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Section 5 The Status of the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua and its Effect on Nanti Well-being In 1990, a Reserve of 443,887 hectares called the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua was created for the benefit of the isolated Panoan and Arawakan groups living in the headwaters regions of the Rios Mishagua, Camisea, and Timpia. The purpose of this Reserve is to prevent intrusion by outsiders on the territory that these indigenous groups traditionally live in, and to minimize the contact these isolated groups have with the diseases and dangers that outsiders may bring. The Reserve was created due to efforts by CEDIA (Centro para el Desarrollo del Indígena Amazónico). The authors of this report believe that the existence of this Reserve could potentially be very beneficial to the well-being of the Nanti, providing them protection from contamination by introduced illnesses and from exploitation by unsympathetic outsiders. In this section we discuss the present-day status of this Reserve, and how the Reserve presently effects the well-being of the Nanti. We begin with a discussion of entry into the Reserve by a variety of individuals, and the perception held of the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua in the region surrounding the Reserve, focusing on the perception of its legal status and legitimacy. We then discuss the problems in the enforcement of the Reserve's boundaries, and conclude with our recommendations on improving the integrity of the Reserve as a legally protected area. 5.1 The Permeability of the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua and Regional Perception of its Legitimacy As has been evident from our several experiences in traveling to Montetoni, it is not common knowledge in the lower Urubamba river valley that the territory encompassed by the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua is a restricted area. The lack of information in the region about the Reserve and the resulting attitude of many of the Machiguenga communities in the vicinity of the Reserve combine to render largely ineffectual the boundaries of the Reserve as an obstacle to ingress by visitors. Despite general ignorance about the Reserve, however, the existence of the Nanti and their communities is widely known, and stories circulate about the abundance of wood and other material resources in the jungle of the upper Rio Camisea. Furthermore, the varadero, or crossing, to the Manu river system, a long-established Machiguenga and Piro route, is located very close to Montetoni, within the Reserve. As a result, large numbers of people with diverse motives regularly enter the Reserve. Also, with the increased activities in the general area of the Camisea due to the presence of Shell Oil Company, traffic into the Reserve and also specifically to Montetoni and Malanksiá seems at the present time to be on the increase. Visitors to the Reserve fall into two broad groups: people who do not live in the region, principally tourists and missionaries; and those who are residents of Machiguenga communities in the lower Urubamba river valley. There are also a small number of Piro visitors who, like many Machiguenga, use the varadero between the Rio Camisea and the Rio Manu Chico to travel between their communities in the Urubamba and Madre De Dios regions. Several groups of tourists have visited the Nanti communities of the upper Rio Camisea. While on our way up the Rio Camisea to Montetoni in 1995 we were very surprised to meet two Israeli tourists coming downriver from that village. We stopped and spoke with them briefly. They told us that they had heard of Montetoni from Machiguenga on the Rio Urubamba, and had been curious to see some "authentic recently-contacted natives". They had hired a canoe and a guide in Boca Camisea and made their way up to Montetoni. They said they only stayed a few days, however, because the Nanti, who were apparently uncomfortable with the presence of two foreign men in their village who expected to be fed and housed by them, asked them to leave. Earlier that year, two Canadian tourists also stopped in Montetoni for a few days, on their way to the Manu region. When we were in Malanksiá in July of 1997, we were told by Silverio of a visit in June to the village by a group of tourists, led by Ada Castillo, on their way to the Manu Reserve via the varadero. Silverio excitedly told us that Ada had plans to bring other groups of tourists on this same route in the future, and had offered to help him in obtaining Comunidad Nativa status for Malanksiá. Commercial endeavors such as this could prove extremely harmful as well as invasive to the Nanti in the future. It seems imperative that the Nanti should be protected, perhaps through the enforcement of the boundaries of the Reserve, from the invasion of their communities by groups of tourists. We believe that most of these tourists trespassed on the Reserve out of simple ignorance. The Israeli tourists, for example, had originally intended to travel up the Timpia, but had been advised by the Dominicans at Boca Timpia that they might infect the little-contacted residents of the Timpia if they did so. The Israelis altered their plans and went to the Camisea instead. It is unlikely that individuals such as these, who were