Yurua Tribes Confront Logger Invasion

August 16: Members of the Association of Native Communities for the Integral Development of Yurúa Region (ACONADIYSH), the regional indigenous federation (ORAU), UAC staff and other allies walked 12 hours through the dense jungle to the remote community of Sawawo Hito 40 to intercept two logging tractors that arrived via the newly opened and illegal Nueva Italia - Puerto Breu road. The government had promised to send environmental investigators and a squad of military personnel to support the intervention and arrest the loggers. However, as is often the case, the government has since gone back on that promise, and the indigenous leaders are left on their own to prevent the advance of the tractors to the Yurua river and their communal lands. More information available here.

Indigenous leaders and UAC staff investigating recent road construction and the arrival of logging tractors in the community of Sawawo Hito 40. The new road is already facilitating a migration of coca farmers from Peru’s central jungle region, with potentially devastating impacts on the people and forests of the Yurua.

New imagery from August shows new farms and several airstrip along the newly opened Nueva Italia - Puerto Breu, Yurua road.