The UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples warned Peru that the Forestry Law encourages territorial dispossession and logging on indigenous lands, due to recent modifications made to this legal framework.
The Special Rapporteur, José Francisco Calí Tzay, warned that the modifications made to the Forestry and Wildlife Law could allow the legalisation of the dispossession of communal lands, foster impunity for illegal activities and permit violence against environmental defenders.
With the Forestry Law, a void in state protection has been created, which would allow the actions of criminal groups that promote illegal logging, informal mining, drug trafficking and the dismantling of community organisations. Amendments to the Forestry Law will also allow the disposition of communal territories (without title) to automatically classify them as agricultural exclusion areas.
