By Nieves Zúñiga, reviewed by Laureano del Castillo, lawyer and Executive Director of the Peruvian Centre for Social Studies (CEPES)
Peru is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Located in western South America, its diversity of ecosystems is created by the coastline facing the Pacific Ocean, the Andes mountains, and the Amazonian rainforest. All that natural wealth covers a land area of 1,285,215 km2 (128.5 million ha).
Peru is also culturally rich and known for being the cradle of the Inca Empire. Its population of 31.2 million people is 60% mestizo, 5.9% white, 3.6% people from African descent, and around 25% people self-identified as indigenous. The indigenous population is made up of 55 ethnic groups, Quechua being the biggest one (22.3%), followed by Aymara (2.4%) and Native or indigenous from the Amazon (0.3%)1.
![Ricefields, Tarapoto, Peru, photo by Bruno Locatelli/CIFOR 2017, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license](/sites/default/files/styles/country_list/public/country-narrative/35833503556_bb8124d042_o.jpg?itok=PHZk_Xu_)
Indigenous and community land in Peru represent 56.6% of the total country land area
Ricefields, Tarapoto, Peru, photo by Bruno Locatelli/CIFOR 2017, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license
Land governance in Peru has gone through several phases, from being concentrated in few hands until the 1960s when 90% of agricultural land belonged to 5% of the owners, to a collectivist system with the Agrarian Reform in the 1970s, and to a current tendency towards private property but with high participation of smallholdings2. The Agrarian Reform (1969-1991) eliminated the agricultural land market and the transfer of land was exceptionally allowed. The investment of for-profit companies in agriculture was eliminated, promoting the creation of associative companies, particularly agricultural cooperatives, under a collective property regime. In the 1980 the Law on Agricultural Promotion and Development allowed parcelling out the land previously awarded to associative enterprises in smallholdings in favour of individual peasants. In the 1990s, the interest for attracting investments resulted in free formalisation or legalisation of the land market and allowed again the free-transfer of land.
Something that has characterised land governance in Peru is the way the situation of the indigenous population was articulated in connection with the land following the ideas of José Carlos Mariátegui, a renown Peruvian intellectual defender of Marxist principles. In his influential book Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality, published in 1928, Mariátegui defines the indigenous problem in economic terms as a problem of land3. The effect of understanding the indigenous situation from a class perspective was twofold: one it ignored the cultural connection of indigenous peoples with their territory, and two it produced an identity shift from ‘indigenous’ to ‘peasants’ in the eyes of the Peruvian society. This identity shift from cultural to class identity, which was initially introduced by the military government in 1969 with the Agrarian Reform Law, affected especially indigenous population from the highlands (mainly Quechua), and not so much indigenous from the Amazon, which will later on be defined as ‘natives’. This distinction between peasants and natives is still reflected in the current legislation.
Land legislation and regulations
The 1993 Peruvian Constitution, as well as the Constitution in 1979, guarantees the right of every person to own and inherit property (Article 2)4. This right is not absolute since it should be exercised ‘in harmony with the common good’ and ‘within the limits of the law’. No one may be deprived of his/her property except for national security reasons or public need, according to law, and upon cash payment of compensation (Article 70). The Constitution acknowledges equal property conditions for nationals and foreigners, though foreigners cannot call for exceptions and cannot acquire or own any property within 50 kilometres from the Peruvian borders (Article 71). Abandoned land becomes State property for sale.
In 1991, the goal of attracting private investments gave a boost to land registration and titling efforts through the Rural Land Registry Act No. 6675. The Law on the Promotion of Investments in the Agricultural Sector No. 653, also from 1991, removed all restrictions, including the transfer of rural land and restrictions for commercial entities to access land, which is considered as the end of the agrarian reform. This openness to commercial land ownership is expressed in the 1993 Constitution by the recognition of land rights to ‘any other associative tenure form’ besides private and communal (Art. 88)6.
In 1995, the Law No. 26505, better known as the Land Law, (later modified by Laws No. 26570, 26597, 26681) set the principles to promote private investments for the development of economic activities, including in the land of peasant and native communities7. The law establishes a liberal regime when it comes to land as compared to previous legislation and guarantees access to land to any natural and legal person without limitation in extension and use (Article 4). The Regulation of the law states that any land susceptible of being used for agricultural purposes can be offered to private investments (Article 4)8.
Some legislation includes measures promoting smallholdings but with questionable implementation. Law No. 30355, from 2015, is specifically devoted to support family producers through measures like formalising land titling, providing technical and technological support, developing financial programmes, promoting the effective access to water and other basic services, and promoting the association and cooperation of family producers, among others9. According to some studies, the efforts to create small producers associations have not been effective due to the lack of adaptation to the experience and culture of those producers. In addition, the initiatives started to fade away once the official programme was over due to the absence of guidance and consultancy services10.
Norms for farmers affected by natural disasters or regarding organic production are in favour of small producers too. Also, regarding wasteland (tierras eriazas), Law No. 26505 (modified in 2002) allowed land that as of July 2001 had been in the possession of small farmers and associations for agricultural purposes and on which agricultural activities has been carried out, to be given in property by direct adjudication for the benefit of the indicated possessors11.
