When co-managed conservation fails: Environmental degradation and state-backed dispossession of indigenous lands in communal reserves in the Peruvian Amazon

Communal Reserves were established as a co-management compromise between the Peruvian state and Amazonian indigenous peoples to promote biodiversity conservation and indigenous territorial rights. However, these areas face escalating land grabbing, environmental degradation and violence. This study utilizes archival, spatial, and ethnographic data to analyze the magnitude, drivers, and mechanisms of Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC) in El Sira Communal Reserve and its buffer zone. We find that current pressures stem from a longstanding legacy of state-led colonization and agricultural development preceding the reserve’s creation. Our spatial analysis shows that El Sira’s deforestation and agricultural expansion rates are the highest among all Peruvian Communal Reserves and their buffer zones. Finally, our ethnographic action research highlights the role of subnational governments in facilitating LULCC through state-backed dispossession of indigenous lands. Our discussion exposes the limitations of co-managed conservation in the Central Peruvian Amazon, where growth coalitions and a legacy of settler colonization provide the administrative infrastructure necessary to transform protected forests into private assets.