Eilidh Munro is a self-taught photographer and filmmaker from Edinburgh. She spent many evenings and weekends building her portfolio by learning from other filmmakers and editors, all whilst working a day job in an advertising agency.
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| Eilidh Munro films in the rainforest. |
The Film:
These worlds have now collided, as Munro has managed to put together a film called 'Voices on the Road' about the park - but this time it is about the people more than the animals.
"They have never been asked what life is like in the middle of the rainforest," says Munro of the people she interviewed while making the film. They have no clean water, no sewerage and no easy access to markets to sell produce and make a living.
The 23 minute film is the result of ten months of work, with journalist Bethan Jones and biologist Shirley Jennifer Serrano-Rojas. The work centres on the 'better life' that is promised by a controversial road through the middle of the National Park and adjacent Amarakaeri Communal Reserve.
The road is intended to link all the isolated communities in the park, with the outside world. Although construction started in 2015, work on the road was stopped by the Peruvian Environment Ministry. Regional Governors argue that the road will help with wealth creation for the local tribes, when they can sell their produce in new markets. This, they say, will ultimately lead to people being able to clothe and educate their children, as well as gain other luxuries like internet access.
Edgar Morales Gomez, a District Mayor in the region says, "The road will bring water, communications, internet - so many things. Only with the road can we change our life."
Illegal work on the road continued despite the order to cease; loggers carried on by hand and the destruction of the forest continued pretty much unabated. Then, in November 2018, after a three year battle, construction of the road was approved again.
Other say the benefits have been over-hyped. There could end up being 40,000 hectares of deforestation, which could also have a fishbone effect (lots of smaller side roads being cut to join up with it), lead to more loggers moving in and the possibility of the smugglers setting up base.
The Expedition:
Funding of the film came from the Scientific Exploration Society, with an additional £15,000 raise via crowdfunding.
Munro and Serrano-Rojos undertook a 40-day expedition to visit four communities in the making of the film; Diamante, Isla de los Valles, Shintuya and Shipetiari. They interviewed the community leaders first and didn't film at all for the first few days, in order to be discreet and put the communities at ease.
The film (which has been shown at a variety of small film festivals, but has had no general release yet) captures how these people are feeling; some long for the promised profit the road might bring - while others fear the havoc and loss of culture that it might herald.
The Communities:
Poor Andean farmers were encouraged into Manu with cheap land from the state, to exploit untapped natural resources. They were encouraged to farm with the promise that they would prosper from agriculture as the road advanced - and this has not happened.
The communities of Shipetiari and Shintuya have both struggled, even with the road connection already made, as they are forced to sell their goods through intermediaries. In the case of Sintuya, there has been a road to them for 50-years, without any of the supposed benefits, but with additional pollution and deforestation.
They are also in danger of losing their customs - "[we are] trying to rescue our culture, our identity, our respect," says Victoria Crispera. It seems that the desperation of the people may have been used, with the promise of empowerment, but only politicians profiting from a black economy.
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| © Eilidh Munro / Bethan Jones |
Luis Otsuka Salazar:
Luis Otsuka Salazar is a former regional governor: "Here I see this poverty that disgusts me!" But this may be lip-service of fake promises.
It is illegal in Peru to build a road for the purpose of exploring for gas and oil, and the road would appear to be bordering on that illegality. Otsuka used to be the President of Mining Federation of Madre de Dios (Federmin). In Madre de Dios, 90% of the gold mining there is illegal and modern slavery is rife, with trafficking of women and girls into sex work being common. The final destination of the road is pretty much the epicentre of this illegal gold mining area!
The advance of the road, technically illegal or otherwise, seems to be unstoppable. Cocaine is now the new cash crop here, although it is declining elsewhere, production of coca in Madre de Dios is up by 52%.
This is a frightening prospect for some. Waldir Gomez Zorrillo says, "They could make us accomplices. The army, when they catch you, they catch you innocently because they think you're working. They blame us, It's us who pay!"
But the road hasn't reached Diamante yet. For them the road remains a symbol of hope, as they have become so obsessed with the possibility that it will improve their lives, that they will overlook all of the other negative potential outcomes. Oscar Guadalupe Zevallos, a director of human rights organisation Asociacion Huarayes, says, “We have a state that doesn’t worry about the employment of people. They play with people’s natural desire; they sell us roads, but they don’t sell us development. How are we going to use this tool - the road - to improve the family economically, to improve the education of our children?”
Munro believes there is still hope; “There’s also a big movement which is proving that protecting indigenous land rights is by far the best way to protect the environment and there are recent examples of South American indigenous groups who have successfully sued governments for misleading them in discussions around construction on their indigenous land, so there are small steps being made."
You can watch the 'Voices on the Road' trailer here - and also check if there are any other screenings planned.
Research:
Transform magazine: 'A perilous road ahead' - December 2019
https://theecologist.org/2019/may/07/voices-road
https://www.voicesontheroadfilm.com/
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/voices-on-the-road-scottish-filmmaker-explores-why-indigenous-communities-are-contributing-to-amazons-environmental-demise/
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