Land tenure classifications
Recent data on land tenure in Peru is scarce. The last Agrarian Census is from 2012. A most recent agrarian survey was conducted in 2019 but clear data from the latter is not easily accessible.
In the 2012 Census, agricultural land tenure types include private, communal, lease and possession (posesionario)12. In that year, the majority of agricultural land (90%) was in private hands, 4% was communal land, around 2% possessions and 1,5% leases (according to CEPES, 3% were possessions and 2% were leases)13. A characteristic of the Peruvian agrarian landscape has been a tendency to smallholding. As an illustration, in 2012, the biggest number of land units were less than 0,5 ha (507,137 out of 2,213,506 land units)14.
Low titling has been a challenge in Peru, starting from the land parcellation in the 1980s which was not always formalised in the registry. In 2012, only 27% of private agricultural land was registered15. More than half (52%) of agricultural private land was neither titled nor in the process of being titled. The majority of land units’ acquisitions are inherited and most of them are not titled16.
The costs of the titling process, both in terms of time and money, demotivate owners to initiate the titling and informal procedures to transfer the land seems to be preferred. Especially difficult is the titling of communal land. For example, for the titling of native communal land there is a long bureaucratic procedure that includes 22 steps in practice, it involves 12 different offices and, according to some studies, communities may need an average of eight years to complete the process17. In addition, even if, according to the law, communities are exempt from any administrative payment for the paperwork, the titling requires the mobilisation of a technical team for the demarcation of the land and agroecological evaluation, which can cost up to 10,000 USD to local governments18.
A study of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) on the titling of native communities land in the Peruvian Amazon reveals some of the obstacles of land titling in Peru from the perspective of implementing officials19. Some of those obstacles are the lack of coordination between government agencies at the national and local levels, the high cost of creating maps with the borders of the communal land, and the conflicts around the rights and the borders of the land due to different understandings of land rights by indigenous peoples and government officials. Different points of view have been found also between government officials at the national level, for which titling reforms are the way to formalised land rights, and regional public officials who see titling as a way to increase the access and use of resources for the wellbeing of the native communities20.
The quality of titling is also a challenge in Peru. According to the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation (Midagri), existing property titles do not always reflect reality, and more efforts are needed to ensure accurate data both in the titling documents and the cadastre21.
The implementation of the titling process in Peru is affected by several political, economic and social factors22. The main political factors are changes of government, incongruities and different priorities and understandings of titling, and an incomplete decentralisation process. Besides the disagreements already mentioned between central government officials and regional officials, there are also disagreements between the laws regarding the formalisation of collective rights and the expectations of native communities. The tension resides in that the law establishes separate procedures for land for agrarian use and land for forest use whereas native communities conceive their land as a single integral entity. These obstacles are expressed in inadequate budget for regional offices to implement the titling process, insufficient information, education and awareness about community problems, lack of personnel and low political will. Regarding decentralisation, regional governments were established in 2003. When it comes to land titling, 90% of the process is the responsibility of the regional agrarian offices. This high responsibility together with the obstacles previously mentioned interfere in the successful implementation of land titling.
Among the economic factors are unequal distribution of budget between national and regional government for the implementation of titling, and the prioritisation of national interests on sectors such as mining and hydrocarbon extraction. The main social factors are ethnicity differences and cultural norms.
Low levels of titling have a direct impact in the Peruvian land market and, ultimately, in the rural economy, since land that is not registered cannot be part of the formal buying and selling. This has an impact on the value of the land, which does not increase based on the demand-offer fluctuation. Another impact of low titling is the impossibility for farmers to get credit if their land is not registered.
A number of land title projects have recently been launched to increase titling in Peru. One of them is the Project on Cadastre, Titling and Registration of Rural Land in Peru (PTRT3) promoted by the Midagri in 2015 and partly funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. Besides the titling and registry of rural land, the project aims to develop a digital platform to facilitate the cadastral services and to strengthen the institutional capacity for rural land titling. The project is implemented in the Amazonas, San Martin, Cajamarca, Huanuco, Junin, Ucayali, Apurimac, Cusco, Puno and Loreto regions23.
Likewise, in 2018 the Midagri launched the first Cadastral System for Peasant and Native Communities (SIC Comunidades) and the Cadastral System for Rural Properties (SICAR). The objective of SIC Comunidades is to guarantee the property rights of the peasant and native communities in order to prevent land trafficking and overlapping of rights. The title deed is free of charge for those communities. Its use is mandatory for the local authorities24. The institutions in charge of land registration and titling are the regional governments25.
Community land rights issues
Demographically, in Peru live several types of communities: peasants, natives, ribereña from the Amazon region, fishing communities, afro-peruvian, and the ronderos from the Andes26. When it comes to community land rights, though, only two are officially recognized: peasant and native communities. The rest of the communities can fit in one or the other depending on how they identify themselves. Self-identification has been a key component in the political recognition of indigenous peoples rights, in alignment with the ILO 169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention ratified by Peru in 199427.
Initially, after several years of land conflicts between the government of Peru and the indigenous population, the 1920 Constitution recognized the right to private and collective land property to the indigenous communities. This changed in 1969 with the Agrarian Reform when indigenous communities turned to be considered as peasant communities28. It was in 1974 when native communities were legally recognized by the Decree 2c0653.
