Chapter 3 - Legal, governmental, and institutional authority in the Central Selva of Peru

Principal natural resource legislation
Institutional authority
Enforcement problems

Peru's 1979 Constitution establishes that both renewable and non-renewable natural resources are national patrimony. The law further states that everyone has both the right to live in a healthy environment suitable for a fulfilling life, and the corresponding obligation to "conserve the environment." It also specifies that the State evaluate and preserve natural resources and encourage their wise management while controlling environmental contamination, and to this end, the law sets forth regulations governing natural resource and energy resource use by both the public and private sectors.

This chapter will describe Peru's natural resource legislation and the government bodies which administer it. Focusing on the Central Selva, it will demonstrate how laws and institutions often inhabit territories of poorly defined authority, thus retarding the goals of "minimum conflict" among the users and caretakers of the rain forest. Using the Pichis-Palcazu "Special Project" as an example of intra-governmental cooperation, it will suggest ways that such problems can be overcome.

Principal natural resource legislation

The General Water Law states that all water in Peru is State property, the use of which must be in the social interest and serve the country's development. The State formulates policy governing its use and preservation. Thus the executive branch regulates water use and can reserve waters; organize development of a region, watershed, or valley; declare protected areas and states of emergency; transfer water from one watershed to another; and substitute supply sources. The Ministry of Agriculture has primary jurisdiction over waters, except for medicinal mineral waters which are administered by the Ministry of Health. The Superior Water Council considers intersectoral affairs and preferences for water use.

Government policy under this law emphasizes preservation and encourages integrated watershed and irrigation district development plans to prevent deterioration and loss of water, flora, fauna, and soil. Water use easements may be used for construction and operation of hydraulic works and for shoreline and riverbank protection and natural resource conservation. Priorities for water use, after every citizen's basic entitlement for drinking and cooking has been met, are livestock, agriculture, energy, and industry.

The Forest and Wildlife Law declares that forest resources are in the public domain. All flora and fauna except for aquatic species are covered by the law, which further states that forest lands may not be used for agriculture and livestock production.

Forests are classified as natural or cultivated. Two natural forest management categories are included: national forests, and forests of free access. Both types are declared suitable for permanent production of wood, other forest products, and wildlife; national forests can only be exploited for industrial and commercial purposes by the State. Forests of free access can be used by any authorized person.

Natural protected forests are established to conserve soil and water. Four different conservation categories include the following: National Parks for the protection of natural associations of flora and wildlife and attractive landscapes; National Reserves to protect and propagate wildlife of national interest; National Sanctuaries for protection of plant and animal species' communities, as well as natural formations of scientific and aesthetic interest; and Historic Sanctuaries to preserve the natural settings of significant historical events. The law also authorizes Communal Reserves to conserve wildlife that serve as traditional human food sources and Game Preserves for sport hunting.

Under the General Fishery Law the State is responsible for administering marine resources and continental water resources, particularly with regard to industrial fishing. This law has given rise to several regulations that touch on fishing seasons and restrictions in the Selva and throughout the country. In applying this law the authorities have focused on harvesting, paying little or no attention to conservation.

The Agrarian Reform Law has attempted to transform the agrarian structure into a system of more equal property distribution, guaranteeing rural social justice. It considers a rural settlement to be a group of farmers organized into an agriculture unit, and prohibits the partition of rural land holdings into parcels smaller than the size of a family farm unit. Agrarian law adjudicates land to the communities under the condition that it cannot be transferred to the public domain except when it is incorporated into cooperatives or agricultural societies of social interest. The community recovers the ownership of abandoned parcels and of parcels not being directly exploited by community members, subject to payment for necessary land improvements.

Also administered under this law is uncultivated or unproductive "wasteland" which can be awarded as concessions, rented, or sold for irrigation and other purposes that coincide with development and zoning plans. Lands not considered wastelands include terrain being planted in trees, hillsides planted for grazing, urban lands, and lands put to household and industrial use.

