Controversy over eviction of families in El Totoral wetlands area of Huachog

In recent weeks, the announcement of the eviction of more than 200 families that for several years invaded a sector of El Totoral, an area of ​​the wetlands in Huachog, has been the subject of information. Faced with the threat of being removed from the place by court order, these residents remain in protest, also asking for the intervention of the regional governor, Antonio Pulgar, so that he donates the area they occupy.

According to the lawyer Ángel Lazo Flores, defender of the inhabitants, in effect, under the protection of article 339 of the Civil Procedure Code, they are requesting the donation of the land from the part they have been possessing, but this request has been questioned indicating that they are facing a reservation protected nature. “But after the analysis and study of Totoral Huachog, it never was and never will be a natural reserve area as the National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (Sernap) has officially said,” the lawyer maintains.

In this context, he reported that on Friday, May 19, they have submitted a letter to the Regional Government of Huánuco (GRH), clarifying that said place is not a natural reserve area, nor is it protected; “So it may very well be the object of a donation.”

The day before, on May 18, the legal advisor of the GRH sent a document to the director of Agriculture requesting that he report in writing whether El Totoral is a nature reserve or not.

For Lazo Flores, according to article 7 of the Law on Protected Natural Areas (Law 26834), the creation of protected natural areas of the National System of Natural Protected Areas by the State (Sinanpe) and regional conservation areas is carried out by decree endorsed by the Minister of Agriculture.

“However, the procedure for the declaration of protected natural areas, El Totoral -Huachog does not have a supreme decree that protects it, said agreement was not made before the Council of Ministers, nor was it endorsed by the Minister of Agriculture, therefore, It does not have the status of a protected natural area”, says the lawyer.

In addition, he explains that although the place has Regional Ordinance No. 058-2016-GRHCO, which declared it as a “protection and conservation area”; Said resolution does not legally have legal value, since regional governments in environmental matters only have the power to propose the creation of regional and local conservation areas within the framework of Sinanpe, as regulated by subparagraph d) of article 53 of the Organic Law of Regional Governments, Law No. 27867.

“Understanding that the power to propose that regional governments have is not the same as the power to create, it is evident that El Totoral de Huachog only remained in a conservation proposal,” adds the lawyer.