By Tom Younger | Ecosocial Justice Program Coordinator
With Alianza Arkana, we always strive to work in ways which are shaped by collaboration and participation. The diversity of people involved not only allows for new approaches and projects to emerge; it makes us more resilient and better-able to adjust to change. This point has been driven home to me in a particularly personal way during the last few months, as sadly I had to leave Ucayali at the end of August, to return to Scotland because of a family illness. Even as we look for new people to build upon and develop this work - including a young Shipibo apprentice, who will be able to assume leadership of this work in the future - the Ecosocial Justice Program continues to evolve in new and promising directions, thanks in particular to the efforts of my fellow volunteers, Macarena and José.
We continue to support the local indigenous federation, FECONAU, with their work in the community of Santa Clara de Uchunya. The community is currently leading a land-titling process by demarcating their own traditional territory as a way to gain recognition of their land rights over their ancestral lands. This is a community-led alternative to the more commonplace procedure, which is to wait for the regional government to demarcate the community's territory; a procedure which often results in the community only gaining rights over part of their territory. Self-demarcation is a recent practice and not many communities know about it, which is why FECONAU, together with Alianza Arkana, are producing an educational video about the process of self-demarcation to be screened in other communities which are yet to have their lands titled. In order to produce this video, Alianza Arkana and FECONAU have worked with the community of Korin Bari. This pioneering community has successfully completed the process of land-titling for themselves using self-demarcation. It is our goal to produce a video which will enable other communities to learn from and adapt both Korin Bari and Santa Clara de Uchunya's experiences with this process.
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