The 1993 Constitution recognizes the indigenous and peasant communities’ property of their land as imprescriptible (Article 89). This implies that indigenous peasant communities' land can be sold, donated or yield, which has been perceived as a reduction in the protection of indigenous and peasants’ access to land as compared to the 1920 Constitution, where besides imprescriptible, their land was also inalienable and unseizable29.
Since 2006, the State also recognizes ‘indigenous reserves’ through Law No. 28736 for the protection of indigenous or aboriginal peoples in a situation of isolation and initial contact. This law recognizes the right of these groups to possess the land they occupy, restricting the entrance to foreigners, and states that their property over the land they possess is guaranteed when they adopt a sedentary lifestyle. Indigenous reserves are intangible, meaning that no one can settle down in the reserves besides the indigenous peoples already living there. Any activity beyond the ancestral indigenous activities are forbidden, and there are no rights to use natural resources beyond those held by the indigenous inhabitants or those using methods that do not harm indigenous peoples rights30. Currently there are seven indigenous reserves in Peru. The last one was created in July 2021 in favour of the Kakataibo people31. Indigenous reserves occupy 3% of the Peruvian territory.
Indigenous and community land in Peru represent 56.6% of the total country land area32. LandMark assessment on the legal security of indigenous and community lands gives Peru a score of 1.6 being 1 ‘issue fully addressed’ and 2 ‘significant progress’33. This assessment does not consider the implementation of the legislation.
Regarding titling, according to some sources, 28.2% out of a total of 49% of communal land in Peru is titled to peasant and native communities and 20.9% untitled34. Nevertheless, even if their land is titled some communities face the problem that it is not georeferenced. Following data from 2021, CEPES argue that if we add together the recognised communities that are not titled (1408) and those that are titled but do not have georeferencing (5650) we can see that of the total number of recognised communities (8540), 82.6% (7058) do not have a way of fully accrediting their property rights35.
However, some native groups challenge the titling of communal land and they demand instead the recognition of the whole territory as an integral part of their culture in line with a demand for self-determination. That is the case of the Wampi ‘nation’, as they define themselves, who rejected the recognition of communal land and instead they demand sovereignty over the entirety of their ancestral territory. Wampi leaders argue that the titling of separated parcels of land to each Wampi community leaves part of the territory without titling, which can be used by the state to give forestry, oil or mining concessions, and it breaks the integrity of their territory. The Wampi nation declared themselves de facto as Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation and exercise their sovereignty over a territory of 1,300,000 ha between the regions of Loreto and Amazonas36.
Nevertheless, the Peruvian legal framework does not recognize the right to self-determination to indigenous peoples. The Peruvian state wants to name part of the Wampi territory as Reserved Zone Santiago-Comaina, but this triggers the suspicion of the Wampis authorities about the good intentions of the state in doing so. Simultaneously, the Wampi nation asked the UN to be recognized as Territory of Life for the contribution of this nation to protect the environment37. In September 2021, the UN included the Nation Wampi within the Registry of Territories and Areas Conserved by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (TICCA) acknowledging the positive effect over the conservation of the environment of the Wampi management of the territory38.
Other challenges faced by indigenous peoples regarding land tenure are boundary conflicts between communities, illegal logging, overlapping extraction rights, and inefficient resource management39.
Land use trends
In 2010 the urban land in Peru covered 16,425 km240. A study on urbanism from 2019 indicates that in the last two decades cities in Peru have expanded by 50%, and that more than 90% of this expansion is made up of informal urbanisations. The latter are settlements that do not have full urban habilitation, such as proper accessibility, water and energy distribution, drainage system or public lighting41.
The agricultural area has also increased in the last decade reaching 11.6 million ha in 2021, as compared to the 7,125,000 ha in 201242. There is no certainty on where exactly this increase took place but one of the hypotheses is that it mainly happened in the Amazon region, probably because of the migration of people from the highlands to that area.
![The Andean volcano Misti rises above the terraced agricultural land that surrounds the city of Arequipa, Peru,photo by A.Davey, 2013, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license](/sites/default/files/inline-images/9808087066_c3a0e44d92_o_1.jpg)
The Andean volcano Misti rises above the terraced agricultural land that surrounds the city of Arequipa, Peru, photo by A.Davey, 2013, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license
More than half of the Peruvian territory (57%) is forest, and 94% of it is in the Amazon region. In 2015, almost 18 million ha out of 73 million ha of forest was designated for production. Deforestation, especially since 2001, is an increasing concern in the country. Only in 2020, year of the Covid pandemic, the Amazon Forest was reduced in 190,000 ha, which is a significant deforestation increase as compared to the 148,426 ha national deforestation in 201943. The main causes of deforestation are the expansion of agricultural land for crops such as coffee, cocoa and palm oil44, the construction of infrastructure such as building roads and installation of electricity systems for legal extractive activities, mining and hydrocarbon exploitation, new settlements, illegal mining and logging, and coca leaf cultivation45. Illegal logging accounts for 80% of the country’s forest loss, being the Amazon region specially affected by this practice46. The deforestation associated with the construction of roads through the Amazon basin is a concern that affects all the countries in the region. Scientists are warning that work to build 12,000 km of roads in the Amazon forest in the next 5 years in Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia could cause the deforestation of 2.4 million of ha in the next two decades47.
