Peru and Ecuador have signed an agreement to promote development in the Cordillera del Cóndor, the 48-mile stretch of jungle border in the Andean jungle that was the epicenter of one of South America’s oldest territorial disputes.
The “Peace and Binational Conservation in the Cordillera del Cóndor” was reached during a meeting at Peru’s National Institute for Natural Resources, Inrena, which included representatives from Inrena, the countries Foreign Relations Ministries, Ecuador’s Environmental Ministry and indigenous communities, Agencia Andina reported. The project will receive financial support from the UN’s International Tropical Timber Organization.
The agreement will reportedly seek a cross-border development strategy in the area by creating parallel forestry management and control systems. It will also promote joint studies, coordinate project participation of the Shuar, Wampis and Awajun indigenous communities as well as organize a conservation and sustainable development network.
A 1998 peace agreement signed in Brasilia ended the territorial dispute over the Cordillera del Cóndor, which was the center of the 1995 Cenepa war between Ecuador and Peru. Authorities from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines estimate some 30,000 mines were laid during the conflict. The land mines continue to endanger numerous indigenous communities in the sparsely populated and porous border area.
