DEVELOPMENT: In Amazon Region, Progress Comes at High Price

He aquí un reproducción de un artículo periodístico publicado en el año 1998. (OneWorld.org). Al final del artículo aparece el nombre de José López Parodi dando su opinión de experto en el área sociológica.

DEVELOPMENT: In Amazon Region, Progress Comes at High Price

By Zoraida Portillo

LIMA, May 8, 1998 (IPS) - Teachers and parents of children in a hamlet in the Amazonian rain forest of Peru had to postpone indefinitely the start of school this year because they had no money to buy textbooks or notebooks. In another village, more than 5,000 tons of jute is awaiting a buyer because the cost of the plant imported from India or Pakistan is cheaper than the local rate.
These two images illustrate the poverty of Amazonian villages where ethnic groups shun the trappings of modern society in order to maintain their identity and, more importantly, prevent the introduction of endemic illnesses such as malaria that in previous times have decimated their populations.



This isolation may end, however, due to plans by the Peruvian government to exploit of huge oil and natural gas reserves in the coming years. The government already has allocated drilling rights that cover 80 percent of Amazonian territory to 30 petroleum companies.

''We do not oppose progress, but for us it has always had a very high price,'' says Irenea Bardales, leader of the Cacataibo people, who refer to themselves as 'Uni,' or 'Us' - the 'Uni' being one of 65 ethnic groups that dwell in the Peruvian Amazon.

''Our territories are situated in lands rich in rubber, woods, and gas and the least we demand of the authorities is that they make a study of the environmental impact before proceeding with the exploitation,'' Bardeles says.

In the past, such demands have been met with silence and at times even violence. The president of a native commission opposed to the exploitation of gas deposits was found dead with a sign around his neck that read: ''Death is the fate of those opposed to progress.''

''It is easy for the government to sign contracts that plunder our lands and then accuse us of opposing progress without taking into account our contributions to western civilization,'' Bardales declares. ''They should regard us as authentic guardians of the resources because for us respect for the earth forms part of our spirituality...this is our home and we are not going from here like tenant farmers.''

Roman Catholic priest Joaquin Garcia, who is director of the Technological Center of the Amazon, agrees with Bardales. ''Along with the exploitation of Amazonian resources, comes the assumption that the native is inept, in other words, it implies the spectre of conquest, of subjugation and a lack of respect for differences in living,'' he says.

Garcia notes that in Brazil, one tribe has disappeared every year since 1900 as a result of ''civilization.'' The priest, founder of the Amazonian Library, emphasizes that development should not concern itself solely with economic considerations, but must also take into account the ''inherent necessities of humanity that vary with each community.''

Another expert on the Amazon, Roger Rumrill, points out that very few people have stopped to think that there is no possibility of survival for indigenous peoples if the Amazon disappears. ''Nor is it possible for the Amazon itself to survive without native peoples,'' he says.

Rumrill emphasizes that the Amazonian indigenous communities lack cohesion and he suggests that, in negotiations with the gas companies, there has been no common platform.

Jose Lopez Parodi, director of the Conservation Program of the Pacaya-Samiria reserve in Cocama territory, offers a sociological explanation for this lack of cooperation: they are tired of being ''different'' and recognize that as natives they are stigmatized.

The Department of Education does not assign them teachers because nobody speaks their language, they have to demand to be considered in census reports, and they are discriminated against for speaking their language and trying to preserve their customs, he emphasizes.

Many indigenous people have opted to make themselves 'invisible,' preferring not to speak of their identity and not to converse in dialect outside of their community. While on the surface this may seem unfortunate, it is only a way of preserving their ethnicity in the face of the advance of civilization into their territories, Lopez Parodi points out. (FIN/IPS/zp/ag/en-pr/kk/98)