An amendment to Peru’s Forestry and Wildlife Law, passed in March, ignited widespread alarm among environmentalists and Indigenous leaders who warn it could legitimise illegal deforestation in the Amazon under the pretence of economic development, according to AP News.
The reform removes the obligation for landowners and companies to obtain state approval before converting forested areas to agricultural or other uses, effectively enabling the retroactive legalisation of past illegal land clearances.
The 2011 Forestry Law initially mandated environmental impact assessments and state authorisation for land-use changes. The new amendment, however, permits unchecked conversion of forests, a move critics argue “privatises” nationally protected land. Alvaro Masquez Salvador of Peru’s Legal Defence Institute stated:
Forests are not private property. They belong to the nation.
Peru’s Constitutional Court upheld the law despite acknowledging violations of Indigenous consultation rights under Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989. While striking down parts of the amendment, the court retained a provision validating historical deforestation, a decision environmental lawyer César Ipenza called “endorsing the most harmful part.”
The reform mirrors tactics seen in Brazil under former President Jair Bolsonaro, where agribusiness lobbies diluted environmental protections. In Peru, a coalition of legal and illegal interests, including land traffickers, miners, and drug cartels, has driven the changes, capitalising on small farmers’ anxieties over land tenure.
Peru’s Amazon, covering 70 million hectares and sheltering 50+ Indigenous groups, faces existential threats. Julio Cusurichi of the Interethnic Association for the Peruvian Rainforest warned the law would escalate land grabs and cripple oversight in biodiverse regions where Indigenous stewardship had long curbed emissions.
