Shifting Strategies: The Myth of Wanamei and the Amazon Indigenous REDD+ Programme in Madre de Dios, Peru

Abstract

The Harakmbut myth of Wanamei tells of a time of great climate change; floods and fire ravaged the earth. It also tells of salvation and the transition from a bad state of affairs to a more prosperous and productive one. I discuss the myth to highlight how the Harakmbut people’s understanding of their environment has motivated them to negotiate the terms of their engagement with the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Environment Degradation (REDD+) programme. I outline the initial discussions surrounding the REDD+ programme in Peru and how indigenous cosmovision was used as a justification for their involvement in the design of an alternative project. The Amazon Indigenous REDD+ Programme is to be piloted in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve. I argue for the agency of indigenous peoples whereby sometimes it becomes necessary to change strategy to continue the indigenous struggle.

This chapter is based on arguments that I develop in the chapter “Producing knowledge and constituting power” of my PhD thesis titled “Producing leaders. An ethnography of an indigenous organisation in the Peruvian Amazon” (see Murtagh 2016). Sections from the thesis chapter are reproduced here.

Research for the PhD was undertaken in the Madre de Dios region of southeastern Peru during 2012–2013 and was possible thanks to a NWDTC studentship funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK [Grant No. 1091812].