NGOs and Indigenous Organizations in Peruvian Amazon Basin: Partners, Asset Providers or Bridge Builders?

Abstract

Non-governmental organizations working in the promotion of development (ONGD) are actors that articulate two aspects that had generally been unlinked in the world of development: technical capability-expert knowledge and the capacity for advocay and channelling of demands of vulnerable social actors. Since the 1970s, NGOs in the field of sustainable development have contributed to highlight indigenous Amazonian peoples' rights to territory and preservation of their habitats. In recent years different and new roles have arisen accross a range of different types of NGOs amidst a mounting trend of conflict as a consequence of proliferation of extractive industry in vulnerable areas. New specialized roles develop from a complex equation that combines NGOs' principles and background, interaction within the NGO community and the position the organization is willing to play within the array of actors involved in the conflict-negotiation processes that arise around the relationship between extractive industries and indigenous groups.