In 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture, set the goal of restoring 3.2 million ha of degraded forest land48.
![pal oil trees](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Palm%20oil%20tree%20Peru%20%281%29.jpg)
Palm oil tree plantation in Peru, photo by Robert Guimaraes Vasquez, Climate Alliance Org, Flickr, CC-BY-NC-2.0
Land investments
Being rich in natural resources, one of the areas that attract more investors in Peru is the extraction of oil, gas and minerals. Investments in the mining sector increased significantly in the last decades motivated by the demands of the international market. From 2002 to 2015 investments in mining grew 1131% and represented 77% of total exports, placing Peru among the top countries of the mineral production ranking49. Peruvian mining is diverse, being zinc the biggest production (10,7%) followed by copper (8,8%), lead (6,3%) and gold (5%)50. Along with big extractive projects, small scale, artisanal, informal and illegal mining also grew during the mining boom. It is known that there is informal and illegal mining in 21 out of the 25 regions in the country, being specially affected the regions of Madre de Dios, Puno, La Libertad, Ica, Arequipa and Ayacucho51. Sometimes it takes place in national reserves as the illegal gold mining in the Tambopata National Reserve in Madre de Dios52.
Blur conceptualization of what is legal, informal and illegal mining makes it difficult to take action against illegal activity53. At the same time, these forms of small mining bring their own challenges. One of them concerns how the extraction is made. For example, the use of mercury specially by artisanal and small-scale gold mining has shown to pollute the environment and affect the health of people. Peru is Latin America’s largest gold producer and the sixth largest producer globally. Around 250,000 artisanal and small-scale miners operate in the country producing one quarter of Peru’s gold exports, and emitting 145 tonnes of mercury each year. There are initiatives like the Planet Gold programme, led by the United Nations Environment Programme, in place working with governments, private sector and local communities to reduce or even eliminate the use of mercury in this practice54. Another problem is the rise of social conflict around the mining sector and the competition between big and small producers to get the concessions55.
The investment in the extraction of oil and gas has also increased significantly, from 147 million USD in 1995 to 1,190 million USD in 2014, which represents an increase of 800%56. The hydrocarbon potential of Peru, with 18 sedimentary basins and only three exploited in 2017, is promoted by the authorities to attract foreign investment57.
In some cases, the extraction of these resources has been followed by conflicts with indigenous communities living in those same territories. Even if their rights of prior consultation are recognised in the ILO 169 Convention ratified by Peru and regulated by the Prior Consultation Law No. 29785, this right is not always accurately fulfilled. The example of the gas Lot 58, located in Urubamba, Cusco, exploited by China National Petroleum Corporation since 2014, highlights one of the problems with the consultation which is that the consultation is most of the time called for only at the beginning of the project, when reality shows the need to maintain the consultation as the project develops and new decisions are made58.
In recent years, land governance in Peru has had the tendency of favouring big companies over small producers. Nevertheless, there are some measures directed to protect small producers’ access to land. For example, Law No. 27887, from 2002, adjudicates the sale of up 30% of land for hydro-energy or irrigation projects funded with public money or money coming from international cooperation to small producers living in the area impacted by those projects in lots of 5 hectares59. This provision was expanded in 2003 by Law No. 28042 to allocate directly land in continuous, peaceful and public possession for at least one year on which agricultural activities were carried out on a permanent basis in lots no bigger than 5 hectares60.
Financial institutions in support family producers are the Development Finance Corporation (Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo, COFIDE) and the Agricultural Bank (AGROBANCO).
Land acquisitions
Land governance in Peru has permitted a progressive concentration of land in commercial hands. In the 1990s, during the government of Alberto Fujimori, a number of measures contributed to the liberalisation of the land management such as the elimination of property limits, the re-establishment of land ownership by commercial companies and restricting the state’s possibilities to expropriate land61. The Free Trade Agreement with the United States (signed in 2006 and implemented in 2009) also contributed to the concentration of land and involved a high level of legislative activity and adaptation. During that time, 99 decrees were enacted and 26 of them were related to agriculture, the use of water and forestry, and peasant and native communities. Many of them ended up being repealed, others contributed to the acquisition and accumulation of land by large investors. Among those that survived are Legislative Decree No. 994, which authorises the supply to private individuals of wasteland (tierra eriazas) property of the state for irrigation projects (before only the state could do those projects). Irrigation works served to expand the agricultural border and to acquire land. The other is the Legislative Decree No. 1089, which empowers the Informal Property Formalisation Agency to revert to the state rural land occupied by human settlements and granted free of charge for agrarian purposes, which includes communal land62.
The two most affected areas by land acquisition and concentration is the coastal area, whose production is mainly for export, and the Amazon region. The privatisation of sugar cooperatives on the North coast -companies with 119,797 ha of land- was another way to make the acquisition of land possible63.
