Putting land-use planning into action: community monitoring with the Ashaninka
February 6, 2023
To put their land-use planning work into action, RFUK has supported the training of Asháninka community forest custodians on the use of a real time monitoring system called CIPTA (AIDESEP's Centre for Information and Territorial Planning) - a tool which has been developed for the defence of the territorial rights of the indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon.
CIPTA allows communities to monitor and enforce their land use plans, and the rules regarding the use of their forest resources, whilst also being able to report any illegal activities by outsiders on their lands. The Early Warning and Action System of CIPTA allows communities to send environmental, forest fire, wildlife trafficking, health and community defender alerts.
The system first relies on community members sending alerts when they detect illegal activity in their territories. Using a mobile phone, the person generates an alert with coordinates and information regarding the type of activity occurring, and sends it using internet (if available) or mobile phone signal. Once sent, the alerts are stored in a centralised database, which AIDESEP and CARE staff validate at headquarters. This validation is done in order to differentiate the type of alerts received, and address each with the level of urgency required. After validation, the alerts are sent to CARE's legal team so that the lawyers can make corresponding arrangements with the forestry, police and/or judicial authorities.
Together with support from CARE (Central Asháninka del Río Ene), AIDESEP (the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest), SERFOR (the National Forest and Wild Fauna Service), and representatives from six indigenous communities, a total of 60 forest custodians have already been trained in the use of this tool.
In addition, as a complement to the CIPTA, communities have been trained in the use of ForestLink to monitor their livelihood activities, such as cocoa production, and thus promote better management and planning of crop activities. It also serves as a tool for Kemito Ene to have real-time information collected constantly, and thus provide more effective support to farming families.
This initiative has also had a significant impact for the communities by reactivating important processes that have previously been delayed due to a lack of technical and financial support. By completing the georeferencing of community lands to avoid overlapping with other areas, families could be clear about the boundaries of their territories and control them more effectively. The formation of community groups of forest custodians also supported the greater ownership and control of lands by community members, and by maintaining a greater presence of CARE authorities within the communities, greater security was created for the Ashaninka families, especially in light of the challenges they currently face.
To learn more about CIPTA, watch CARE's video below about how they've been using the tool (spanish only):
This project is supported by the Good Energies Foundation.
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