The first harvest of Amazonian fish from one of the ponds contributing to the food security of indigenous families, using solar energy. The initiative is expected to be replicated in a second phase, reaching more indigenous communities in two provinces of the Peruvian Amazon. Credit: Corpi-SL

By Mariela Jara
LIMA, Aug 8 2025 (IPS)

“Our organization is showing that it is indeed possible to move toward energy transition and not depend on oil,” said Elaina Shajian, president of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of San Lorenzo (Corpi-SL), in the Peruvian Amazon.

Shajian is an Awajún leader, one of the 51 indigenous peoples of the Amazon in Peru, a South American country known for its multicultural and multiethnic diversity. With an estimated population of 34 million, nearly 17% speak a native language as their mother tongue."Due to oil spills, our people have nothing to eat because fish in the rivers are dwindling, and those that remain are contaminated. Now we have two ponds with over two thousand fish, which we manage using solar energy," -Elaina Shajian.

Despite stable macroeconomic indicators, poverty affects nearly a third of Peru’s inhabitants, with indigenous populations bearing the brunt. This includes the eight indigenous groups represented by Corpi-SL in the provinces of Datem del Marañón and Alto Amazonas.

These provinces are part of the eight that make up the Amazonian department of Loreto, the country’s largest region, covering 28% of its territory. Of its population of just over one million, 43% live in poverty, according to official data. In the two provinces where Corpi-SL operates, the poverty rates reach 52% and 56%.

Food insecurity in the area is worsened by water source contamination from spills in the Norperuano oil pipeline, which has crossed their territory for 50 years. This reality inspired an initiative to provide food for the population, generate income for the organization, and utilize solar energy.

“The idea of the fish farm arose from a need, in dialogue with the organization Mocicc. Because of the oil spills, our people have nothing to eat—fish in the rivers are disappearing, and those left are polluted. Now we have two ponds with over two thousand fish, managed through solar energy,” Shajian told IPS from San Lorenzo, the capital of Datem del Marañón.

Elaina Shajian, an Awajún indigenous leader and president of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of San Lorenzo in Peru’s Loreto region. Her organization leads a sustainable fish production initiative supported by solar energy. Credit: Corpi-SL

The effects of climate change and extractive industries are harming the well-being of indigenous communities in the area. Finding food is a challenge—fish, a staple of their diet, is increasingly scarce and expensive. It is harder to catch in rivers, and its market price is unaffordable, sometimes exceeding US$12 per kilogram, explained the president of Corpi-SL.

The impact on children’s health and well-being is direct. Official figures report that in 2024, anemia among children aged six to 35 months living in rural areas of the country, such as the two provinces mentioned, reached around 52%, exceeding the national average of 43%.

Beyond being an alternative to improve their nutrition through autonomous decisions tailored to their communities’ needs, the fish farming initiative is local proof that other energy sources beyond fossil fuels—which cause environmental damage and harm human health, as evidenced in the area—can be utilized.

“Corpi-SL is like the father of indigenous peoples, encompassing 579 communities that can now see that energy transition is possible. It’s not just talk—they can see real solutions to ensure our food security today and in the future, without depending on oil for the energy needed to develop and replicate our initiatives,” emphasized Shajian.

Solar panels installed by the technical team of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of San Lorenzo, in Peru’s Amazonian Loreto region, in partnership with the Citizens’ Movement Against Climate Change, to promote sustainable fish farming in their communities. Credit: Corpi-SL

Solar Energy as an Ally 

At the Yachaykuna farm (meaning “school of knowledge” in Kichwa, one of the Amazonian languages), a 51-hectare property owned by Corpi-SL near San Lorenzo, two fish farming ponds operate with solar energy as a key ally.

The initiative is supported by the Citizens’ Movement Against Climate Change (Mocicc), a Peruvian civil society platform with 16 years of experience promoting responses to the climate crisis and community development.

Augusto Durán, coordinator of its energy transition area, told IPS at the institution’s headquarters in Lima that it is crucial to link public policy proposals with on-the-ground work in areas affected by extractive industries like oil.

This is how the proposal with Corpi-SL came together to implement a pilot project that would make use of a space where fish farming had been attempted before but failed, partly because the farm lacked electricity.

