More than 70% of the Peruvian Amazon has been leased by the government to oil companies. Much of this includes regions inhabited by uncontacted tribes.
Oil exploration is particularly dangerous to the Indians because it opens up previously remote areas to other outsiders, such as loggers and colonists. They use the roads and paths made by the exploration teams to enter.
Survival International estimates there are 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru, all of which live in the most remote, isolated regions of the Amazon rainforest. All of these people face terrible threats – to their land, livelihoods and, ultimately, their lives. Uncontacted tribes are extremely vulnerable to any form of contact with outsiders because they do not have immunity to Western diseases.
International law recognizes the Indians’ land as theirs, just as it recognizes their right to live on it as they want to. That law is not being respected by the Peruvian government or the companies who are invading tribal land. If nothing is done, they are likely to disappear entirely.
“By permitting companies to operate in this region, Peru’s government is flagrantly violating international law. Survival International believes it very important to investigate this situation as soon as possible and for Peru’s government to prohibit the companies from working there. If that is not done, some of the world’s most vulnerable citizens could be wiped out,” said a letter from Survival to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on indigenous people, Prof. James Anaya.
One of the companies, Perenco, has recently admitted to transporting 50,000 tons of ‘material and consumables’ into this region, describing it as the equivalent of ‘seven Eiffel Towers’. Perenco is awaiting approval from Peru’s Energy Ministry to build a pipeline that will cut across 207 kms of land and will affect the rainforest on either side for 500 metres.
Perenco is a Anglo-French company which has a huge oil project in Peru’s northern Amazon. This is an area inhabited by at least two vulnerable uncontacted tribes who may well be destroyed by Perenco’s work there. No one is sure how many of them there are.
It is not difficult to see why Perenco wants to work in this region. The discovery of oil there is believed to be the biggest in Peru in 30 years – an estimated 300 million barrels. Perenco claims the area is uninhabited, but the Peruvian government, the Ecuadorian government, local indigenous organizations and countless experts have all recognized the presence of isolated Indians in the area.
The other companies are Repsol-YPF and ConocoPhillips, which have applied to cut 454 kms of seismic lines in their bid to find oil. According to scientists, this part of the Amazon is one of the most biodiverse places in South America.
Survival’s appeal to the UN comes as the Peruvian government attempts to expel a British environmentalist, Brother Paul McAuley, for speaking out against environmental and human rights abuses in northern Peru.
McAuley has spoken out in defence of the Amazon rainforest and indigenous rights in Peru for many years. He is President of the Loreto Environmental Network, a grassroots organization based in Iquitos, the largest town in the northern Peruvian Amazon. McAuley has been given just seven days to leave the country. He has lived in Peru for 20 years.
Survival Director, Stephen Corry, said today, “This is as serious as it gets for indigenous people anywhere in the world. Massive oil operations are planned which will destroy the rainforest and could decimate two tribes.”
Notes:
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Read Survival International’s Letter to Prof. James Anaya, UN’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedom of indigenous people
Source: Survival International.