Land grabbing is a problem in Peru with sometimes deadly consequences. During the Covid pandemic, land grabbing and the illegal exploitation of the Amazon resources has been exacerbated in part due to the redeployment of police and military personnel to enforce the lockdown in other parts of the country64. The lack of control in an area scenario of drug trafficking and illegal logging has lead to the murder of seven environmental defenders since the pandemic began65. Especially vulnerable in this situation are indigenous peoples. Episodes of harassment, intimidation and threats from outsiders involved in growing coca to make cocaine have been reported, for example, by inhabitants of the Santa Martha indigenous territory to prevent them from denouncing the deforestation in the area66. NGOs like Oxfam inform that investors and local officials are grabbing land from villagers to cultivate palm oil. According to Oxfam, in 2018, 80,000 ha in San Martin, Ucayali and Loreto provinces were covered by medium and large-scale plantations of palm oil and other crops67.
Women’s land rights
Traditionally, women's land rights in Peru are hindered by patriarchal values with a tendency to exclude women. Land registration was made under the name of the head of the household, which was generally a man, and customary rules of inheritance in rural communities discriminated against women and girls. But migration and urbanisation movements are transforming the reality in rural Peru. More households are headed by women and there is a tendency towards the feminization of agriculture68. However, in reality, this change, far from empowering women, has left women with the responsibility of maintaining and caring for the land without the capacity of participating in decisions, the latter on hold until men return to the community69.
![Women take part in the oil palm fruit collection in San Martin, Photo by Juan Carlos Huayllapuma/CIFOR , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license](/sites/default/files/inline-images/35919238924_ea0aa1957e_o.jpg)
Women take part in the oil palm fruit collection in San Martin,Photo by Juan Carlos Huayllapuma/CIFOR , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license
That change in reality is not fully reflected in the legislation either. The Constitutions and the Civil Code recognize equality between men and women in the enjoyment and exercise of their rights, including the right to property and inheritance. Since 1984, both the husband and the wife are considered heads of the household in the Civil Code, and it is recognized the wife’s right to participate in the property with some requirements70. But there is no gender specific language in the legislation regarding land. In particular, the gender neutrality in laws recognizing the rights of the communities over their land might perpetuate the exclusion of women from participating in land governance since the power of decision in those communities traditionally falls on the male representatives.
Social organisations demand changes in the legislation to increase the public participation of women in rural areas as a first step to improve women's access to land. The Platform for Responsible Land Governance, for example, demands the recognition of women as active participants in decision making in communal assemblies, where decisions on the access and use of the land and territory are made, in the Law on Peasant Communities No. 2465671. This demand was met with the Law No. 30982 in 2019, which establishes a percentage (30%) of compulsory participation of women in the leadership body in peasant communities72. This provision does not apply to native communities.
This inequality is reflected in the data. According to the Agrarian Census from 2012, women farmers have on average 1.8 ha of agricultural land, while men have 3 ha. This difference also occurs in non-agricultural land, with 2.8 ha and 4 ha respectively. On the national average, only 3 out of 10 landowners are women. In the Amazon region that difference is a bit bigger, being only 2 female landowners out of 10. The Census also reveals the fragility of the land owned by women since 50% do not have land titles and have not started the titling process, 12% have title but are not registered, and 9% are in the process of being registered. Thus, only 29% have land titles registered73.
Some old official initiatives to reduce this inequality was the merger of the Special Land Titling and Rural Cadastre Project (PETT) with the Commission for the Formalisation of Informal Property (COFOPRI) in an effort to recognise dual headship of households in a more systematic way74. In 2007, the PETT was dissolved and absorbed by the Informal Property Formalisation Body (COFOPRI).
Timeline - milestones in land governance
1920 – National Constitution
The Constitution recognized the right to private and collective land property to indigenous communities.
Until 1960s – Dominion of large states
90% of the land belonged to 5% of the owners.
1969-1980 – Agrarian reform
Initially, according to the Agrarian Reform Law only those who work the land directly could own it. From the beginning, the Agrarian Reform prioritised agricultural associative companies over individual peasants in handing over of land. During this time the distinction between peasants and natives to refer to indigenous peoples applied. From 1976, things started to change, allowing gradually private companies’ land ownership.
1980s – Sendero Luminoso activity in the highlands
The activity of the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso in the highlands had an effect in the ideology of peasants and provoked the dissolution of agrarian cooperatives controlled by the state in highland and coastal areas.
1991 – Land legislation liberalise land market
New legislation removed restrictions on the transfer of rural land and restrictions for commercial entities to access land, representing symbolically the end of the agrarian reform. This liberalisation will be reflected in the 1993 National Constitution and the 1995 Land Law No. 26505.
1996 – Agricultural Promotion Law
This law, passed with the Decree No. 885, marks the beginning of the land reconcentration process. That decree will be integrally substituted by Law No. 27360 in 2000.
2006 – Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States
The signature of this agreement involved the adaptation of legislation favouring land concentration.
2000-2015 – Mining boom
Investments in mining grew by 1131%. That growth had a big impact on the local inhabitants’ life and the condition of the environment.
2020 – Covid pandemic
During this year deforestation and land grabbing increased significantly due to the reduction of police control deployed to other parts of the country to control the Covid lockdown.
Where to go next?