Native tribes and rural populations in the Selva and Ceja de Selva (Mountainous or high jungle area) are the principal beneficiaries of the Forest Agrarian Promotion and Native Communities Law of 1974, which enabled approximately 900 communities made up of 56 ethnic groups in Peruvian Amazonia to own the lands they had historically occupied. Under the law the State guarantees the native communities ownership of property; draws up land ownership registries and awards property titles; and gives natives the right to exploit the forest production potential of their territory, as long as land use taws are obeyed.

Native communities located within national parks may remain without holding title to the land if park objectives are not violated. When the natives are sedentary, the areas where they are settled are considered theirs to use for agriculture, ranching, gathering, hunting, and fishing. Likewise, all of the land where seasonal migrations occur is considered native land, and additional land is adjudicated to native communities who need it.

Private lands located within communal areas conceded after the Constitution of January 18,1920 are to be incorporated into the native communities. If community members decide not to admit them, however, they will be compensated. National public agencies will give priority to native communities: for example, licenses granted for using areas adjacent to native community property are granted preferentially to natives, as are contracts for forest exploitation and reforestation.

The 1974 Law distinguishes the following land use categories: lands suitable for agriculture, lands suitable for livestock, and lands suitable for forestry. Legal rights of way for almost every purpose, bridges, roads, pipelines, telecommunication and power lines, and irrigation and drainage works can be established.

Farms smaller than 20 hectares cannot be divided legally for any purpose. Lots of 10 or more hectares that are not being used for agriculture or livestock can never be divided into parcels smaller than 10 hectares for agriculture and 200 hectares for livestock raising. The units are adjudicated according to the availability of land, the quality of resources, and the requirements of the areas' populations, although farmers who were settled no less than one year from the date of the present law's implementation have first preference to obtain the land they were working. National parks, national reserves, national and historical sanctuaries, national and protected forests, and areas needed for the extraction of metals and hydrocarbons may not be adjudicated.

Rural Settlement Projects are multisectoral efforts established by the 1974 Law designed to establish or consolidate populations. Agriculture and livestock lands in rural settlement projects are adjudicated in favor of native communities, peasant communities, agrarian cooperatives, agricultural social interest societies, worker-owned corporations, and qualified individuals. Plots suitable for cultivation up to 150 hectares and lands suitable for livestock up to 300 hectares are adjudicated to natural persons in rural settlement projects. Lands suitable for cultivation and lands suitable for agriculture up to 6,000 hectares in low-priority areas in rural settlement projects are adjudicated in favor of cooperatives. When plots larger than 500 hectares are requested for livestock activity, their exploitation and investment plans must be approved by the Ministry of Agriculture.

All agriculture and livestock lands under this law should maintain the original forest cover on 15 and 30 percent of their area, respectively. Riverbanks, ravines, and steep slopes are to be left in plant cover. Wood from forest clearing must be used. Land owners have the first opportunity to harvest wood found on their parcels.

The Agrarian Promotion and Development Law of 1978 was to increase agrarian productivity, promote expanded agrarian activity, encourage employment opportunities, promote the construction of agroindustrial plants, improve rural commerce, strengthen research, support rural investment and economic expansion, and encourage the development of farmer organizations. Among the complementary dispositions are those that modify articles of the 1974 Native Communities Law. For example, in the Ceja de Selva and Selva regions, the Ministry of Agriculture can award land suitable for agriculture and livestock production. When deemed a national priority, national forests can be exploited for industrial and commercial purposes by corporations that are State-run or have State participation.

The General Industrial Law refers to the activities of manufacturers. The State is to promote construction and operation of industrial complexes in the Selva and other frontier zones, giving priority to cooperatives.

The General Mining Law establishes that all mineral resources, including geothermal ones, belong to the state. Its intent is to promote the exploitation of mineral and geothermal resources, protect small and medium-scale mining, and promote large-scale mining. Prospecting is free in most national territory, except where prior mining rights are established, in National Reserves, and where Special State Rights are in effect. Prospecting is also prohibited on public use property, fenced-off and cultivated land, and urban and future urban land. Under some circumstances owners of mining rights can solicit authorization to establish easements on third-party lands and can solicit the expropriation of property dedicated to other economic purposes.

