The Ashaninka people are the largest indigenous group of the central Peruvian Amazon region. In the 1980s decade they suffered the impacts of the violent conflicts between the Shining Path (the rebel Maoist guerilla group Sendero Luminoso) and the governmental troops. It has been estimated that 10% of the Ashaninka population was killed due to these confrontations in which they were not involved. The Forestry Act was the subject of fierce protests during its discussion and approval. Still, it came into force. And in 2003, the first public auction of forest concessions were granted in the Ucayali region, located in the Central Forest in the Amazonian part of the eastern Andean foothills in Peru. This process, managed by the Amazonian Forest Consortium, completely ignored any prior consultation with the local indigenous peoples. Trees cutting in Ashaninka territory caused deforestation, forced displacement, deteriorated indigenous’ livelihoods as well as it was the main cause of the conflict and violence that spread through the region. In September 2014, four Ashaninka leaders were killed by illegal loggers. The murders remained unpunished. The AIDESEP continues denouncing the inadequacy between the State’s pretended good intentions as with the signature of an agreement with Norway and Germany in 2014 aiming to reduce deforestation and the actual national policies favoring the extension of plantations, as for instance of palm oil. The Ashaninka people are also endangered by other projects. In 2010, as the result of an energy agreement with Brazil, the Peruvian national government plans ahead the construction of two dams on the rivers Ene and Tambo. The woman Ruth Buendía Mestoquiari, President of CARE, received the Goldman Environmental Price in 2014 for her struggle and leadership. Another conflict description on the Atlas gives specific input about the Ashaninka peoples’ mobilization against the mega-dams. |