The author's suggestion for further reading
Peru is the ninth country in the world with the most forests and their future is under question. For an extensive overview of the present and future of the forests in Peru we recommend the report El futuro de los bosques: del discurso a la acción, published by the Special Commission for Climate Change of the Congress, Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Regional Program for Energy Safety and Climate Change in Latin America (EKLA). Its objective is to show that it is not possible to stop deforestation, but it is also an opportunity for the economic development of the country. Not very often studies include the perspective of those in charge of implementing the policies and the law.
To know the perspective of those in charge of implementing the policies, CIFOR offers a brief with findings after interviewing implementing officials of their comparative study on the design and implementation of tenure reforms in forest lands entitled Formalization of the collective rights of native communities in Peru. The perspective of implementing officials. Urban expansion is a global phenomenon, and Peru is not the exception. Aware of the social problems that expansion is generating, in the report Mapeo y Tipología de la Expansión Urbana en el Perú, Álvaro Espinoza and Ricardo Fort offer the findings of a study aiming to understand the dynamics behind the urban land growth in the country.
References
[1] Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática. (2018). Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico Informe Nacional. Censos Nacionales 2017. https://www.inei.gob.pe/media/MenuRecursivo/publicaciones_digitales/Est/Lib1539/libro.pdf
[2] Del Castillo, L. (2016). Política de Tierras en el Perú. Diálogos. IPDRS.
[3] Mariátegui, J. C. (1928). Siete Ensayos de Interpretación de la Realidad Peruana. https://lahaine.org/amauta/b2-img/Mariategui%20Siete%20Ensayos.pdf
[4] Constitución Política del Perú. (1993). https://www4.congreso.gob.pe/comisiones/1996/constitucion/cons1993.htm
[5] Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario y Riego. Diagnóstico de la titulación agraria en el Perú. https://www.midagri.gob.pe/portal/69-marco-legal/titulacion-y-creditos/409-titulacionagraria-en-el-peru
[6] Del Castillo, L. (2016). Política de Tierras en el Perú. Diálogos. IPDRS.
[7] Ley de inversión privada en el desarrollo de las actividades económicas en las tierras del territorio nacional de las comunidades campesinas y nativas No. 26505. (1995). http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/Peru-Ley%2026505%20Ley%20de%20inversion%20en%20tierras%20de%20comunidades.pdf
[8] Reglamento de la Ley No. 26505. (1997). https://www2.congreso.gob.pe/sicr/cendocbib/con3_uibd.nsf/B9735F35773D54E70525797B006E32F7/$FILE/5_DECRETO_SUPREMO_011_97_AG_REGLAMENTO_LEY_26505_REFERIDO_A_LA_INVERSI%C3%93N_PRIVADA_DESARROLLO_ECONOMICO_SPIJ.pdf
[9] Congreso de la República. (2015). Ley No. 30355 de promoción y desarrollo de la agricultura familiar. https://busquedas.elperuano.pe/normaslegales/ley-de-promocion-y-desarrollo-de-la-agricultura-familiar-ley-n-30355-1307649-2/
[10] Del Castillo, L. (2016). Política de Tierras en el Perú. Diálogos. IPDRS.
[11] Del Castillo, L. (2016). Política de Tierras en el Perú. Diálogos. IPDRS.
[12] Posesionarios may use and enjoy the land but may not dispose of it (sell or mortgage it) or claim it.
[13] Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática. IV Censo Nacional Agropecuario 2012. http://censos.inei.gob.pe/cenagro/tabulados/
[14] Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática. IV Censo Nacional Agropecuario 2012. http://censos.inei.gob.pe/cenagro/tabulados/
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ministerio de Desarrollo y Riego. https://www.midagri.gob.pe/portal/69-marco-legal/titulacion-y-creditos
[17] Monterroso, I. et al. (2019). Formalization of the collective rights of native communities in Peru. The perspective of implementing officials. CIFOR.
[18] Monterroso, I. et al. (2019). Formalization of the collective rights of native communities in Peru. The perspective of implementing officials. CIFOR.
[19] Monterroso, I. et al. (2019). Formalization of the collective rights of native communities in Peru. The perspective of implementing officials. CIFOR. https://www.cifor.org/knowledge/publication/7271
[20] Fraser, B. (2019). ‘Perú: Técnicos de gobierno también enfrentan desafíos para titular las tierras indígenas´. Los Bosques en las Noticias. https://forestsnews.cifor.org/60483/peru-tecnicos-de-gobierno-tambien-enfrentan-desafios-para-titular-las-tierras-indigenas?fnl=en
[21] Ministerio de Desarrollo y Riego. https://www.midagri.gob.pe/portal/69-marco-legal/titulacion-y-creditos
[22] Monterroso, I. et al. (2019). Formalization of the collective rights of native communities in Peru. The perspective of implementing officials. CIFOR.
