Title: Conservation and Indigenous Resistance: Protected Areas and Extractive Agendas in the Peruvian Amazon
Author/Institution: Ana Watson Jiménez & Conny Davidsen
Publication Year: (Year not provided)
Conservation in a Landscape of Competing Agendas
The study by Watson Jiménez and Davidsen explores how conservation zones in the Peruvian Amazon— often established to protect biodiversity and Indigenous territories—are increasingly caught in conflict with state-led extractive agendas. Drawing on political ecology and territorial governance analysis, the authors show that protected areas are rarely isolated spaces of preservation; they are contested frontiers where government priorities, Indigenous self- determination, and corporate interests collide. In regions like Loreto, Madre de Dios and Ucayali, conservation boundaries overlap with hydrocarbon blocks, logging concessions and mining claims, revealing a structural tension between environmental protection and economic expansion.
Indigenous Resistance as Governance, Not Obstruction
Using case studies, interviews, and participatory mapping, the research documents how Indigenous communities mobilize resistance—not only as protest, but as a mode of governance. Local federations resist encroachment through territorial patrols, legal actions, alliances with NGOs, and the renegotiation of co- management regimes. Their resistance is grounded in a view of the forest as a living territory, not an extractive asset. The authors highlight how Indigenous strategies challenge state narratives that frame extraction as “national development,” instead emphasizing autonomy, cultural continuity, and rights over land and resources.
Implications for Conservation Policy and Extractive Governance
The authors conclude that conservation in the Amazon cannot succeed without recognizing Indigenous peoples as central territorial authorities rather than passive stakeholders. Policies that impose protected areas while simultaneously permitting extractive projects within or adjacent to them undermine legitimacy and fuel conflict. The study argues that any sustainable pathway for the Peruvian Amazon must integrate Indigenous land tenure security, transparent decision-making, and safeguards against concession overlap. As global demand for minerals, hydrocarbons, and forest commodities intensifies, the findings serve as a warning: conservation that ignores Indigenous governance not only fails ecologically—it deepens inequality and accelerates territorial conflict.