Overview
- Satipo approved the first ordinance in October, with Nauta following on Dec. 22, extending protections across parts of Junín and Loreto in the Peruvian Amazon.
- Recognized rights include the right to exist and flourish, maintain healthy populations, live in pollution-free habitat and ecologically stable conditions, and to be legally represented in cases of harm.
- Required policies under the measures include reforestation and habitat restoration, tighter regulation of pesticides and herbicides, climate adaptation and mitigation, and expanded scientific research.
- The local actions build on a 2024 national law recognizing stingless bees as native species and were crafted with Indigenous leaders in collaboration with researchers led by Rosa Vásquez Espinoza.
- Advocates cite accelerating threats from deforestation, climate change, pesticide contamination and invasive honeybees, and report growing petitions for nationwide adoption and interest from groups abroad.