Peru’s Bahuaja-Sonene National Park at risk over illegal mining

Part of the problem is that the relationship between SERNANP and Kotsimba is tense. Residents of Kotsimba assert that, in addition to their 28,000 hectares (about 69,190 acres) of recognized territory, there are another 10,000 hectares (about 24,700 acres) within the park that belonged to them historically. SERNANP has stated that, by law, the land in natural protected areas cannot be reduced. However, the organization says that if an administrative process is followed in which ancestral territory limits are recognized, sustainable management projects such as ecotourism can be planned.

Pillco, the president of Kotsimba, says that this is his intention. “We do know that mining in the river is illegal,” he says. He says that they are also conscious that this activity will end eventually, and that they will stay in the same place. Pillco is clear he does not want Kotsimba to end up like La Pampa, which is in the buffer zone of Tambopata National Reserve. “According to our master plan, the next step to take is to generate a new economy based on experience-based tourism,” Pillco says.

At 35 years old, Pillco is part of an educated generation that actually developed, in part, thanks to money from illegal mining. “That was the idea of our parents — to dedicate themselves to this so that we could grow better,” says Pillco. According to him, since 2010 there has been talk about a more responsible zoning plan for Kotsimba. The plan includes one region dedicated to mining and another region of 12,000 hectares (about 29,650 acres) dedicated to conservation.

This plan fits together with those created by the partnership between the Ministry of Environment and the Development Bank of Latin America (the MINAM+CAF program). The MINAM+CAF program hopes to create public investment projects to help repair the impact of the Interoceanic Highway. Edilberto Castro, a specialist from the program, says that in the Madre de Dios region, the initiatives that the program promotes are private. Castro says that in 2017, an initiative was begun with Kotsimba to create a private conservation area on those 29,650 acres. The initiative is still in progress.

Pillco says that this is how Kotsimba applied for, and won, funding to construct a lodge for tourism. The MINAM+CAF program gave them $60 million for its construction, although Pillco says that the community has also invested another $260 million to make sure the lodge was of the best quality possible. Although the initiative is a positive gesture, an uncomfortable silence arises when either the MINAM+CAF program or the Kotsimba community is asked where the money came from.

Pillco insists that the future of Kotsimba should be related to tourism. However, there are still some setbacks. In December 2017, a resident of Kotsimba was found illegally mining in a 98-square-foot area in Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, at the head of the Malinowski River. “We want to make our old borders thrive,” said the community member to the park rangers who surprised him at the time.

“Kotsimba has been satanized, people don’t understand that we saw how other people took advantage of our resources. How come we couldn’t do that?” says Pillco. He says that in a year, the community will let go of mining and completely dedicate itself to ecotourism. “We know that we can live off of tourism —off of carbon credits— but for now, what do we do? There is a necessity to work and to improve our quality of life,” he says.