warned away from the Timpia by words alone, would have knowingly trespassed on a legally recognized Reserve. We believe a similar situation obtains for the two visits by individuals connected with missionary organizations. The first, in 1991, was by an individual connected with SAM (South American Missions). This purpose of this visit was to investigate the rumors circulating at the time about "Kogapakori" on the upper Camisea. The second visit, by SIL linguists, in February of 1997, had as its goal initial investigations into the Nanti language; for more information on this issue, see the discussion regarding Angel Diaz, below. The experience of the authors helps illustrate the scarcity of information available to most outsiders about the Reserve. Lev Michael first heard about Montetoni in June of 1993 from a bilingual Piro teacher from Miaria who had visited there in both 1990 and 1991, the second time with the previously mentioned SAM representative. This teacher offered to help Lev reach Montetoni, accompanying him as far as Segakiato. Lev stopped for several days in both Boca Camisea and Segakiato, looking for transportation to Montetoni, where he was entirely open about his intention to travel to Montetoni. In Segakiato he succeeded in finding transportation which eventually got him to Montetoni. In both Boca Camisea and Segakiato, Lev spoke with the presidente of the community, and many other people, about his plans to travel to Montetoni. At no time did anyone question his motives or mention the existence of a Reserve, or any other legal impediment to his making the journey. In 1995, we both traveled to Montetoni, and the lack of information was similar. In fact, the Dominican mission hospital in Sepahua asked that we do a census of Montetoni, to help them in their work in the region. We delivered this census, along with a brief report on the health conditions in Montetoni, to both the mission hospitals in Sepahua and Kirigueti. At no time was the Reserve mentioned. On this trip we also stopped in Segakiato, where nothing was said about the Reserve. Similarly, during our upriver trip in June of 1997, we stopped at Segakiato, stayed in the community for several days, talked to the presidente and several of the bilingual teachers, and at no time was any mention made of the Reserve. Our story serves to demonstrate that it is very easy for outsiders to travel into the Reserve in a perfectly open manner, and not hear a single word about the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua. We expect that the tourists and missionaries we have already discussed had a similar experience to ours, and did not knowingly trespass on the Reserve. Francisco Mesa, the president of CEDIA at the time of this writing, suggested that the reason we were never informed about the existence of the Reserve was that we, by chance, only stayed in Machiguenga communities pertaining to CECONAMA (Central de Comunidades Nativas Machiguenga), one of the two rival Machiguenga organizations. His view, echoed by other representatives of CEDIA with whom we have spoken, is that the leadership of the CECONAMA communities are either ignorant of the existence of the Reserve, or more sinister, are aware of its existence, but knowingly ignore it and hide its existence from outsiders. Mesa contrasts this situation with that found in the communities pertaining to COMARU (Consejo Machiguenga del Rio Urubamba), the other Machiguenga organization, which is strongly allied with CEDIA. In the COMARU communities, Mesa claims, the Reserve is both acknowledged and respected. Furthermore, the "guard" for the Reserve resides in Cashiriari, the closest COMARU community to the park boundary. Our investigations into the matter suggest that Mesa's claims are partially accurate, though somewhat exaggerated. We return to this subject below, in our discussion of Machiguenga attitudes towards the Reserve. Perhaps the most unexpected visitors to the Nanti communities within the Reserve are the comerciantes, or local traders, most of whom are based in Quillabamba. We heard from the Nanti of a few visits in 1995 and 1996 from comerciantes, and in 1997, we met several mestizo comerciantes on the Rio Urubamba and in Boca Camisea who declared their intentions to visit the Nanti communities in the present wet season. Their motivations seemed to be curiosity as well as commercial interests. Certainly, a visit to the Nanti could not be hugely profitable, as the Nanti are not in a position to trade or purchase anything. It is our theory that these comerciantes have been encouraged to come upriver and do business with Silverio and José, as each of these men grow various crops for commercial purposes. In our experience, comerciantes are not predisposed to show either respect or caution when dealing with native communities, either in terms of culture or of sanitation. Perhaps more troubling is the fact that Silverio's and José's crops will no doubt be largely harvested and processed by Nanti labor. Past experience suggests that the Nanti will be little-rewarded for this work. The entry of comerciantes into the Reserve must be regarded as a central part of Silverio's plans to exploit the Nanti for their labor. See Section 4.5 for a lengthier discussion of this topic. Although tourists, missionaries, and comerciantes all enter the Reserve, the most