Land scarcity among Indigenous Territories of the Peruvian Amazon: causes and ramifications
Recent scholarship reveals some Indigenous communities increasingly face resource impoverishment and environmental degradation, questioning the sufficiency of Indigenous Territories to support Indigenous livelihoods and well-being. The prospect of land scarcity—declining forest land suitable for agricultural conversion—is particularly concerning as it may force shortened forest regeneration cycles, potentially undermining the Indigenous agricultural practices that sustain forest landscapes.
Despite these critical implications, land scarcity patterns remain understudied in Amazonia. Moreover, existing approaches to understanding this issue are predominantly Malthusian, focusing on population-resource ratios while overlooking how territorial allocation policies and land control regimes may produce resource shortages within Indigenous territories.
My research project had two components with its own objectives:
1. Regional component
- Assess the extent of land scarcity among titled Indigenous territories of the Peruvian Amazon
- Analyze the factors contributing to rising land scarcity among Indigenous territories
2. Local component
- Examine land scarcity ramifications on land use and management within Indigenous communities
For the regional analysis, we draw on socio-demographic and land-use data from the PARLAP project (https://parlap.geog.mcgill.ca/) and land allocation data from IBC (https://ibcperu.org/). For the local analysis, I conducted approximately three months of fieldwork among Kichwa communities in the Napo basin of the Peruvian Amazon. Working with my research assistant Juana Elescano, we administered household and plot surveys to 80 Indigenous households and conducted interviews with 8 Indigenous leaders and other key basin-level actors.
Two manuscripts are being prepared from this research. The first manuscript, "The Scarcity Trap: Why Indigenous Communities Face Land Constraints in Resource-Rich Amazonia," is currently under submission to Land Use Policy in collaboration with Oliver Coomes (McGill University), Yoshito Takasaki (University of Tokyo), Christian Abizaid (University of Toronto), and Maritza Paredes (PUCP). A second manuscript, "The Heterogeneous Experience of Land Scarcity Among Indigenous Communities of the Peruvian Amazon" is being developed in collaboration with Oliver Coomes (McGill University).