This video produced by the Centro de Investigación de Fronteras Amazónicas (Amazon Frontiers Research Center- CIFA), Universidad Nacional de Ucayali was taped along the Río Alto Tamaya in Ucayali, Peru. The documentary brings to light the immense quantities of timber being taken out of the traditional homelands of the borderland Asháninka and shares the voices of the Asháninka peoples struggling against illegal loggers. The conflicts presented here are faced by many indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, but near the political frontier these conflicts bring an added dimension as loggers searching for valuable hardwoods not only exhaust the timber in indigenous homelands but trespass into neighboring countries. Along these political frontiers, problems like lack of basic health services and education are exacerbated by illegal loggers and patrons who intimidate, seduce, and exploit residents to abandon their homelands and their self-determination efforts in favor of the back breaking work of felling trees in unfavorable debt peonage and semi-slavery conditions.
Despite the efforts of illegal loggers, these communities are increasingly organizing to protect themselves, their homelands, their resources, and their children’s future. This research effort by CIFA seeks to understand the conflicts over timber resources in these distant borderlands while bringing the voices of the marginalized borderland residents to the attention of policy makers.
This reduced web-version was edited and subtitled in English by Amazonlink and David Salisbury. Anyone interested in a copy in CD or DVD should contact David Salisbury: dsalisbury@mail.utexas.edu.
