Mongabay’s reporting spurred official action in support of Peruvian Indigenous forest defenders

12 Feb 2025

In September 2022, Mongabay Latam reported on the challenges faced by the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu Indigenous community in the San Martin region of Peru. They were facing deforestation events driven by people from outside the community, with patrols identifying at least four large denuded areas. There were also threats left in red paint, like weapons painted on trees, in a stark indication of ongoing intimidation by invaders like illegal loggers and drug traffickers.

The community’s efforts for legal land titling, initiated in 2015, remained unresolved due to a lack of progress in georeferencing and demarcation, which allowed invasions and conflicts over land ownership to continue. The deforested areas were linked to illicit coca cultivation, illegal timber extraction, and land trafficking. Satellite imagery supplied by Global Forest Watch confirmed significant forest loss, and even the presence of clandestine airstrips built within the community’s territory.

Indigenous leaders advocating for land rights also faced physical violence, death threats, and systemic neglect. Regional authorities and legal advocates emphasized the escalating risks to their safety and the need for national intervention. Despite efforts by local authorities, NGOs, and legal entities, the state’s limited engagement on securing collective land titles and addressing internal conflicts among community members stalled its progress, leaving Indigenous communities vulnerable to exploitation and environmental degradation.

Impact

Mongabay Latam’s reporting contributed to increased attention from Peru’s Ministry of the Environment and its Public Prosecutor’s Office. In a phone call on June 26, 2024, Julio Guzmán, a prosecutor for the Ministry of the Environment, confirmed that he had received a list of threatened environmental defenders from an advisor to then-Vice Minister Mariano Castro, including one of the cases the vice minister had requested Mongabay Latam to investigate. The prosecutor had noted that he had sent information on the case of Kichwa Indigenous leader Quinto Inuma, featured in a Mongabay Latam article, to the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office (FEMA) in San Martin.

While waiting for official rights to its lands, the community of Santa Rosillo in Yanayacu is losing its forests. Photo courtesy of Santa Rosillo’s community patrol.
While waiting for official rights to its lands, the community of Santa Rosillo in Yanayacu is losing its forests. Photo courtesy of Santa Rosillo’s community patrol.

This referral initiated an official investigation into deforestation and its prevention, given the importance of addressing the crime causing threats to the community. Guzmán acknowledged the critical role of independent journalism in providing detailed insights that guided institutional action. During his phone call with Mongabay Latam, he said, “What you do has an impact on what we do, because there are areas that we do not reach, it is impossible for us to have that level of depth in the information of many facts. For example, the fact that there are threats against environmental defenders as a result of illegal activities that, in theory, the Public Prosecutor’s Office should be investigating as a preventive measure.”

Despite ongoing challenges, the resulting engagement of authorities is representative of the importance of independent reporting in informing and facilitating institutional action. Mongabay’s evidence-based coverage contributed to advancing investigations in Peru and emphasized the need to protect both environmental defenders and the ecosystems they strive to preserve.

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Banner image: Deforested land in the Indigenous community of Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu. Photo courtesy of the Santa Rosillo community patrol.