Forced Labor in Timber Extraction in the Peruvian Amazon

The study is based on interviews with government officials, Indigenous workers and leaders from the Peruvian Amazon, timber entrepreneurs, members of the anti-logging commission and police, religious figures, professionals and intellectuals working in various NGOs, and on secondary qualitative and quantitative data.

The study reveals the existence of forced, or unfree, labor, primarily in jobs associated with illegal logging in various regions of the Peruvian Amazon basin. The research indicates that in the Amazon, a significant number of loggers, mainly operating illegally or informally, continue to use the "enganche" system, which involves providing workers with advances of money or goods to recruit them for logging operations. Unfortunately, this worker recruitment pattern leads to a system of debt peonage or servitude.

Forced labor is often a manifestation of a broader pattern of discrimination against Indigenous peoples. The study shows that the intensity of abuses and deprivations varies according to the degree of exposure to market society and the geographic isolation in which people live. Exploitation and deprivation of liberty are more extreme in the most remote and isolated communities. Forced labor and debt bondage among indigenous workers are also a consequence of insufficient investment in their education. Gender and age are other factors that determine the type of forced labor in which people may find themselves trapped. Although it is the man who incurs the debt, the entire family generally has to contribute their labor to repay it. Women's work is usually unpaid, and if it is, it is paid less than men's, as they are considered mere helpers.