52
n.
on October 9, 1997, the Regional Council of the RAAN decided to: a) “[r]atify
Administrative Provision No. 2-95 of June 28, 1995, signed by the Board of Directors
of the Autonomous Regional Council and the Regional Coordinator of the [RAAN]”,
which approved the logging concession in favor of the SOLCARSA corporation; b)
“[s]uspend the existing Agreement between the Regional Government and
[SOLCARSA], signed on April 28, 1995”, and c) “[r]atify [...] the Contract for
Management and Use of the Forest, signed by the Minister of MARENA and [...]
SOLCARSA on March 13, 1996”;28
Administrative efforts made by the Awas Tingni Community
ñ.
on July 11, 1995 María Luisa Acosta Castellón, representing the Community,
submitted a letter to the Minister of MARENA, with a request that no further steps be
taken to grant the concession to the SOLCARSA corporation without an agreement
with the Community. The letter also stated that MARENA had the duty to “facilitate
the definition of the communal lands and [...] to avoid damaging [...] the territorial
claims of the Community”, since it was thus stipulated in the agreement signed by
the Community, MADENSA, and MARENA in May, 1994 (supra para. 103 (i);29
o.
in March, 1996 the Community submitted a brief to the Regional Council of
the RAAN, in which it requested “that the Regional Council initiate a study process
leading to an appropriate territorial demarcation” with participation by the Awas
Tingni Community and other interested communities, “so as to ensure their property
rights on their ancestral communal lands”, and to “prevent the granting of
concessions for exploitation of natural resources within the area under discussion
without prior consent by the Community”. For this, they proposed the following: a)
an evaluation of the ethnographic study submitted by the Community and, if
necessary, a supplementary study; b) a process of negotiation between the Awas
Tingni Community and the neighboring communities regarding the borders of their
communal lands; c) identification of State lands in the area; and d) “delimitation of
the communal lands of Awas Tingni”. The Community stated that the request was
submitted “due to lack of administrative remedies available within the Nicaraguan
legal system through which indigenous communities can ensure property rights to
their communal lands”;30
Legal steps and actions
p.
First amparo remedy filed by the Awas Tingni Community and its leaders.
p.i)
on September 11, 1995 María Luisa Acosta Castellón, acting as special
agent for Jaime Castillo Felipe, Marcial Salomón Sebastián and Siriaco Castillo
Fenley, representatives of the Community, filed an amparo remedy before the
Appellate Court of Matagalpa against Milton Caldera Cardenal, Minister of
MARENA, Roberto Araquistain, Director of the National Forestry Service of
MARENA, and Alejandro Láinez, Director of the National Forestry
28
29
cfr. resolution No. 17-08-10-97 of October 9, 1997 by the Regional Council of the RAAN.
cfr. July 11, 1995 brief by María Luisa Acosta Castellón, attorney for the Awas Tingni
Community, addressed to Milton Caldera C., Minister of MARENA.
30
cfr. March, 1996 brief requesting “official recognition and demarcation of the ancestral lands” of
the Mayagna Awas Tingni Community, addressed to the Regional Council of the RAAN.