The Land Returns · Episode 10 of 14 · 20 min
Peru: Titling, Reserves, and the Uncontacted
Peru titles Native Communities and creates reserves for peoples in voluntary isolation, but titling lags far behind mining and logging concessions, and hundreds of communities remain untitled. The bright spot is the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, run jointly by the state and an Indigenous executor organization. The episode argues that titling land people already hold is not the same as restitution.
Where it happens
- Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, Madre de Dios, Peru402,335-hectare reserve co-managed with an Indigenous body
- Loreto, Peruregion where 37 Native Community titles were secured in 11 months
- Madre de Dios, Peruhome of Harakbut, Yine, and Matsigenka peoples
Timeline
- 1974first Native Communities Law recognizes Amazonian collective land
- 1993Constitution recognizes communities as legal persons
- 2002Amarakaeri Communal Reserve created
- 2006PIACI law creates Indigenous Reserves
- 2018Amarakaeri added to the IUCN Green List
- Oct 15, 2025court declares the missing titling policy an unconstitutional state of affairs
Still debated
For the state and many practitioners secure collective title is the meaningful return, while critics say formalizing current occupation is recognition rather than restitution. Whether a titling-before-licensing rule would fix the core injustice or the split between surface title and state-owned subsoil is also questioned.