As seen on The New York Times

In September, four indigenous activists who stood up to unscrupulous loggers in a remote region of Peru’s rain forest were slain. The deaths could have easily gone unnoticed. Their village, Saweto, is a seven-day canoe ride from the nearest city. There is minimal government presence in the country’s vast rain forest, which is home to more than 300,000 indigenous people.

Peru, which is holding the United Nations climate change conference next month, has made commendable pledges to reduce deforestation. But it must do far more to protect some of its most vulnerable citizens by helping them acquire land titles and regulating the logging industry more tightly. Taking those basic steps would go a long way toward the government’s goal of being on the vanguard of fighting climate change and it would preserve the way of life of communities that have been living off the earth for thousands of years.

The country has been one of the deadliest for environmentalists and land rights activists, according to Global Witness, a London-based group that hasdocumented the plight of Peruvian indigenous communities. Since 2002, according to the group, at least 57 Peruvian activists have been killed under suspicious circumstances.

The latest case has generated significant attention in Peru and abroad in part because one of the slain activists, Edwin Chota, the leader of the Ashaninka indigenous community in Saweto, had attained a relatively high profile, having been featured in articles in The Times and National Geographic in 2013.

In 2002, the government awarded logging companies the right to chop trees in much of the country’s rain forest. The concessions didn’t take into account the livelihood of hundreds of indigenous communities that were never consulted. They lead spartan lives, consuming what they fish, hunt and harvest. More than a decade ago, in an effort to protect their land from loggers, Mr. Chota’s community applied for a land title. The request was never acted on. After illegal loggers threatened him, Mr. Chota filed complaints with the police in the nearest city and provided authorities with documentation of illegal logging in his area. The government took no substantive action.

In early September, Mr. Chota and three other activists — Jorge Ríos Pérez, Leoncio Quincima Meléndez and Francisco Pinedo — were fatally shot on their way to Brazil for meetings on the threat posed by loggers. The deaths sparked an outcry among Mr. Chota’s champions abroad, which later drew attention to the case in Peru.

The authorities detained three men, although relatives of the activists worry that other culprits, and whoever ordered the killings, will escape punishment. Shortly after the murders, government officials promised to grant the community a land title. Those are positive steps, but they are woefully late and hundreds of indigenous communities still lack legal rights to their land.

Diana Ríos, the daughter of Mr. Ríos, traveled to New York earlier this month to receive an award from a foundation run by Alexander Soros, the son of the billionaire financier George Soros. The award paid tribute to her community’s resolve. Despite the international attention this has received, many villagers, who took refuge in a nearby city after the killings, are now afraid to go home. Ms. Ríos, though, said she is determined to return and take up her father’s fight. “We’re strong,” she said in an interview. “It’s our land.”

Original article – In Peru, a Fight Over Land Rights