June 25th, 2009A large amount of work has been accomplished by the RP technical team and the community members of  Mushuck Llacta de Chipaota.We recently finished the evaluations in the field that were necessary to detail and finalize the Management Plan to sustainably harvest fibers from the Piazaba Palm (Aphanda natalia).  After an IRENA management plan advisor processed and analyzed the data contained in the plan, we presented it to INRENA on May 29th, 2009 in Tarapoto.  The plan will have to be looked over in Lima after which it will be evaluated in Chipaota in the field.  Passing through each of the three approval phases could take anywhere from 1-2 months.The last of the project funding that RP will be transferring to the community will be to finish paying the professionals who developed the project and project plan.  It will also be utilized to help the Chipaota community members  visit broom producers in Tarapoto and disscuss the terms under which they will buy the Piazaba fibers once IRENA grants them permission to extract.Although this project has been of great importance for the development of the Chipaota community and for the preservation of tropical rainforests, nevertheless the work does not end here. It is absolutely imperative to accompany and to guide the community in the implementation of the management plan in order to execute it as well as it was planned.  It is for these reasons RP  will continue it’s involvement in the community so that the community may achieve long-term sustainability both socially and environmentally.Parallel to facilitating the creation of the management plan, RP is working with a group of people in the community, predominantly women, to develop and to reintroduce traditional ways of making handicrafts with natural materials from the forest.  This side project will serve as a link between Chipaota and a tourism project in the municipality of Chazuta being organized by GTZ (German Development Corporation).On a side note, for the past two months Amazonian indigenous groups in Peru that have been protesting nine laws that would allow for development of the Amazon region.  Peruvian President Alan Garcia  signed the decrees as part of the compliance process for Peru’s Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.,   although some say that the FTA can still exist with out these concessions. The indigenous groups  traveled to cities to protest the decrees and blocked roads that enter the Amazon. Violence between these groups and police culminated in early June and left at least 34 dead and 150 injured.  The protests and blockades ended two weeks later when the Peruvian government repealed two of the decrees and President Garcia admitted his fault in the lack of consultation with indigenous leaders while designing and implementing the legislation.  The remaining seven decrees will be discussed between indigenous leaders and the Peruvian government in the weeks to come.  To stay up-to-date see www.ens-newswire.com.