Bogota, Colombia – Recent Amendments to Peruvian Forests and Wildlife Act are drawing intense reactions from environmental groups and indigenous groups, which warns that it can accelerate the forests in the Amazon Rain Forest under economic development.
The amendment eliminates the need for state approval before the landowners or companies are converted to forest land to other uses. Critics say that this change can legalize illegal forests for years.
“It is seriously related to us,” Alvaro Maskaz Salvador, a lawyer for the tribal People’s Program at the Legal Defense Institute in Peru, said.
Mascase added that this reform defines the Peruvian Constitution as a national patriotism “Effectively Privatization” by the land. “The forests are not personal property – they belong to the nation,” he said.
Supporters of the amendment made in March say that it will stabilize the Peruvian agricultural sector and provide more legal certainty to the farmers.
Associated Press sought comments from multiple representatives of the agronomist sector of Peru, along with Congress women Maria Jita Chunga, vocal supporters of the law. Only one person in the agricultural sector responded, they did not want to comment.
According to the non -profit Rainforest Trust, the Amazon Rain Forest is the second largest part of the Brazil, which contains more than 5% hectares in Peru’s territory. It is one of the biodiversity zones on the planet and the residence of more than 50 indigenous peoples, some live in voluntary isolation. These communities are important parents of ecosystem and the rain forests they protect are large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that helps to stabilize global climate by absorbing the main driver of climate change, a greenhouse gas.
Passed in the 21st, the main forest and wildlife laws needed state approval and environmental study before any change in the use of forest land. However, recent reforms have weakened these protections continuously. The latest amendment allows the landowners and companies to bypass that approval, even legitimize the previous forests.
After a group of lawyers filed a constitutional challenge, the Constitutional Court of Peru upheld the amendment. Although the court struck some parts of the amendment, it kept the final provision of the law intact, which legalized the changes in the past illegal land-use. Legal experts say it is the most dangerous part.
In his verdict, the court acknowledged that the law of the indigenous community should have consulted on reforms and confirmed the role of the Ministry of Environment in the forest zoning.
Environmental lawyer Kazar Epenza has shortened it: “The court admits that the law violated the indigenous rights and (tribes) should have suggested, but it still supports the most harmful part.”
Former Brazilian President Zai Bolsnaro, the reforms, pushed behind the mirror dynamics, where political and economic forces united to weaken environmental protection to support agriculture. A highly organized, industrial agricultural lobby led by Brazil’s efforts, but a loose but strong alliance is involved in the Peruvian version.
In Peru, support of farming interests, land grabbers and statistics associated with illegal excavation and drug trafficking comes. Small and medium farmers have also spread in this effort with concerns about their land protection.
“What we are seeing is a transformation of both legal and illegal interests,” said Vladimir Pinto, an Environmental Advocacy Group Amazon Watch.
Peruvia Director Julia Urunaga warned that the Peruvian government was now falsely arguing that the amendments were necessary for the European Union’s rules, which soon their products were illegally encouraged to import goods such as soy, beef and palm oil.
If he later legalized the goods involved in illegal forests and allowed them to enter the market, it would weaken the effectiveness of the demand and demand regulations like the EU, he said.
“It sends the wrong message to the global markets and undercut the effort to prevent forests through trade restrictions,” said Urunaga.
Olivia’s head of the EU EU Economic and Commerce Department of Peruvia has denied that recent changes in the law are associated with the EU forest free control.
In interviewing with Peruvian media, Dumps says that the regulation does not require preventing the purchase of goods associated with forests and legal reforms, but rather not traceability and sustainability in products like coffee, cocoa and wood.
Without taking any other shelter in the domestic court, civil society groups are preparing to take the case to international tribunals, warning that the verdict has set a dangerous example for other countries that seek to prevent the environmental law under the banner of reform.
The law for many indigenous leaders represents the direct threat to their territory, community and life.
Julio Kusurichi, a board member of the Intervalian Association for the development of the Peruvian Reinford, said the move would already encourage land-occupied land in the weak and worse environmental supervision.
“Our communities have stabilized the planet, not just our land, but said,” Kusurichi said.
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