I Meeting of Monitoring Committees and Monitors in the Ucayali Region

On November 23rd and 24th, 2021, in the city of Pucallpa, Peru, the I Meeting of Monitoring Committees and Monitors in the Ucayali Region "Challenges and Prospects for the Functioning of Community Monitoring Committees and Community Forest Monitors" was held.

The meeting was organized by ORAU, CORPIAA and URPIA, and was supported by DAR, GIZ and the Amazonia 2.0 project through ECOREDD, project partner in Peru, and IUCN South America. The objective of the meeting was to contribute to the construction of a proposal for a viable mechanism for the sustainability of forest monitoring and control committees and community forest monitoring units.

The event was attended by members of the forest monitoring and control committees and community forest monitoring units of the Ucayali, Loreto and Selva Central regions, representatives of indigenous organizations (ORAU, FENACOCA, CORPIAA, URPIA, ORDIM, among others), public institutions and forest authorities (GERFFS, OSINFOR, SERFOR, MINAM-PNCB), NGOs linked to community forest monitoring and professionals involved in community forest management.

Braulio Buendía, Regional Coordinator of the Amazonia 2.0 project, participated in the first day of the meeting with a presentation that provided a contextualization of the Community Monitoring Committees and the Monitoring Units (veedurías in spanish), based on the experiences of ECOREDD's work for more than a decade, and also on the lessons learned from the A2.0 project. This intervention served as a reference for the other experiences that were shared, contributing to collectively build a proposal for the sustainability of the committees and monitoring units.

As a result of the meeting and unanimous expression of the monitors and indigenous organizations, a public statement called the Declaration of Pucallpa, or the Declaration of the Communal Monitoring Committees/Community Forestry Monitors, was signed. In this Declaration, the signatories demand:

• The immediate creation and implementation of the National Technical Unit of Community Management in SERFOR.
• That the government identify and articulate actions with public and private institutions that promote CMCs/CFMs.
• That the government recognize under a Supreme Decree with Ministerial Resolution the National Community Forest Management Strategy.
• That community forest management be declared of national and regional interest, and that urgent attention be given to the Forestry Monitoring and Control Committees, Indigenous and Community Monitoring Units.
• Application of urgent mechanisms of economic compensation and life insurance for the custodians of the forest who are the members of the Committees and the Units, for the services they provide in favor of the forests and the community.

To read the complete Declaration: click here.

The meeting was a resounding success, taking on greater political relevance with the participation of authorities at all levels. We believe that this Declaration is an important step to continue with the institutionalization of the Community Monitoring Committees and the Community Monitoring Units (veedurías), confirming once again that the processes of Community Forest Management, promoted by projects such as Amazonia 2.0, are key for the conservation of forests and the empowerment of the indigenous peoples that inhabit them. We hope that these demands can soon be addressed and implemented.