https://www.forestpeoples.org/en/2023/total-energies-human-territorial-r...
The Indigenous organisations the Ethnic Council of the Kichwa Peoples of the Amazon (CEPKA), the Federation of Indigenous Kichwa Peoples of the Lower Huallaga San Martin (FEPIKBHSAM), the Federation of Indigenous Kichwa Peoples of Chazuta, Amazonia (FEPIKECHA), bases of the Coordinator for the Development and Defense of Indigenous Peoples of the San Martin Region (CODEPISAM), sent a letter to the company Total Nature Based Solutions (TNBS), part of the Total Energies corporate group, in October 2022. After uncovering in June 2022 Total Energies' role in the largest carbon deal in Peru's history at the time, the Kichwa organisations informed the French company of human and territorial rights violations in the Cordillera Azul National Park.
In the letter, sent eight months ago on 13 October 2022, these organisations explain how the PNCAZ is a natural protected area whose creation violated the territorial rights of at least 29 Indigenous Kichwa communities. The PNCAZ is managed by the Centro de Conservación, Investigación y Manejo de Áreas Naturales (CIMA), a non-governmental organisation that initially refused to disclose the contract between TNBS and CIMA. Indeed, the Kichwa organisations had to resort to the Tribunal of Transparency and Access to Information in Peru in order to obtain the sales agreement for US$ 84,740,000 million in carbon credits between CIMA and TNBS.
This purchase of carbon credits is part of Total Energies' so-called climate strategy. However, not only does it not imply a real reduction in the company's emissions - which continues to invest in the extraction of more fossil fuels - but, as the Kichwa warn, it also contributes to the violation of the rights of Indigenous peoples, making it more difficult for them to defend their territories and livelihoods.
The Kichwa organisations express their great concern that the creation of the PNCAZ was carried out without proper prior consultation to obtain their free, prior and informed consent, despite the fact that Peru has ratified ILO Convention 169, which guarantees the rights of Indigenous peoples. Likewise, the territorial rights of the Kichwa communities continue to be violated by denying them access to and use of their ancestral territories. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) already sent a letter to the Peruvian State under its Early warning and urgent action procedures on 28 April 2023, expressing its concern about allegations of violations of the rights of the Kichwa people in the framework of the establishment of the PNCAZ and its REDD+ project.
In light of this situation, the Kichwa organisations demand that TNBS urge CIMA to guarantee territorial rights, participation and benefits for Indigenous communities in the administration of the PNCAZ. They also urge that the National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP) should commit to protecting and respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Faced with the lack of a response from Total, and given the intransigence of CIMA and SERNANP in not recognising their territorial rights by continuing to boycott technical roundtables supposedly to seek solutions, the organisations have decided to make these letters public.
The Indigenous organisations will remain vigilant and will take the necessary actions to ensure that the rights of the Kichwa communities are respected and that true environmental conservation is promoted in the region. You can read the full letters of October 2022 here and June 2023 here. And the contract between TNBS and CIMA here.
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