International treaties with other countries are a State responsibility in accordance with Article 101 of the Peruvian Constitution. When a treaty and a law conflict, the treaty takes precedence. While many treaties regarding natural resources exist, Table 3-1 presents treaties relevant to resources of the Selva region.

Table 3-1
INTERNATIONAL Treaties ^a

The Research Institute of Peruvian Amazonia is responsible for inventory, research, evaluation, and control of Amazonian resources. Although the agency has become severely limited over the years because of the rise of other institutions, it must be involved in any planning that looks toward institutional organization in Peruvian Amazonia.

Departmental Development Corporations

Departmental development corporations are decentralized public agencies responsible for encouraging rational exploitation of the natural resources of each department, preserving flora and fauna, and preventing pollution; promoting the processing of natural resources, rural development, agriculture, livestock production, agro-industry, mining, and fishing; promoting business, industries, and cooperatives in cooperation with municipalities; maintaining basic services and infrastructure not the responsibility of the municipalities or federal government; and encouraging recreation, tourism, and festivals.

Local Governments

Local governments correspond to municipalities, which can be Provincial or District Councils. Provincial and District Councils have economic and administrative autonomy to plan the development of their jurisdictions, vote on and approve their own budgets, regulate collective transportation and traffic; and organize, regulate, and administer local public services.

Regional Governments

A constitutional mandate delineates the regions and establishes their governing bodies. These will enjoy economic and administrative autonomy and consider matters of health, housing, public works, roads, agriculture, mining, industry, commerce, energy, and security.

Agriculture Sector Institutions

Ministry of Agriculture: The jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture consists of lands suitable for agriculture, grazing, and forest production; "wastelands"; river beds, channels, and margins; waters of rivers, lakes, and aquifers; forest resources, flora and wildlife, the commerce of agricultural products and by-products, agrarian services and agricultural technical assistance. The ministry formulates and directs policy in the agrarian sector, and plans, implements, supervises, and evaluates the sector's regulations.

The federal government's work is conducted by the General Departments of the Ministry of Agriculture. These are: Water, Soil, and Irrigation; Agriculture and Livestock, which covers agricultural and livestock production, health inspection, registering and regulation;

Agro-industry and Commerce, which promotes activities related to the agricultural, livestock and food industries; Forestry and Wildlife, which works for the conservation and wise use of forest resources and wild flora and fauna, the processing and commerce of these products, and the classification of land according to its best use. Agrarian Reform and Rural Settlement, which manages the reorganization of the agrarian sector and supervises land use, tenancy, and ownership and guides the activities related to peasant and native communities.

The Agrarian Sector Organic Law has created four decentralized public agencies under federal government control:

The National Institute for Agricultural Frontier Expansion (INAF) extends agricultural activity through implementing irrigation projects and rehabilitating land, including land in the Selva and the Ceja de Selva; the National Institute for Agriculture and Livestock Research and Promotion (INIPA) carries out research, extension, and agricultural and livestock promotion and encourages rural marketing of agricultural and livestock products; the National Forest and Wildlife Institute (INFOR) carries out research, extension, and promotion of agroindustrial, forest, and wildlife products and it implements special projects concerning the conservation and wise use of forest and wildlife resources; and the National Agro-Industry Development Institute (INDA) carries out agroindustrial research and promotion.

Unfortunately, serious conflicts have arisen between the agencies in the Ministry of Agriculture (General Departments) and the decentralized public agencies (Institutes) making it necessary to reorganize these departments so that each agency has clear jurisdiction over its own area of activity.