[23] Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario y Riego. Proyecto de Catastro, Titulación y Registro de Tierras Rurales en el Perú. https://uegps.gob.pe/ptrt3/
[24] SPDA Actualidad Ambiental. (2018). Minagri presentó nuevo sistema catastral para comunidades campesinas y nativas. https://www.actualidadambiental.pe/minagri-presento-nuevo-sistema-catastral-para-comunidades-campesinas-y-nativas/
[25] Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego. (2019). ‘Preguntas frecuentes sobre los servicios brindados por la Dirección General de Saneamiento de la Propiedad Agraria y Catastro Rural´. https://www.midagri.gob.pe/portal/download/pdf/preg-frecuentes/pf-digespacr2019.pdf
[26] The ribereñas communities have their origin in the rise of the rubber industry in Peru from the 1890s to the 1920s. Currently, these communities are formed by the occupation of Amazon land by people from the Andes. They are formed by a mix between indigenous from the Amazon and San Martin regions and uprooted Amazonian Indians. The ronderos are peasant communities created at the end of the 1970s in northern Peru. In the 1990s they were created to protect themselves from theft and from the violence against local leaders of the Maoist group the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) acquiring the name of ‘self-defence rondas’ to distinguish themselves from the original ones.
[27] ILO. (1989). C169 – Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention. https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C169
[28] Instituto del Bien Común. (2016). Tierras Comunales: Más que preservar el pasado es asegurar el futuro. El estado de las comunidades indígenas en el Perú Informe 2016. http://www.ibcperu.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Informe-2016-TIERRAS-COMUNALESb.pdf
[29] Del Castillo, L. (2016). Política de Tierras en el Perú. Diálogos. IPDRS
[30] Congreso de la República. (2006). Ley No. 28736 para la protección de pueblos indígenas u originarios en situación de aislamiento y en situación de contacto inicial. https://www4.congreso.gob.pe/comisiones/2010/CEM_Problematica_indigena/_documentos/leyes%20de%20comunidades/(6)ley_protecciondepueblosindigenas28736.pdf
[31] Ministerio de Cultura. (2021). “Perú: Se crea reserva indígena Kakataibo Norte y Sur, con casi 150 mil hectáreas de bosques a favor de pueblo en aislamiento”. https://www.gob.pe/institucion/cultura/noticias/507674-peru-se-crea-reserva-indigena-kakataibo-norte-y-sur-con-casi-150-mil-hectareas-de-bosques-a-favor-de-pueblo-en-aislamiento
[32] LandMark. Peru. http://www.landmarkmap.org/country-profiles/
[33] Ibid.
[34] Instituto del Bien Común. (2016). Tierras Comunales: Más que preservar el pasado es asegurar el futuro. El estado de las comunidades indígenas en el Perú Informe 2016. http://www.ibcperu.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Informe-2016-TIERRAS-COMUNALESb.pdf
[35] Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales (CEPES). (2021). ´Formalización de la propiedad rural´. Informativo Legal Agrario, No. 26. https://cepes.org.pe/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Informativo-Legal-Agrario-N26.pdf
[36] IWGIA. Peru. https://www.iwgia.org/es/peru.html
[37] Koné, Mariatou. 2006. « Quelles lois pour résoudre les problèmes liés au foncier en Côte d’Ivoire? » Grain de sel, septembre-novembre. URL : https://landportal.org/library/resources/quelles-lois-pour-re%CC%81soudre-les-proble%CC%80mes-lie%CC%81s-au-foncier-en-co%CC%82te-d%E2%80%99ivoire.
[38] Oguehi, Michel. 2021. « Environ 7000 certificats fonciers délivrés dans le domaine rural (AFOR) ». Agence de presse ivoirienne (AIP), 14 juillet; URL: Oguehi, Michel. 2021. « Environ 7000 certificats fonciers délivrés dans le domaine rural (AFOR) ». Agence de presse ivoirienne (AIP), 14 juillet.
[39] Monterroso, I. et al. (2019). Formalization of the collective rights of native communities in Peru. The perspective of implementing officials. CIFOR. Upload
[40] World Bank. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.TOTL.UR.K2?locations=PE
[41] Espinoza, A. and Fort, R. (2019). Mapeo y tipología de la expansión urbana en el Perú. ADIPERÚ, GRADE.
[42] Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario y Riego. (2021). ´Midagri: Perú tiene una superficie agrícola de 11.6 millones de hectáreas a nivel nacional´. https://www.gob.pe/institucion/midagri/noticias/325509-midagri-peru-tiene-una-superficie-agricola-de-11-6-millones-de-hectareas-a-nivel-nacional
[43] Suárez de Freitas, Gustavo. (2021). ‘Situación, tendencias y causas de la deforestación en la Amazonía Peruana’, in El Futuro de los Bosques: del discurso a la acción. Comisión Especial de Cambio Climático del Congreso de la República, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Programa Regional Seguridad Energética y Cambio Climático de América Latina (EKLA).
[44] FAO. (2018). The Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism. Peru. https://www.fao.org/in-action/forest-landscape-restoration-mechanism/our-work/countries/peru/en/
[45] Suárez de Freitas, Gustavo. (2021). ‘Situación, tendencias y causas de la deforestación en la Amazonía Peruana’, in El Futuro de los Bosques: del discurso a la acción. Comisión Especial de Cambio Climático del Congreso de la República, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Programa Regional Seguridad Energética y Cambio Climático de América Latina (EKLA); USAID. (2016). USAID Country Profile Land Tenure and Property Rights Peru.
[46] USAID. (2016). USAID Country Profile Land Tenure and Property Rights Peru.
