Conatura-Perú :    Integrating Conservation of Biodiversity and needs of  Indigenous Communities of Peru
Integrando la conservación con las necesidades de comunidades indígenas en el Peru.

1994:  CITES lifts export ban on vicuña fiber; fiber is allowed to be sold if certified from live-shorn animals; vicuna export to U.S. prohibited because of endangered status.  This is viewed as a positive development both within Peru and internationally.

 July 11, 1995:  Landmark law:"Regimen de la propiedad, comercializacion, y sanciones por la caza de las especies de vicuña, guanaco y sus hibridos. "  This legislation gives Andean communities usufruct rights for live-shearing of the vicuna in Peru and also gives them primary responsibility for protecting them from poachers.  The National Society of Vicuña Breeders(SNV), a non-profit association of 789 campesino communities, is legally recognized and is given the CITES approved brand of Vicuña-Peru.  This brand certifies that Andean communities have captured and shorn live animals.  The SNV serves as a mechanism for Andean communities to negotiate as a one entity fiber contracts and equal prices for all communities. The SNV also provides the service of completing the somewhat daunting paperwork necessary to legally export vicuña fiber. Additional benefits include one channel for commercialization, which allows for easier monitoring of poaching; direct participation of Andean people in decision-making practices regarding commercialization of fiber; and greater negotiating power due to a larger lot of fiber that can be offered to textile companies. Due to this law, Andean Communities engage in what may be one of the largest community-based conservation and sustainable utilization programs in Latin America.

1996:  Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture implements "Programa de fortalecimiento de la competividad comunal en la crianza de vicuñas".  This program, ostensibly designed to improve competitiveness amongst Andean communities and increase fiber production, promotes the construction of corrals to enclose vicuñas on a national scale.  This top-down scheme sold communities corrals for the price of $23,000.00, thus leaving most communities is debt before getting their vicuña shearing enterprise off the ground.  More alarmingly, the primary mode of fiber production shifted from utilizing wild vicuñas to capturing vicuñas and placing them in corrals, affecting, of course, the ecosystem and natural behavior patterns of the vicuña.  Worse still, prices for corrals were approximately double what they were worth;many communities are still in debt.  Conatura scientists were prevented from conducting biological investigations in corrals in the late 1990's;many questions about the effects these measure are having on vicuña populations are yet to be answered.

September 24, 2000.  Supreme Decree #053-2000-AG (Page 1; Page 2) is signed (without consultation of stakeholders), amending the original 1995 law.  This Decree gives usufruct rights to those not belonging to Andean Campesino communities.  Problems with this Decree include identifying the vicuña, a wild animal, with specific pieces of property (akin to being able to fence in wildlife in your yard), and requiring landholders to present management plans for their vicuñas even though Peru has no National Management Plan that would provide terms of reference.  This supreme decree causes controversy amongst Andean Campesino communities, who view this as a threat to their livelihoods (due to lack of adequate property titles, increase in land-trafficking, appearance of intermediary buyers).

May 30, 2002:  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service downlists the vicuña from Endangered to Threatened and publishes a Special Ruling to allow importation of vicuña fiber and products obtained from live-shorn vicuña, subject to conditions published in a Special Ruling.  Among these include analysis of utilizing corrals, reporting of conservation measures and new legislation.  To maintain export rights to the U.S. annual reports are required; every two years a review will be conducted.  This is viewed as a positive development although controversy exists due to the heavy use of corrals.

February 23, 2004:  Supreme Decree #008-2004-AG again amends (without consultation of stakeholders) the original law signed in 1995.  Citing the need to end "monopolistic practices", this disturbing decree no longer recognizes the Sociedad Nacional de la Vicuña (SNV) as a representative for commercialization by Andean communities, eliminating an organizational structure that had inreased the price of vicuña fiber sold by communities to large international textile firms.  Supreme Decree-008 calls for re-registration of all Andean communities that shear vicuñas on their lands, asking for requirements that many communities cannot fufill (such as land titles and official maps).  It also states that communities will sell fiber individually, or at most through regional associations.  This drastically limits Andean peoples ability to negotiate fair prices and contracts for the sale of their fiber. The Vicuña-Peru CITES brand is taken away from the SNV and given to textile companies operating in Peru. Conatura believes that this Supreme Decree will cause problems for both vicuña conservation and the Andean people who work to utilize them sustainably and are given primary responsibility for their protection.