Special Projects

In the last decade a number of autonomous decentralized public agencies called Special Projects have been established in Peru.¹ The political, economic and social importance of the special projects is found within the national and regional objectives of the Government for the Amazon region of Peru. These objectives are to:

^1. On June 28,1983, the Peruvian Government created the National Institute of Development (INADE) which is to manage and coordinate the activities of the Special Projects Offices.

1. increase production and productivity through widening the agriculture frontier and through the rational exploitation of the region's natural resources;

2. plan settlement in the territory which channels the migratory flows within the region as well as in the rest of the country by means of the "marginal highway";

3. increase the employment and income levels of the region; and

4. conserve the natural resources and maintain the ecosystems in the region.

Four large-scale special projects in the Selva Region are organized as technical-administrative units designed to assist integrated development. Their jurisdictions are the most important Selva valleys along the route of the Marginal Highway. Three are described briefly below; as promised, the fourth - the Pichis-Palcazu Special Project - will be examined in depth as a microcosm of the goods and evils of governmental authority in the Central Selva.

The Huallaga Central and Bajo Mayo Special Project covers the northern sector of the Peruvian Selva Alta Region. The total project area is 864,000 hectares with a population of 179,800, of which 59 percent is urban. Twenty-five percent of the population is economically active; 62 percent of these work in agriculture, silviculture, and hunting; 14 percent in the service sector, 5 percent in manufacturing, 4 percent in commerce, and 15 percent in other activities.

The main objectives of the project are to assure an adequate internal traffic of agricultural products and commerce with the coast and mountains, through the improvement and construction of local roads and the maintenance of principal roads; and to attempt a low-cost development model that could be repeated in other parts of the high forest area.

The Jaen-San Ignacio-Bagua Integral Development Project is located in the high forest of the northern part of the country. The total project area is 3,966,122 hectares, of which 746,000 hectares are estimated to be suitable for agriculture and livestock development, including 120,000 hectares already being exploited. Population of this area is estimated at 488,336 people. By expanding the amount of land under cultivation by 250,000 hectares, approximately 10,000 new families are to be settled in the region.

The project consists of a regional development plan and of integrated programs in two micro-regions. It is concerned with the expansion of agricultural land and the occupation of the country's frontier areas, and is expected to carry out research, improve road and energy infrastructure, and organize urban and rural settlements. The project will also incorporate productive frontier areas into the country's economy, integrate them into regional and national development, and organize present and future settlements in order to end spontaneous migration and natural resource degradation.

The Madre de Dios Integral Development Project encompasses the 7,840,300 hectares and 28,216 inhabitants of Madre de Dios Department. The general objectives of this project are to increase the amount of land under cultivation and manage forest resources, and to occupy "uninhabited" territory through the formulation and implementation of an integrated regional development plan and small regional programs.

Presently being developed are the Tahuamanu rural settlement, rubber tree cultivation, gold mining, petroleum extraction, and forest production. In addition, the project is supporting activities in Manu National Park.

The Pichis-Palcazu Special Project which operates entirely in the Central Selva is the primary focus of this case study. Two ministerial resolutions outline the area of the project. The first delineated the area of the project to be the lands drained by the Pichis, Palcazu, and Pachitea Rivers and served by the San Alejandro-Puerto Bermudez stretch of the Marginal Highway. The second increased the geographic area of the Pichis-Palcazu Special Project to include the Villa Rica, Oxapampa, Chontabamba, Huancabamba, and Pozuzo districts in Oxapampa Province; and a Supreme Decree incorporated 74,200 hectares within the Von Humboldt National Forest (Huanuco and Ucayali Departments). Consequently, the Pichis-Palcazu Special Project focuses on an area that includes the Marginal Highway axis (Map 1-1; Map 16-1).

The project objectives are to increase the amount of land under cultivation and thus increase national and regional production; improve living standards, employment, and income distribution; occupy national territory; conserve natural resources; preserve the rights of native communities and settled colonists; exploit forest resources with appropriate technology; provide basic necessities to the population; promote a civil order and preserve native ethno-cultural values; organize settlements appropriate to the valley; stimulate and control natural resource exploitation using appropriate technology; and organize public administration, coordinating sectors and governments. (Table 3-2 presents the laws and regulations affecting this project.)

