In 2003, Indigenous organizations petitioned the Peruvian government to create Yavarí Mirim, an Indigenous reserve on the Amazon border with Brazil and Colombia, spanning 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres), according to sources interviewed by Mongabay. Their goal was to protect hundreds of Indigenous peoples in the region who had little to no contact with the outside world. Extractive and illegal activities were advancing into their territory, and time was of the essence. More than 20 years later, the reserve has yet to be created. In the latest setback, the country’s Multi-Sector Commission postponed indefinitely a Feb. 14 meeting scheduled to determine reserve boundaries. The commission, led by the country’s Ministry of Culture, is responsible for establishing the territories of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact, known by its Spanish acronym PIACI. The commission justified the delay, saying it had realized the requested area overlapped with another Native community. Temporary malocas of isolated Indigenous groups in the Peruvian Amazonian on the border with Brazil and Colombia. Image courtesy of ORPIO. Pablo Chota Ruiz, secretary of Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern Amazon (ORPIO), the Indigenous organization leading the petition for Yavarí Mirim, questioned the commission’s reasoning. “They are looking for any excuse to call off this reserve,” he told Mongabay. “There is indeed another community wanting to expand their territory in the same area, but that request hasn’t even been processed, which means it should not be considered an obstacle.” Ruiz, a member of the Matsés Indigenous…This article was originally published on Mongabay