[47] Reuters. (2020). “Construcción de carreteras en países amazónicos podría deforestar millones de hectáreas”. Gestión. https://gestion.pe/economia/empresas/construccion-de-carreteras-en-paises-amazonicos-podria-deforestar-millones-de-hectareas-noticia/?ref=ges
[48] FAO. (2018). ‘Peru is committed to restoring 3.2 million hectares of degraded forest land’. Agronoticias: Agriculture News from Latin America and the Caribbean. https://www.fao.org/in-action/agronoticias/detail/en/c/1129760/
[49] Osinergmin. (2017). La industria de la minería en el Perú. Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión en Energía y Minería.
[50] Osinergmin. (2017). La industria de la minería en el Perú. Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión en Energía y Minería
[51] De Echave, J. (2016). “La minería ilegal en Perú”. Nueva Sociedad No. 263. https://static.nuso.org/media/articles/downloads/7.TC_De_Echave_263.pdf
[52] Sierra Praeli, Y. (2018). Perú: imágenes exclusivas muestran minería ilegal en la Reserva Nacional Tambopata. Mongabay. https://es.mongabay.com/2018/11/peru-mineria-ilegal-reserva-nacional-tambopata/
[53] De Echave, J. (2016). “La minería ilegal en Perú”. Nueva Sociedad No. 263. https://static.nuso.org/media/articles/downloads/7.TC_De_Echave_263.pdf
[54] Planet Gold. https://www.planetgold.org/peru
[55] De Echave, J. (2016). “La minería ilegal en Perú”. Nueva Sociedad No. 263. https://static.nuso.org/media/articles/downloads/7.TC_De_Echave_263.pdf
[56] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peru Petro, ProInversión. Peru’s oil & gas investment guide 2017/2018.
[57] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peru Petro, ProInversión. Peru’s oil & gas investment guide 2017/2018.
[58] AIDESEP, ORPIO, CORPI, ORAU, COMARU, DAR. Casos de vulneración al derecho a la consulta previa de los pueblos indígenas en la Amazonía del Perú. https://dar.org.pe/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Solicitud-Audiencia-Consulta-CIDH-2020.pdf
[59] Congreso de la República. (2002). Ley No. 27887 que establece disposiciones para la venta de tierras habilitadas de los proyectos especiales hidroenergéticos y de irrigación del país, ejecutados con fondos del tesoro público y/o cooperación internacional. https://vlex.com.pe/vid/habilitadas-hidroenergeticos-ejecutados-31445412
[60] Comisión Permanente del Congreso de la República. (2003). Ley No. 28042 que amplía los alcances de la Ley No. 27887. http://extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/per71521.pdf
[61] Del Castillo, L. (2016). Política de Tierras en el Perú. Diálogos. IPDRS.
[62] Burneo, Z. (2011). El proceso de concentración de la tierra en el Perú. CEPES, CIRAD, International Land Coalition.http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/Peru/cepes/20170323043255/pdf_591.pdf
[63] Arias Nieto, C. (2012). “De Vuelta a la concentración de tierras en el Perú”. Investigaciones Sociales Vol. 16, No. 28. UNMSM-IIHS.
[64] Gianella, C. (2021). Standoff in a pandemic: Land grabbing versus protection of the Peruvian Amazon. CMI. U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center. https://www.u4.no/blog/standoff-in-a-pandemic-land-grabbing-versus-protection-of-the-peruvian-amazon
[65] Gianella, C. (2021). Standoff in a pandemic: Land grabbing versus protection of the Peruvian Amazon. CMI. U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center. https://www.u4.no/blog/standoff-in-a-pandemic-land-grabbing-versus-protection-of-the-peruvian-amazon
[66] Vera, E. 2021. Indigenous Cacataibo of Peru threatened by land grabbing and drug trade. Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/indigenous-cacataibo-of-peru-threatened-by-land-grabbing-and-drug-trade/
[67] Hufstader, C. (2018). The Land Invaders. Oxfam. https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/land-invaders/
[68] FAO. (2014). “La titulación de tierras en el Perú: comunidad en línea discute el futuro de la tenencia de la mujer”. Base de Datos Género y Derecho a la Tierra. https://www.fao.org/gender-landrights-database/resources/news/newsdetails/es/c/261169/
[69] Hannay, L. (2016). Peru: Supporting women’s participation in community governance to strengthen women’s rights to community land in the Sierra. Landesa. Resource equity. https://cdn.landesa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016-Best-Practices-Case-Peru.pdf
[70] Código Civil. (1984). http://www.abrahamlincoln.pe/normas/ETT/NL2.pdf
[71] Plataforma para la Gobernanza Responsable de la Tierra. Mujer Rural. https://gobernanzadelatierra.org.pe/service/mujer-rural/
[72] Congreso de la República. (2019). Ley No. 30982. https://busquedas.elperuano.pe/download/url/ley-que-modifica-la-ley-24656-ley-general-de-comunidades-ca-ley-n-30982-1789945-1
[73] Plataforma para la Gobernanza Responsable de la Tierra. Mujer Rural. https://gobernanzadelatierra.org.pe/service/mujer-rural/
[74] FAO. (2014). “La titulación de tierras en el Perú: comunidad en línea discute el futuro de la tenencia de la mujer”. Base de Datos Género y Derecho a la Tierra. https://www.fao.org/gender-landrights-database/resources/news/newsdetails/es/c/261169/