Abstract
The 2010s saw an increasing demand for autonomous territorial governments from Peruvian Indigenous communities. On November 29, 2015, the first autonomous territorial government was created in Peru – the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW) – by the representatives of several Indigenous communities. It was the result of a process which took many years and signified a historic moment for Indigenous people in the country. Although not still formally recognized by the government, it has inspired other communities in Peru to follow the same steps. The research suggested that the concept of territorio is central in defining Indigenous political identity, and their relations with the Peruvian state.
Peru’s landscape is dominated by the Amazon rainforest, taking up almost three quarters of the territory. The region is called selva to distinguish it from the other two traditional geographical regions: costa and sierra. In the last national census (2017) (Censos Nacionales 2017 2017), one fourth of Peruvians self-identified as Indigenous, confirming Peru as one of the countries with the largest Indigenous population in Latin America (Ríos Indacochea 2020). In 2021, there were 5.060 Indigenous territories in the Peruvian Amazon, officially covering a sixth of the national territory (Science Panel for the Amazon 2021). This significant share of the population and national territory considered as “Indigenous” raises the question of the relation between territorial and Indigenous rights.
Peru is currently home to 55 Indigenous or native peoples, 51 Amazonian peoples and 4 Andean peoples. The majority of Indigenous people live in the Sierra. While the Indigenous of the Sierra are recognized as comunidades campesinas (rural community), those from the Peruvian Amazon are organized in comunidades nativas (native communities). Their existence revolves around their lands and territories. These spaces are the starting point for the construction of their identity as a group and the source of the resources they need for their subsistence (Arroyo 2020). Indigenous people use the term territorio (translated here as territory) rather than tierra (land), to express their ancestral connection to the land they occupy.
There are different definitions of what constitutes the Indigenous territory, and this plurality is significant because it gives rise to different forms of legal recognition of territorial rights, which in turn shape distinct systems of governance.
According to (Mazurek 2005), it is “the portion of the terrestrial surface area appropriated by a social group to ensure that they can reproduce and meet their vital needs”.
Other definitions distinguish between land and territory. Norms referring to land are related to a right to property and possession of the Indigenous people over a specific area of ground. However territory is a wider concept and implies a special spatial relation between the people and the area they live in. In the latter, they also exercise the right to self-determination and autonomy, Indigenous justice, spiritual life, cultural identity, resource procurement, among others. (Snoeck 2013)
Indigenous territorial rights are grounded in international law, especially in the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). According to the ILO Convention, Indigenous peoples have the right to property and possession of the lands they traditionally occupy. In addition, they have the right to participate in the use, administration, and conservation of the natural resources found in their territories. This right is affirmed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. (Snoeck 2013) In the case of Peru, the ratification of the Convention has led to the recognition of Indigenous and of campesino communities. This legal status enabled the exercise of the collective rights of Indigenous people. (Arroyo 2020) The UN Declaration recognizes instead the right to self-determination of Indigenous people.
According to (Arroyo 2020), former president of the Constitutional Tribunal of Peru, two elements add complexity to the legal framework that protects the right to the land and territories of Indigenous people. (Arroyo 2020) On the one hand, culture is fluid and dynamic while the law needs to define precise categories. A clear definition of what is the integral territory of Indigenous communities is lacking, thus making more difficult the full recognition of territorial rights within the Peruvian legal framework. On the other hand, the problem lies in the Peruvian juridical order. The 1993 Constitution of Peru protects the land of campesino and comunidades nativas, while the recognition of the right to lands and territories of Indigenous peoples has been in force since 1995 with the ratification of the ILO Convention. As a result, the Peruvian state recognizes domestically the territorial rights of native and campesino communities, but in a series of norms that do not guarantee all the rights recognized at the international level. (Snoeck 2013)
Due to the crucial role the territory plays in defining Indigenous identity, the social and legal fight for the (re)appropriation of Indigenous land has proceeded in parallel to the recognition of political rights. As a result, at least 10 Indigenous peoples out of 55 have begun the process of full recognition of their legal personality and the integral entitlement of their ancestral territories. (Niezen 2018)
References
Citation
@inproceedings{antoldi2026,
author = {Antoldi, Lorenzo},
title = {Tierra and {Territorio:} {Territorial} {Rights} of
{Indigenous} {People} in {Peru}},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1st Conference Cycles of Cytopia},
date = {2026-10-01},
url = {https://cytopia.fr/antoldi2026},
isbn = {TBA},
langid = {en}
}