nº. 650.Resultados: O presente artigo demonstrou que os trabalhadores passaram a pressionar e manifestar-se para mudar o Estado brasileiro por intermédio de uma reforma agrária que gerou, em 1964, a edição do Estatuto da Terra. Assim como os movimentos pela terra, o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) proporcionou indiretamente, em 1984, a positivação da “função social da propriedade” na Constituição de 1988, nas leis agrárias (como a Lei 8.629/1993) e nas matérias infraconstitucionais pertinentes à terra.Contribuições: O estudo contribuiu para demonstrar que o homem branco não consegue compreender a dimensão e a importância em manter-se as terras protegidas; constata-se que a observância do termo “uso tradicional” utilizado na Constituição de 1988 prejudica as comunidades indígenas, o que torna essa possibilidade de uso um direito não efetivo, permanecendo a discussão de como essas comunidades podem explorar as terras. Algumas autoridades defendem que esse uso é possível, mediante a assistência indispensável dos órgãos de fiscalização; no entanto, busca-se asseverar que legalmente é direito dos indígenas usar seu habitat, afirmando-se que é sua faculdade a exploração dessas terras, a título de função social da reserva indígena.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Xamãs; homem branco; ouro canibal; reservas indígenas; proteção. ABSTRACTObjective: To prove that the indigenous reserve is indispensable for the cultural, social and religious preservation of the tribes, as it is linked to the protection of the habitat as a guarantee of their customs, creeds and traditions, being an obligation of the Constitution of 1988 to guarantee the protection of indigenous tribes through the use of these reserves.Methodology: The study was based on a bibliographic and legislative research of the Constitutions of 1934 and 1988, as well as on the position of the Supreme Court contained in Precedent no. 650.Results: The present article demonstrated that the workers started to press and manifest themselves to change the Brazilian State through an agrarian reform that generated in 1964 the edition of the Earth Statute. Like the land movements, the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) indirectly provided in 1984 the enactment of the “social function of property” in the Constitution of 1988, the agrarian laws (such as Law No. 8,629/1993) and relevant non-constitutional matters relating to land.Contributions: The study has shown that the white man cannot understand the scale and importance of maintaining protected lands; the observance of the term “traditional use” used in the Constitution of 1988 is detrimental to indigenous communities, which makes this possibility of using an ineffective right, and there remains a discussion of how these communities can exploit land. Some authorities argue that such use is possible through the indispensable assistance of the supervisory bodies; however, it seeks to assert that it is legally the right of indigenous people to use their habitat, stating that it is their faculty to exploit these lands as a social function of the indigenous reserve.KEYWORDS: Shamans; white man; cannibal gold; indigenous reserves; protection.

The Intergenerational Perception of the Causes and Effects of Language Loss in the Pijao Community of Natagaima, Colombia

The Pijao language was lost sometime during the last half of the 20th century and exactly how the language was lost has yet to be discerned. Using data from an investigation that examined perceptions of the causes and effects of the Pijao linguicide among focus groups of different ages in the Pijao community at Natagaima, Tolima, this article examines two themes that came out of the focus groups – how the language was lost and how the community has suffered since the loss of the Pijao language. The results show how loss of their native language has disadvantaged the Pijao as a result of pervasive linguistic essentialist attitudes pervasive in the country. At the national level, the Pijao have problems in terms of recognition from other indigenous groups, with many refusing to recognize the indigeneity of the Pijao on the grounds of lack of language, and at a local level with mestizos arguing the same. Additionally, the author offers a tentative hypothesis for the loss of the Pijao language in the south of Tolima – that the creation of indigenous reserves may have hastened the loss of the language.

Caldono, territorio para la paz. Tensiones en el primer año de implementación del acuerdo final en los resguardos indígenas que acogieron excombatientes de las FARC

El artículo presenta un análisis sobre las tensiones surgidas en el municipio de Caldono (Cauca) durante el primer año de implementación del acuerdo entre el Gobierno nacional y las FARC-EP. Este municipio tiene la particularidad de ser el único donde se estableció una Zona Veredal Transitoria de Normalización en territorio étnico, en las jurisdicciones de los resguardos indígenas de Pueblo Nuevo y San Lorenzo de Caldono. Las tensiones identificadas por el Instituto de Estudios Interculturales de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Cali en ambos resguardos están relacionadas con el territorio, la dinámica económica y los procesos de reincorporación de excombatientes de las FARC-EP en el municipio. Su identificación genera reflexiones importantes para el proceso de implementación del acuerdo. Caldono, Peace Territory. Tensions in the Indigenous Reservations Hosting former FARC members during the First Year of Implementation of the Final Agreement Abstract: The article presents an analysis of the tensions that arose in the municipality of Caldono (Cauca, Colombia) during the first year of implementation of the Peace Agreement between the national government and the FARC-EP guerrilla. This municipality is the only one in Colombia where a Transitory Normalization Zone was established in ethnic territory, property of two indigenous reserves: Pueblo Nuevo and San Lorenzo of Caldono. The tensions, identified by the Institute of Intercultural Studies, are associated to land property, economic issues and the reincorporation process into civilian lives of farc-ep ex-combatants in the municipality. The identification of the aforementioned tensions enables important insights for the ongoing implementation process of the Peace Agreement in Colombia. Keywords: FARC-EP; reincorporation process; indigenous reserves; social tensions associated to land.