Peru Passes Resolution to Title Saweto After Murders

January 2015: After a 12 year struggle to obtain title to their homelands which cost the lives of four of it’s leaders who were murdered by loggers in September, last month the Peru government finally passed a resolution legally recognizing 80,000 hectares as belonging to the Ashéninka community of Saweto. Furthermore, officials have promised to travel to Saweto by helicopter in February to present the title to Saweto’s newly elected leaders in a community assembly. Upper Amazon Conservancy has been helping Saweto in their quest for land recognition and justice for three years.

The struggle has been resisted by illegal loggers benefiting from open access to Saweto’s timber, as well as corrupt, pro-logging officials in the Ucayali regional government. Please see the following document for a summary of Saweto’s decade-long effort to remove illegal loggers and obtain title to their lands, including various links to additional information on Saweto’s struggle. The Alto Tamaya Indigenous Community: A summary of illegal logging, land titling, and violence in the Peruvian Amazon.

Saweto leaders and allies at a workshop to advance Saweto’s titling efforts held in Pucallpa in August 2012. Murder victims Jorge Ríos Pérez and Edwin Chota Valera are in the front row wearing their traditional cushma clothing.