“We agreed to install a small solar panel system to provide electricity to the fish farming center in its first phase. And to complete the energy transition experience, this renewable energy would serve as an alternative to oil,” Durán explained.

He explained that with the center energized and the first pond operational, they purchased 3,000 fingerlings of two Amazonian species: paco (Piaractus brachypomus) and gamitana (Colossoma macropomum). With the second pond, the fish were distributed in a larger space and fed balanced feed, allowing them to grow up to 600 grams.

After six months of stocking the fish in their two ponds, members of the eight indigenous peoples that make up a corporation in the Peruvian Amazon shared a lunch on June 14 at a collective farm, featuring the two harvested species: paco and gamitana. Credit: Corpi-SL

Their delicious flavor was enjoyed during the first harvest on June 14, at a communal lunch following the assembly of the expanded council of the 31 federations that form Corpi-SL. Six months had passed since the first fish were stocked.

Durán highlighted the system’s performance: six solar panels with 900 kilowatts were installed on a four-legged structure, while the farm’s security hut housed the batteries that store solar energy during the day and redistribute it at night.

“The system is automatic—as soon as the sun rises, it generates electricity, which is gradually stored in three large batteries that can power appliances, a freezer, TV, radio, lighting for the area, and maintain the two oxygenation units and other pond equipment,” he added.

He also explained that the lithium batteries have a lifespan of 10 years, extendable to 20 with proper care, while the panels can last over a decade.

“The kit of panels, batteries, converter, and cables cost around 6,000 soles (about US$1,675). It’s a significant investment because it provides low-cost energy to develop productive initiatives and replicate them,” Durán noted.

The farm previously had no electricity, and if they had to pay for the service, the cost would average US$28 per month—meaning they would recoup their investment in six years.

Augusto Durán, energy transition coordinator of the Citizens’ Movement Against Climate Change, believes it is a priority to advance toward an energy transition that considers the unique conditions of Peru’s territories, particularly its Amazonian indigenous communities. Credit: Mariela Jara / IPS

Round-the-clock Energy 

To make the initiative sustainable, Corpi-SL developed a plan that includes selling paco and gamitana in local restaurants and markets. The income will be used to purchase another 3,000 fingerlings to replenish and expand the harvest while strengthening the organization.

“A second phase of the project includes a fingerling breeding center that will also operate on solar panels,” Durán revealed.

The proposal also involves training the federations under the Coordinator so they can eventually establish their own fish farming centers, multiplying the initiative’s impact.

Alan Ruiz, a Corpi-SL technician, oversees fish production, pond preparation, stocking, monitoring, and harvesting, as well as training communities for technology transfer.

From San Lorenzo, he explained to IPS that the key is having 24-hour photovoltaic energy through the solar panels.

Regarding the organization’s plans, he stated that the goal is to establish an Amazonian fish reproduction center—not just for fattening—which will require upgrading the panels and batteries to meet new demands.

“Solar energy is an ally in aquaculture. The indigenous movement manages Amazonian fish, and it helps us improve processes at different stages of cultivation and production,” he emphasized.

One of the water sources where fingerlings of two Amazonian fish species were stocked for fattening and later harvest, in an initiative led by an indigenous peoples’ coordinator with solar energy support, in Datem del Marañón province, Loreto region, Peru. Credit: Corpi-SL

A Fair and Popular Energy Transition 

Moving away from fossil fuels and embracing renewable energy is part of Mocicc’s agenda, aligned with two priorities: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and halting ecosystem loss in the Amazon, which is harming residents’ quality of life.

Micaela Guillén, the institution’s national coordinator, explained this in an interview with IPS.

“A fair energy transition, driven by the people, is urgent. That’s why we call it a fair and popular energy transition. It’s a process to ensure communities have energy while also addressing remediation, reparation, and improving living conditions in impacted areas,” she said.

She explained that this is how the idea emerged, developed together with Corpi-SL, that the political demand for energy transition cannot be separated from economic issues.

“We’re talking about communities that have historically depended on oil extraction due to the economies built around it, and the state’s position that the only way to continue supporting them is by maintaining the current extractive model,” she stated.

