More Than Territory: The Cultural and Ecological Importance of Indigenous People’s Ties to the Andean-Amazonian Conservation Area Cordillera Escalera

The conservation area Cordillera Escalera—located in what is called the Montaña region between the Andean and Amazonian worlds—is an example of the Peruvian government’s efforts to create conservation areas without acknowledging the long history of Indigenous groups living in them. Based on colonial records, this case study shows that the uniqueness of the Montaña environment relies on the different kinds of relationships that local Indigenous groups and outsiders have maintained in this region, historically referred as a marker of what was considered “civilized.”