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Gift back to nature and help ensure a future with forests
The Wampís’ forest is vital to the global fight against climate change, yet extractive industries are causing deforestation. This project supports the Wampís’ in monitoring land use, challenging illegal activities, and strengthening the community’s voice.
The Peruvian Amazon is home to more than 51 Indigenous groups including the Wampís, who have over millennia, developed a way of life that is entirely connected to the land.
The Wampís’ territory spans nearly 1.4 million hectares and is a world-renowned hotspot for biodiversity. The Wampís’ forests make a significant contribution to climate mitigation in Peru and internationally. In only two years, the Wampís territory is estimated to absorb the same amount of carbon as Peru’s entire 10-year carbon reduction targets.
The Peruvian Government have not yet legally recognised the entirety of the Wampís’ territory, making it more difficult for the community to protect their ancestral forests. They are experiencing encroachments from extractive industries, including illegal logging, gold mining, and oil and gas exploitation, as well as the threat of a proposed mega-dam and a highway.
COVID-19 also poses a direct threat to Wampís communities’ health. Furthermore, the pandemic has led to the Peruvian State have relaxed socio-environmental laws that would otherwise protect the Wampís and their territory.
Based on the Wampís’ vision for their territory and future, this project aims to secure their forests by promoting strong indigenous governance and to ensure equitable and resilient communities by expanding community-led livelihoods
With support from partners, the Wampís will also
Forests occupied and managed by Indigenous People statistically see lower rates of deforestation. Therefore, empowering communities like the Wampís is vital in preserving biodiversity and global climate protection.
Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) are based in the UK but work with forest-dwelling communities across the globe, supporting them to promote an alternative vision of how forests should be managed and controlled, based on respect for the rights of the peoples who know them best.
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