Guillén emphasized that, like the fish farming center, other alternative economic initiatives exist in the Amazon to counter the precarious conditions faced by communities due to extractivism.

Given this reality, “it is shocking that the state denies the potential of these local economies and the revitalization of alternatives—even for something as basic as food security,” she said.

She criticized the government’s lack of political will, reiterated in the latest presidential address by Peru’s widely unpopular leader, Dina Boluarte.

“She spoke of further expanding extractive activities, even linking them to the Global North’s energy transition—where they’re changing their energy mix but not their consumption patterns,” Guillén noted.

She condemned how “they’re pursuing renewables, but to meet the energy demands of big corporations and cities, they need massive quantities of solar panels and wind turbines.”

Members of the indigenous guard of the native community of Puerto Nuevo, of the Amazonian Kakataibo people, located in the central-eastern jungle of Peru. Credit: Courtesy of Marcelo Odicio

By Mariela Jara
LIMA, Jul 26 2024 (IPS)

The invasion of lands inhabited by Amazon indigenous communities is growing in Peru, due to drug trafficking mafias that are expanding coca crops to produce and export cocaine, while deforestation and insecurity for the native populations and their advocates are increasing

“Drug trafficking is not a myth or something new in this area, and we are the ones who defend our right to live in peace in our land,” said Kakataibo indigenous leader Marcelo Odicio, from the municipality of Aguaytía, capital of the province of Padre Abad, in the Amazonian department of Ucayali.“We are the ones who pay the consequences, we are visible to criminals, we are branded as informers, but I will continue to defend our rights. Along with the indigenous guard we will ensure that the autonomy of our territory is respected,” Marcelo Odicio.

Of the 33 million inhabitants of the South American country, around 800,000 belong to 51 Amazonian indigenous peoples. Overall, 96.4% of the indigenous population is Quechua and Aymara, six million of whom live in the Andean areas, while the Amazonian jungle peoples account for the remaining 3.6%.

The Peruvian government is constantly criticised for failing to meet the needs and demands of this population, who suffer multiple disadvantages in health, education, income generation and access to opportunities, as well as the growing impact of drug trafficking, illegal logging and mining.

A clear example of this is the situation of the Kakataibo people in two of their native communities, Puerto Nuevo and Sinchi Roca, in the border between the departments of Huánuco and Ucayali, in the central-eastern Peruvian jungle region.

For years they have been reporting and resisting the presence of invaders who cut down the forests for illegal purposes, while the government pays no heed and takes no action.

The most recent threat has led them to deploy their indigenous guard to defend themselves against new groups of outsiders who, through videos, have proclaimed their decision to occupy the territories over which the Kakataibo people have ancestral rights, which are backed by titles granted by the departmental authorities.

Six Kakataibo leaders who defended their lands and way of life were murdered in recent years. The latest was Mariano Isacama, whose body was found by the indigenous guard on Sunday 14 July after being missing for weeks.

In his interview with IPS, Odicio, president of the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities (Fenacoka), lamented the authorities’ failure to find Isacama. The leader from the native community of Puerto Azul had been threatened by people linked to drug trafficking, suspects the federation.

Marcelo Odicio, president of the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities, headquartered in the town of Aguaytía, in the department of Ucayal, in the Peruvian Amazon. Credit: Inforegión

During a press conference in Lima on 17 July, the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (Aidesep), that brings together 109 federations representing 2,439 native communities, deplored the government’s indifference in the situation of the disappeared and murdered leader, which brings to 35 the number of Amazonian indigenous people murdered between 2023 and 2024.

Aidesep declared the territory of the Amazonian indigenous peoples under emergency and called for self-defence and protection mechanisms against what they called “unpunished violence unleashed by drug trafficking, mining and illegal logging under the protection of authorities complicit in neglect, inaction and corruption.”

Lack of vision for the Amazon

The province of Aguaytía, where the municipality of Padre de Abad is located and where the Kakataibo live, among other indigenous peoples, will account for 4.3% of the area under coca leaf cultivation by 2023, around 4,019 hectares, according to the latest report by the government’s National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs (Devida).

It is the sixth largest production area of this crop in the country.

