A promising future for Güeppí: building commitments to preserve the Amazon

• Indigenous leaders and national authorities agree on the next steps for a future national park and communal reserves in the area which would protect approximately 600,00 hectares of rainforests

• The region is the heart of a major international corridor for nature conservation, which crosses the triple frontier with Colombia and Ecuador

Lima. The Güeppí Reserved Zone is located in the far north of the Peruvian Amazon, in the midst of one of the most beautiful and biodiverse places on the planet. Its great diversity of plants and animals is easy to notice just by navigating the waters of the Putumayo, its main river. Some of the most remarkable species it houses are the giant otter, the paiche (the largest fish in the Amazon), the gray and pink river dolphins, and the arahuana, a fish in high demand due to its ornamental value. This natural richness is combined with a great cultural diversity, represented by more than 30 indigenous communities belonging to the Kichwa, Secoya and Huitoto ethnic groups, who today recognize themselves as the ones responsible for the conservation of this heritage.

However, this area is not free from threats, quite the contrary, there are many, and very serious ones. One of these is the potential impact of the eventual operations of the 117 oil block, which is superimposed on the reserved zone.

“A reserved zone is a place of recognized natural value awaiting final classification within the national system of natural protected areas, as to ensure its long-term preservation. However, this transient nature makes it a vulnerable area to other interests” said Johana Deza, WWF’s specialist.

Aware of this risk, a group of leaders of the main indigenous federations of the Putumayo and Napo rivers, such as the Federación Indígena Kichwa del Alto Putumayo Inti Runa (FIKAPIR), the Organización Indígena Secoya del Perú (OISPE) and the Organización Kichwaruna Wangurina del Alto Napo (ORKIWAN), gathered in early October in Lima to meet with representatives of the National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP), the Ministry of the Environment (MINAM) and the Chair of the Council of Ministers (PCM). The aim of this meeting was to ask and also provide support for the implementation of the existing proposal for the categorization of the reserved zone, which was formally endorsed by decision of the indigenous peoples of the area in 2006, and considers the creation of the Güeppí National Park (203,882.31 ha), the Huimeki Communal Reserve (142,832.76 ha) and the Airo Pai Communal Reserve (248,095.42 ha).

As a result of this joint work,  not only did the authorities confirmed their willingness to promote the prompt categorization process of the area, but the head of the SERNANP, Felix Sandro Chavez Vasquez, also defined personally, along with the indigenous leaders, the dates and locations where the workshops of preliminary zoning would be held, which is a step prior to the definitive categorization.

These efforts are driven jointly by the SERNANP, the Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP); the Centro para el Desarrollo del Indígena Amazónico (CEDIA), and WWF, the world conservation organization, as part of the “Putumayo Tres Fronteras” project – implemented since 2009, with the support of the European Union and WWF Germany – together with the federations and indigenous communities located along the Putumayo and Napo basins, as to strengthen the local capacities for sustainable resource exploitation and participative management of the Güeppí Reserved Zone.

“A national park is the strictest protection category for a natural area which, together with the proposed communal reserves and the consequent local participation in management of natural resources, will allow the consolidation of a conservation complex, of national, regional and even global importance, underscoring the extent of these achievements of indigenous peoples and authorities in Gueppi”, adds Deza.