Table 3-2
LAWS AND REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO THE CENTRAL SELVA PROJECT

The project's strategy to meet those objectives was to occupy "uninhabited" land. Thus, it developed regulations and began a land ownership survey and land titling effort. The strategy was implemented through the creation of centers of rural development (CDR), where a steady rapid population growth is expected until 1990, after which growth rates will practically stop in the Pichis and Palcazu valleys, and be moderate in the Pachitea valley (Table 3-3 presents the land area in the Pichis, Palcazu, and Pachitea valleys and indicates the amount of land to be settled by the year 2010).

The urban population of 50,000 inhabitants, 25 percent of the total, would be distributed accordingly:

Table 3-4
PERSONNEL DISTRIBUTION IN THE PICHIS-PALCAZU SPECIAL PROJECT

While the decentralized public agencies of the Special Projects represent law and governmental authority at their most efficient and successful, such is not the general state of affairs in the country. One reason for this is that Peru, like other Latin American countries, uses general laws and specific regulations relating to those laws. In several instances, laws have not been applied because regulations do not exist; in others they have not been applied and await regulations even though the laws are sufficiently specific to be enforced.

This legislative practice has given rise to an unhealthy proliferation of rules at various levels. In some cases, it becomes so extreme that one regulation requires additional interpretation and regulations, which of course complicates and obstructs the administration of laws originally intended to help citizens achieve their objectives.

Natural resource management is likewise adversely affected. It has to be recognized that the proliferation of regulations at all levels is not only the result of legal policy, but also the result of bureaucracies considering legislation to be an end in itself, not the means with which resource management and other activities can be carried out. This abundance of laws, regulations, and other measures is notorious for creating undesirable interference in accomplishing the objectives of natural resource management.

Peru has enormous mining potential, and the spirit and letter of the law consider it such a high priority that conflicts with other resource users and activities are often created. For example, mineral prospecting is not excluded in forest management areas nor does the law establish effective mechanisms for mine waste control. Pollution of water from mine waste is localized, but it seriously affects important human populations (La Oroya and Huancayo, among others),

Deficiencies in hydrocarbon legislation create significant conflicts between hydrocarbon extraction and the management of renewable natural resources. It is understandable that petroleum exploration and exploitation should receive major support, as with the exploration occurring in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve in the Department of Loreto and approval of petroleum exploration in part of Manu National Park, even though it violates regulations treating this category of protected areas. However, while some restrictions have been included in petroleum exploration contracts, in practice these regulations are unenforceable because of chronic underfinancing for guards and inspectors.

According to current forest legislation, "protected inviolate," as applied to such protected areas as national parks and national sanctuaries, is defined as "maintaining flora, wildlife, landscapes, and geologic formations in their natural state." This concept, so clearly expressed in legal regulations, is too often capriciously interpreted by such conflicting sectors as mining and energy.

Another example of conflict caused by natural resource legislation is controversy concerning changes in land use. The Forest and Wildlife Law, of clear conservationist rather than preservationist orientation, and the Land Classification Regulation both restrict irresponsible and unjustified exploitation of protected and other forest lands. They establish, however, mechanisms by which these lands can be justifiably exploited. Nevertheless, institutional policies contradict these two laws. For example, although it is not officially accepted, the new agrarian promotion legislation encourages changes in land use. The current practice of credit institutions, specifically the Agrarian Bank, is to award loans to migrants who present "ownership certificates" despite the fact that they occupy lands unsuitable for agriculture and livestock in the Selva and Ceja de Selva. Conflicts are further aggravated by road construction that does not consider soil use capacity.

