In an atmosphere of celebration, last May 21, an important event was held to hand over land titles to 24 native communities in the Loreto region. This ceremony, led by the Regional Government of Loreto and organized by AIDESEP and ORPIO, was attended by community authorities, indigenous leaders and officials of the Regional Management of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (GERDAGRI) of Loreto.
Profonanpe, Peru's private environmental fund, actively supported the titling of the native communities of Padre López and Nuevo Polo Sur del Puinahua. This achievement is part of the collaborative and direct work with AIDESEP to contribute to the legal security of their territories.
The titling of these two communities was possible thanks to the joint and articulated effort between AIDESEP, ORPIO, Profonanpe and GERDAGRI of Loreto, framed in the project «Support for the Implementation of the National Strategy on Forests and Climate Change of Peru (ENBCC) - Phase III», financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through the Readiness Fund of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCP). One of the components of the project consisted of accompanying the titling and recognition processes of native communities, in accordance with current regulations, developed by AIDESEP with the technical support of Profonanpe. To date, this collaboration has allowed the titling of 8 native communities and the recognition of 13 in 4 departments of the country.
The president of AIDESEP, Jorge Pérez, highlighted in his speech the challenges that communities still face, even after receiving their land titles, as is the case of Centro Arenal, which continues to face threats and pressures. This is why achieving the titling becomes a crucial step to guarantee the legal security of the indigenous territories of the native communities.
The successful titling of the 24 native communities has been possible thanks to the articulated and collaborative work led by AIDESEP in coordination with GERDAGRI and various partners, including Profonanpe, Rainforest Foundation US and the Indian Law Resources Center. The field work, which included georeferencing, demarcation, agrological evaluation and soil analysis, in direct coordination with AIDESEP, was fundamental to achieve the objectives in less time than in other similar projects.