pervasive presence both in the Nanti communities and within the boundaries of the Reserve is of course that of the Machiguenga. As we discuss further in Section 8, there are several Machiguenga actually living in the Nanti community of Malanksiá: Silverio Araña and his family; Ignacio; and until very recently, José Arisha. In addition, three Machiguenga family settlements presently exist within the boundaries of the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua. Machiguenga visitors to the Nanti communities, primarily woodcutters, are not uncommon. There are presently three Machiguenga family settlements within the boundaries of the Reserve. The family nearest to the Nanti have settled at the Rio Kuria, a tributary about a day's walk downriver from Malanksiá. This settlement was established in 1993, by a man named Antonio, his wife, and his children. Some of his relatives also at times stay at this settlement. At present, his daughter is now living in Malanksiá with a Nanti man, and they have a one year old child. As a result, this Machiguenga family has frequent contact with the Nanti. José Arisha, the Machiguenga who came to live with the Nanti as promotor de salud in 1995, told us that he has a large chacra very near this settlement, and it is to this settlement that he has reportedly relocated as of November of 1997. The other two Machiguenga families settled within the Reserve in 1997. One group has settled near Yopocoriari, and the other a dozen or so kilometers upriver from there; these groups do not have regular contact with the Nanti. We have met and heard of many Machiguenga from various communities, particularly Boca Camisea and Segakiato, who either have already carried out wood cutting activities within the Reserve, or intend to do so. With so many Machiguenga communities located near or on the Rio Camisea, it is a natural place for Machiguenga to go in search of timber, either for their own use or for sale, as well as thatch, game and other material necessities. Clearly, these individuals either do not know about or do not care about the boundaries of the Reserve. Entry into the Reserve to conduct the above activities has been common practice until now, and is not perceived of as wrong-doing by many Machiguenga. The Nanti tell a story that is very troubling to them. They speak of a woodcutter who came to Montetoni about two years ago from somewhere close to Kirigueti. He enlisted the help of several young Nanti as laborers in his wood cutting, and promised to return with payment for them, of clothes and other goods, at a later time. When he left, the Nanti say, he stole a young Nanti boy named Pedro, and never returned again. This experience helped to shape Nanti distrust of Machiguenga men from downriver; see Section 8 for more discussion. Apart from the Machiguenga who enter the Reserve to exploit the natural resources within it, one of the most frequent Machiguenga visitors that the Camisea Nanti receive is Angel Diaz, the Machiguenga evangelist who leads the Maranatha bible school in Nuevo Mundo. Angel also works with the SIL, and is in the process of studying the Nanti language in order to produce the New Testament in their language. Angel has visited the Nanti many times in the last few years, and has always been made welcome by the Nanti. Angel's most recent visit was to Malanksiá in November of 1997, and he told us he had plans to return there for an extended stay in February or March of 1998. Angel also visited Malanksiá in February of 1997, in the company of three North American SIL linguists. They stayed a few days, and conducted a brief study of the Nanti language in order to determine its relationship to Machiguenga. Angel will continue to work with these SIL representatives through the SIL's main office in Lima as he translates the New Testament from Machiguenga to Nanti. At present, these SIL representatives do not have plans to visit the Nanti communities again themselves. It appears that Angel expects to continue visiting the Nanti and working with them over the course of the next few years. Angel expresses a deep concern for the health and well-being of the Nanti, as well as discomfort with the behavior of Silverio Araña that he observed during his stays in the village. The large number of Machiguenga visitors to the Reserve makes it clear that the Reserve is not widely respected nor recognized. Our experience in the Machiguenga communities of Segakiato and Boca Camisea suggest that the members of these communities are largely ignorant of the Reserve, and to the degree they are aware of it, they are defiant and disrespectful about the Reserve, identifying it with CEDIA, which has a poor reputation in these communities. For example, when we told the teniente gobernador of Boca Camisea of our intention to respect the Reserve boundaries, and not enter it without the appropriate permission, he expressed his dismay at our decision. He asserted that Mesa's claims about the Reserve were nothing but a fabric of lies intended to keep the Nanti backwards and kept in an "anthropological zoo", and he urged us to travel up to Montetoni as we had previously intended. Others told us that if there was a Reserve, its only purpose was to protect wildlife, and that there was no need for us to concern ourselves about the matter. Many of the Machiguenga in these communities who