In many cases, applying national legislation to the Selva causes natural resources to deteriorate and social conflicts and economic problems to develop. Many legal and natural resource specialists realize this, but bureaucratic practice is difficult to change. Also, the centralist and "colonial" point of view is maintained in some legislation. For this reason, the applicability of national laws in Amazonia is being studied to determine when and how such regulations can be effective in local and regional conditions. The Peruvian Constitution of 1979 opens the possibility for the special treatment of natural resource management in Amazonia, saying "The State encourages development of Amazonia. It will consent to special endeavors when required" (Article 120). It is crucial that technicians and planners coordinate the legal measures to be applied in Amazonia that will gradually end contradictory practices.

Often legislation is interpreted differently by different sectors. A regulation may be clear and explicit, but jealous institutions distort it nonetheless. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Fisheries have such differences, for example. The Forest and Wildlife Law considers all wildlife that "reproduce" on dry land to be under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture. However, the Fisheries Ministry interprets this concept differently; consequently, the two ministries do not agree on which of them has jurisdiction over such animals as giant otters and river turtles. The Fisheries Ministry broadly interprets "reproduction" as referring to more than the actual location where birth takes place and eggs are laid. Thus, when considering these animals, both ministries apply different regulations which are almost always contradictory.

Implementing the Forest and Wildlife Law and the Industry Law has also led to long-standing conflicts. The harvester of forest products is constantly under pressure from local authorities representing these two ministries. The industrial sector believes that, even in rural areas, primary processing of forest products in sawmills falls under its administrative jurisdiction, while the Forest District believes it to be within the jurisdiction of the agrarian sector, a position that seems to be supported by strict interpretation of the legislation.

The Agrarian Development and Native Community Law of the Ceja de Selva and Selva (Decree Law 22175), although established to promote the welfare of Amazonia's first inhabitants, is little heeded by other legislation, so its influence is diminished. Measures are included in the law that discourage the natives from wisely using their natural resources and continuing ancestral sustained-yield land use practices.

Sometimes the state's administrative structure borders on anarchy. During the Agrarian Public Sector reorganization of April, 1981, which divided up the management of a significant portion of the Selva's living resources, a decentralized agency was created - the National Forest and Wildlife Institute (INFOR) - while the federal agency, the General Forest and Wildlife Department, was also maintained. Theoretically, according to the law, both agencies have well-defined responsibilities. INFOR is intended to focus on special activities (reforestation, extension, research) while the General Department is to provide technical advice to the ministry on policy and legal matters. In practice, however, the two agencies notoriously interfere with each other, which diminishes both their national and local effectiveness to an alarming extent. If this bothers users in Lima, it especially affects rural users. They do not care whether the government employee is called a forest, agriculture, or livestock specialist as long as he provides the assistance they require. But in the majority of cases, the proliferation of natural resource and "environmental" public agencies has not improved local infrastructure, since personnel are in insufficient supply and lack even the minimum necessary equipment. For example, Forest District personnel commonly are not able to meet one of their most important responsibilities, inspection and control, because they do not have adequate transportation.

The general public justifiably believes public administration to be overly bureaucratic. The large number of employees and the traditional centralization causes federal employees to be concentrated in Lima, while provincial offices are short of personnel and money to train them (throughout the country the only public servants that receive systematic academic training are the armed forces and the police).

Within two or three years the constitutional mandate for regionalization should be implemented. Regionalization should force agencies to work together to apply the concepts of deconcentration (delegation of resources) and decentralization (establishment of offices with sufficient personnel). At all costs, "regional centralization," in which everything is concentrated in regional capitals, needs to be avoided, or the same patterns will be repeated.

To avoid the problems of top-heavy bureacracies and the fragmentation of public development agencies affecting natural resources, and because of the interest in seeing a single project through from beginning to end, the Pichis-Palcazu Special Project was established in the Selva. Already it has benefited the region by complementing road construction with other aspects of rural development, and by generating produce for the large markets of Lima and Huancayo. This commerce affects agriculture, industry, administration, and urban development.

The program works well because it incorporates administrative autonomy in each of its five subprojects (described above). Each subproject can then develop an ad-hoc work program that emphasizes work based on each valley's special characteristics, including natural resources, land occupied, and production enterprises. Because the budgets are adjusted to the size of each valley and to financing sources, funds are used efficiently.

