Peru: Forest activist murdered

Amazon environmentalist gunned down in Peru
Rhett A. Butler,
mongabay.com
March 14, 2008

After reporting a truck loaded
with mahogany
illegally logged from the Amazon rainforest, Julio Gualberto García Agapito,
a Peruvian authority who worked to protect forests, was gunned down by Amancion
Jacinto Maque, an illegal timber operator, on February 26, 2008. He is survived
by his wife and children.

Don Julio

As Lieutenant Governor (Teniente
Gobernador) of the town Alerta in the Tahuamanu Province of Madre de Dios in
Peru, Don Julio dedicated his life to conservation and building sustainable
livelihoods for the people of southwestern Peru. Himself a castañero, or
Brazil nut collector, whose livelihood depended on the health of the forest, Don
Julio worked to understand the changes occurring in Madre de Dios. Development
pressures are mounting in the region due to the improvement of the Carretera
Transoceanica or Trans-Oceanic highway, which links the heart of the Amazon
to the Pacific. The highway will soon serve as an artery for transporting soy
and other agricultural products to Pacific ports — the gateway to China.

While many see the Carretera Transoceanica as an opportunity to bring
development to a remote region, conservationists are concerned that its paving
could turn one of the most biodiverse parts of the Amazon into a sea of soy
fields, cattle pasture, and logged forests. Already a network of
"unofficial" roads, built by loggers and developers of other extractive
industries, is expanding in the region, facilitating illegal logging and
agricultural conversion of forest. Accordingly the area's deforestation rate is
rising — a 2007 study
found that Madre de Dios is one of the two provinces in Peru that account for 86
percent of the country's forest degradation and deforestation. About 75 percent
of the damage occurs within 12.5 miles (20 km) of roads.

It was in this
landscape that Don Julio was killed. Known by researchers working in the area
for his hospitality, kindness, and devotion to forests, Don Julio was shot to
death in broad daylight at the office of the Instituto Nacional de Recursos
Naturales (INRENA), Peru's resource management agency, in the town of Alerta.

Deforestation rates in Peru, 1999-2005. Image by Rhett A. Butler

According to Andina (Agencia Peruana de
Noticias), Don Julio Garcia had alerted the Peruvian national police and INRENA
about a truck that was transporting 700 square feet of illegal mahogany. While
the wood was being unloaded by the authorities, a man with a copy of the truck’s
key, jumped in and drove it away. National police officers proceeded to chase
the truck while Don Julio Garcia remained in the INRENA office. Within a few
minutes, he was shot ten times by Amancion Jacinto Maque, another man involved
in the illegal operation, who shortly thereafter escaped to Bolivia.

A great loss

Angelica Almeyda, an anthropologist at
Stanford University who had worked closely with Don Julio, called his death a
great loss.

"The death of Don Julio fills me with great sadness and
indignation," she wrote in a memoriam. "Don Julio was one of the few leaders who
had the courage to fight for the well-being of his town, for the forests and for
that which he considered to be just."

"It is incomprehensible that
illegal mahogany can take away the life of an exemplar man in Madre de Dios,"
she continued. "My hope is that his murder... will fuel needed efforts against
the irrational and illegal use of the natural resources of Madre de Dios."

Similar murders in recent years have served to catalyze forest
protection efforts in the Amazon. The 1988 killing of Chico Mendes, a Brazilian
rubber tapper, sparked international outcry about the destruction of the Amazon
rainforest and led to the creation of more than a dozen forest reserves. The assassination of Dorothy
Stang, an
American nun, in the Amazon state of Pará in 2005 triggered a massive
crackdown on illegal deforestation in the region.

Help Don Julio's
Family

The Amazon Conservation Association has set up an account to
support Don Julio's family:

If you would like to add your support, please send a check to Amazon
Conservation Association and designate in the memo line that the contribution is
to support Don Julio's family. Please mail the check to our DC office at 1731
Connecticut Avenue NW, Third Floor, Washington, DC 20009. You can also Donate Online. This link will take you to the Network for
Good, where you can specify that your donation should be restricted to support
for Don Julio's family.

Follow up story in the New York Times:
Murder on the Resource Frontier