The report highlights that Peru reduced illicit coca crops by just over 2% between 2022 and 2023, from 95,008 to 92,784 hectares, thus halting the trend of permanent expansion over the last seven years.

These figures are called into question by Ricardo Soberón, an expert on drug policy, security and Amazonia.

Ricardo Soberón, a renowned Peruvian expert on drug policy, Amazonia and security. Credit: Walter Hupiú / IPS

“The latest World Drug Report indicates that we have gone from 22 to 23 million cocaine users, and that the golden triangle in Burma, the triple border of Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil and the Amazonian trapezoid are privileged areas for production and export,” Soberón told IPS.

The latter holds “Putumayo and Yaguas, areas that according to Devida have reduced the 2,000 hectares under cultivation. I don’t believe it,” he said.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), that commissioned the report, also lists Peru as the world’s second largest cocaine producer.

Soberón added another element that discredits the conclusions of the Devida report: the government’s behaviour.

“There is no air interdiction in the Amazonian trapezoid, the non-lethal interdiction agreement with the United States will be operational in 2025. On the other hand, there are complaints against the anti-drug police in Loreto, the department where Putumayo and Yaguas are located, for their links with Brazilian mafias,” he explained.

He believes there was an attempt to whitewash “a government that is completely isolated”, referring to the administration led since December 2022 by interim president Dina Boluarte, with minimal levels of approval and questioned over a series of democratic setbacks.

Soberón, director of Devida in 2011-2012 and 2021-2022, has constantly warned that the government, at different levels, has not incorporated the indigenous agenda in its policies against illegalities in their ancestral areas.

This, he said, despite the growing pressure on their peoples and lands from “the largest illegal extractive economies in the world: drug trafficking, logging and gold mining,” the main causes of deforestation, loss of biodiversity and territorial dispossession.

Soberón argued that, given the magnitude of cocaine trafficking in the world, major trafficking groups need coca crop reserves, and Peruvian territory is fit for it. He deplored the minimal strategic vision among political, economic, commercial and social players in the Amazon.

Based on previous research, he says that the Cauca-Nariño bridge in southern Colombia, Putumayo in Peru, and parts of Brazil, form the Amazonian trapezoid: a fluid transit area not only for cocaine, but also for arms, supplies and gold.

Hence the great flow of cocaine in the area, for trafficking and distribution to the United States and other markets, which makes the jungle-like indigenous territories of the Peruvian Amazon attractive for coca crops and cocaine laboratories.

Soberón stresses it is possible to reconcile anti-drug policy with the protection of the Amazon, for example by promoting the citizen social pacts that he himself developed as a pilot project during his term in office.

It is a matter, he said, of turning the social players, such as the indigenous peoples, into decision-makers. But this requires a clear political will, which is not seen in the current Devida administration.

Mariano Isacama (left), a Kakataibo indigenous leader who disappeared and was murdered after allegedly receiving threats from people linked to drug traffickers. Next to him, the president of the indigenous organisation Orau, Magno López. Credit: Courtesy of Marcelo Odicio

“We will not stand idly by”

Odicio, the president of Fenacoka, knows that the increased presence of invaders in their territories is aimed at planting pasture and coca leaf, an activity that destroys their forests. They have even installed maceration ponds near the communities.

When invaders arrive, they cut down the trees, burn them, raise cattle, take possession of the land and then demand the right to title, he explained. “After the anti-forestry law, they feel strong and say they have a right to the land, when it is not the case,” he said.

He refers to the reform of the Forestry and Wildlife Act No. 29763, in force since December 2023, which further weakens the security of indigenous peoples over their land rights and opens the door to legal and illegal extractive activities.

The leader, who has a wife and two young children, knows that the role of defender exposes him. “We are the ones who pay the consequences, we are visible to criminals, we are branded as informers, but I will continue to defend our rights. Along with the indigenous guard we will ensure that the autonomy of our territory is respected,” he stressed.

In the native community of Puerto Nuevo there are 200 Kakataibo families, with 500 more in Sinchi Roca. They live from the sustainable use of their forest resources, who are at risk from illegal activities. “We just want to live in peace, but we will defend ourselves because we cannot stand idly by if they do not respect our autonomy”, he said.