The objectives of the Pichis-Palcazu Special Project were established only after experts analyzed the area's potential and limitations. One primary objective is to "preserve environmental quality" which is understood by the project's planners and superior authorities to be management of natural resources on a sustained yield basis, and with minimal disruption of cycles. Specific project activities include the establishment of a network of protected natural areas, reforestation through natural and artificial means, and strengthening of national forest administration.

The project's objectives can be summarized in the term "integrated development." Integrated development is economically and socially justified by the limited availability of new lands suitable for agriculture, livestock and forest production. The project's proponents estimate that integrated development will shorten the investment maturation period, especially if the area's forest resources are exploited, because the immense photosynthetic capacity of these forests compensates for their soil fertility limitations.

Within the special project's strategy, the land was occupied through the Centers of Development (CD), which preceded the road's construction. These centers are intended to initiate organized integrated rural development and prevent chaotic growth. Thus, the project's implementation began with a land ownership survey and land title program, giving priority to native communities.

From its beginning, the project was coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and the National Planning Institute. It initiated special activities with the Forestry Center (CENFOR) and the Center of Agrarian Research and Promotion (CIPA), which are parts of the National Forestry and Wildlife Institute (INFOR) and of the National Agrarian Research and Promotion Institute (INIPA), respectively.

The project also worked from the beginning with the health and education sectors for the benefit of the local population. Since a priority concern of the project has been, is, and will be, to strengthen local public agencies, it has established cooperative agreements with each principal agency which will gradually be phased out until the agencies are self-sufficient, although a longer collaboration will allow the project to pay health worker salaries and construct and operate health centers for five years. It also has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health to initiate the River Medical Service, which will more efficiently serve populations in marginal areas. The Project will also organize and encourage an effective Rural Medical Service, using foreign and national volunteers.

Resistance from public agencies to working with the special project has been minimal and early jealousy and skepticism rapidly disappeared. Cooperation among personnel has yielded effective political support from the highest State authorities and enthusiasm and competency from project workers, for it has produced well-defined and suitable programs. To overcome the chronic lack of trained personnel, the project and its coordinating agencies are to begin a training program in the areas of experimental design and analysis, tropical soil fertility and management, tropical cultivation systems, and grass improvement and management.

The Pichis-Palcazu project is oriented towards a major agriculture extension effort. Extension programs are indispensable to real agrarian development, but they have been neglected in Peru since the 1970s. Because universities no longer produce extension professionals, extensionists working today generally have not been adequately trained. The project, therefore, has recently signed an agreement with the INIPA to ensure that extension training would be a priority from the beginning.

When analyzing the project's activities, some experts question the absence of a marketing effort in any of the project's phases. To this, the project's authorities respond that the project is essentially a catalyzing agent, trying to strengthen production without neglecting the influence of trade on the well-being of rural populations. Today the marketing issues are under reevaluation.

Daily practice has shown that the project needs to support a clear credit policy. To encourage this, it has agreed with the Peruvian Agrarian Bank (BAP) to provide credit of varying duration to benefit at least 25 percent of rural producers. Now in effect in the Pichis and Palcazu valleys, it will soon reach the Satipo and Chanchamayo Valleys. And together with the Peruvian Industrial Bank, the project is developing a Canadian line of credit totalling 20 million Canadian dollars. Some of these monies will be directed at forest product harvest and processing in the Pichis, Palcazu, and Pachitea valleys, and will go to the 100 hectare household forest plots and to forest production units of up to 5000 hectares in size.

Specific short-term solutions to specific short-term problems, then, have characterized the relative success of the Pichis-Palcazu Special Project. By attempting to meet its immediate goals in a timely fashion, it has laid the groundwork for steady progress towards resolution of the long-term conflicts and needs of the myriad of interests represented in the Central Selva in particular, and in the American Humid Tropics as a whole.