El Bien Comun, or, Institute for Common Good, is a NGO (non-governmental organization) in Lima focused on protecting common resources in Peru such as water, soil, etc. The Director is Richard Smith - a white guy from the Springfield area in the US who came to Peru as a Peace Corps volunteer and never left. He talked with us in particular about helping the Indigenous populations secure land rights. They are funded by various foundations and the Spanish government.

SIGNA is a mapping project this NGO is doing to identify where the communities are living, and whether or not they have official deeds to their land.

There are 7900 "communities" in Peru. Currently there is a law in Peru recognizing native and peasant communities - which together comprise the indigenous communities. The native communities were first recognized in 1974 with the distribution of private property titles. They also co-op land which means communal ownership. Peasant communities are not yet recognized and don't have property titles.

There are 289 indigenous communities in Lima. 64% are owned by Indigenous people with titles.

International law recognizes sovereignty for all nations and all peoples - but Peru isn't recognizing this. Peru only recognizes community, no peoples. They do not recognize territory for peoples.

The Indigenous population in Peru got their independence in 1820. They got their first title recognitions in 1920.

The title does not give you the right to anything but surface rights. So even if a community does have their land title, the state can still sell the rights above and below the soil to companies for exploitation. Only in the US do title rights give you rights to what's above and below the surface. Companies try to buy land rights for forestry, rubber, tourism, brazil nuts, mining, gas, water, oil, and they also buy "non-conventional" contracts too. Other South American countries have defined their land titles. Peru is one of the last to have such lax regulations.

Rubber manufacturing was huge in northeast Peru until tire production collapsed the rubber industry due to exploitation and depletion of resources, and the UK transplanting rubber tree seeds to Malaysia where they could get away with even worse exploitation.

There is a large river that runs through northern Peru. Peruvians say this is the beginning of the Amazon River. Brazilians, however, give this river a different name - Solemoins - and say the Amazon doesn't start until the boarder of Brazil and Peru where it reaches the Rio Grande.

The Interamerican Development Bank wants to run a railway through the rural and remote jungle to connect Brazil and Peru. They have not specifically said who will use this railway or what the cars will transport.

According to Richard, there are Japanese and Chinese communities in Peru. There is an old Chinese community and a new Chinese community. The Japanese are more powerful and less visible.

Also according to Richard, INDEPA, the organization we visited this morning, is disappearing. They formed after a similar organization was disbanded under the prior administration. Peru is a democracy now and elections happen every 5 years. They did nothing after the Garcia administration and started after 1943. It's interested to see that they are housed under the Ministry of Culture instead of under the Ministry of Social Inclusion. They have been stripped of all decision making and are in the process of being dismantled.

El Bien Comun is launching an awareness and education campaign to get these communities titled. Their audience is the children of the elite, and the companies the state sells the land rights to.

For more information or to donate go to www.comunidadesdelperu.org