urged us to ignore the Reserve cited as evidence of the non-existence of the Reserve Silverio Araña's and José Arisha's presence within the the Reserve, and the existence of a State-recognized school on the upper Camisea. As they argued, how is it possible that the area is a Reserve if there is a school there? That these attitudes are held by many influential Machiguenga in these communities no doubt plays a role in why information rarely reaches the ears of outsiders about the existence of the Reserve. As for Mesa's claim that the situation is entirely different in the COMARU communities, we feel that this is probably an exaggeration. It is certainly true that the only Machiguenga we ever met who overtly recognized the legal legitimacy of the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua were COMARU functionaries, but we encountered no evidence that this attitude was widespread among COMARU community members. The fact that we have never heard of anyone being prevented from entering the Reserve, apart from the single instance we discuss below suggests that even in the COMARU communities, there is little concern about the integrity of the Reserve. It is implausible to us that all the tourists, comerciantes, and woodcutters who have entered the Reserve never mentioned their intentions to do so to a member of a COMARU community. More likely, they did so and were not challenged, and furthermore, no notice was given to the guard post in Cashiriari. Furthermore, it is impossible for outsiders to travel in the region without attracting a great deal of attention and many queries about their destination and intentions. Certainly news of outsiders' intentions to travel to Montetoni would travel quickly up and down the river, and the news would likely reach a COMARU community, which could contact Cashiriari to inform them of the situation. In short, the COMARU communities, though probably better informed about the legal status of the Reserve, do not appear substantially more committed to helping enforce its boundaries than the CECONAMA communities. Regardless of the relative commitment of the CECONAMA and COMARU communities to both respect and protect the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua, recent experiences suggest to us that even the CECONAMA communities could be persuaded to help protect the Reserve boundaries. In January of 1997, while the authors of this report were in Boca Camisea, a Machiguenga man from the community told us of his plans to enter the Reserve to cut wood. He told us that he had gotten a permit in Quillabamba to do so. We found this odd, so we inquired of the teniente gobernador of Boca Camisea what kind of permit the man had shown. What we eventually discovered was that he had gotten a permit to cut wood within the legal boundaries of the Comunidad Nativa of Camisea, which he had shown to the teniente gobernador, but later had inserted on the permit the name of a creek within the Reserve, presumably so that he could later sell the wood he had harvested from within the Reserve. Unfortunately, we did not learn of his intention to willfully violate the Reserve boundaries until after he had left Boca Camisea and gone upriver in the company of a mestizo comerciante, Nueca Marga. Nevertheless, after a brief conversation between us and Roman Diaz, the presidente of Camisea, and Bernabe Choronto, the presidente of CECONAMA, the both committed themselves to trying to stop their fellow villager from carrying out his plan. Roman radioed ahead to Cashiriari to warn them of the situation, and the last we heard, the resident of Camisea and the comerciante had been detained, and not permitted into the Reserve. What is most relevant in this story is that when we first spoke to both Roman and Bernabe in December about the Reserve, after we first learned of it from Mesa, both were quite dismissive, indicating that this was just another one of CEDIA's lies. Nevertheless, when we returned later that month, with legal documentation that we obtained from CEDIA in Quillabamba attesting to the existence of the Reserve, and announced our intention to respect the Reserve, we had a number of discussions about the nature of the Reserve with both of these men and others. The end result of these conversations was that, with not a great deal of effort, public perception about the Reserve in Boca Camisea changed substantially enough that the leaders of the community and of CECONAMA were willing to warn the guard post in Cashiriari about the intentions of one of their fellow villagers. We believe that this is a promising indication that even in the CECONAMA communities, an education campaign about the nature of the Reserve may prove very fruitful. 5.2 Problems in the Enforcement of the Boundaries of the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua Below, we enumerate the clearest obstacles we see in the enforcement of the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua :
The authors of this report feel that the enforcement of the boundaries of the Reserva de Kugapacori y Nahua could greatly benefit the long-term welfare of the Nanti, as well as of the other uncontacted indigenous groups who live within it. In the interest of making the Reserve's boundaries real and enforceable, we make the following recommendations:
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