📋 Tender Overview
Iquitos - In the Blanco Tapiche river basin, three indigenous communities have converted sanctions into opportunities. Through the mechanism for compensation for forest fines, promoted by the organism for supervision of forest and wildlife resources (Osinfor), Monte Alegre, Yarina Topal Border and Our Lady of Fatima have resulted in more than 600,000 soles in fines without paying money, but through conservation actions in 3 150 hectares of forest.
This model, innovative and transformer, allowed them to settle their debts through patrols, forest monitoring, restoration and control of the territory. Thus, what was previously punishment today becomes a tool to recover the link with the forest, strengthen indigenous governance and open the door to sustainable development.
From the Osinfor we promote that conservation is not seen only as a way of fulfilling a sanction, but an opportunity for transformation. Today we celebrate the commitment of these three communities and call for more indigenous peoples. Apus, carried out in the Provincial Municipality of Requena, in coordination with the Center for the Development of the Amazon Indigenous (CEDIA).
Three communities, three learning, the same territory
The three communities are located in the province of Requena, in the Loreto region, one of the most diverse and at the same time most vulnerable areas of the Peruvian Amazon. There, indigenous peoples retain, inhabit and defend fundamental territories for climate balance, biodiversity and the provision of common goods.
Monte Alegre compensated for a fine of more than 340,000 soles by conservation of 1 645.41 hectares of forest. On the other hand, Yarina Topal Border said more than 140,000 soles with the protection of 1 046.9 hectares, and Our Lady of Fatima retained 458 hectares in compensation of a sanction exceeding 111,000 soles.
We trust someone who involved us in an illicit fact. We never thought that he was going to take out all the wood in five months and left us a fine of more than half a million soles, recalls Gesmi of the Huayta Castle, head of Monte Alegre. Today, thanks to the accompaniment of Cedia and the effort of the entire community, we recover control of the forest. We want to take advantage of it legally, but we need training, technical assistance and more allies.
From Yarina Topal Border, Hector Javier Panarua Freire recalls that his community is mainly dedicated to agriculture: they produce cassava and elaborate Farina. We have no plans to extract wood, but this fine changed our relationship with the forest. We call other communities: do not sign without knowing, do not deliver documents. We need more information and support in the territory.
Roberto Tafur Shupinghua, president of the Federation of Communities of the Rivers Tapiche and Blanco (Fecoritayb) and representative of the Nuts Nuestra Senora de Fatima Native Community, looks towards the future after completing the compensation process. Today he asks for support to learn to manage their forests sustainably and turn them into a source of opportunities and development for their communities: We need the State, organizations and all those who work in the Amazon to articulate to generate real conditions of use and sustainability. CEDIA was a key ally, but we need to join more. What we care with effort becomes the future for our children.
What is the fines compensation mechanism?
It is a legal instrument that allows indigenous communities with current property title, organized surveillance committees without prior benefits due to the same infraction, paying their sanctions within a minimum period of five years through verifiable conservation activities, such as patrols, monitoring, restoration, surveillance and control of the forest access. All these actions must be reported annually to the Osinfor for verification and approval.
This mechanism takes on special relevance in areas such as Loreto, where many communities were sanctioned not for destroying the forest, but for having been deceived or supplanted by third parties that used their documents to commit environmental crimes.
Does your community face a forest fine?
The Osinfor has enabled an exclusive attention channel for communities interested in compensating its fine with conservation:
Write us to: fines@osinfor.gob.pe
Call us: 939 170 740 - 938 139 784
