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The valley of the Mayo River was isolated from the rest of the country until the 1970s, when construction of the Carretera Marginal trunk road gave access. A wave of spontaneous settlers from the highlands and the coast then came into the valley, increasing the population five-fold. Under such a dramatic event, the Aguarunas became a disadvantaged minority in their own traditional territory. Providing legal land titles to the nine Aguaruna communities living in the Alto Mayo basin, adjacent to the settled areas, was a condition of the IFAD project.
The native communities were thus able to obtain communal land titles and rights from the government before the major wave of migrants could reach the region. In this way, the nine communities became owners of 60,000 hectares of land, of which some 17,000 hectares were suitable for intensive agricultural production. Consequently, they could continue their traditional activities in shifting agriculture, growing about 80 species of plants, most important among them, manioc, maize, bananas, and rice. Hunting, fishing, and gathering fruits and nuts from the forest are other activities that significantly enhance their diet.
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