“If another company comes here, our rivers and land will be destroyed!”
In April 2003, the Nahua people of Santa Rosa de Serjali within the Nahua Kugapakori State Reserve took the extraordinary step of issuing a public declaration via the advocacy group Shinai Serjali spelling out their complete opposition to all oil and gas operations within their lands. The Nahua declared:
“We have seen the work of other companies. In the past, Shell worked here and almost all of us died from the diseases, the coughs and diarrhea that they gave us. We know that if another company comes here, our rivers and land will be destroyed. The rivers will be polluted, the fish will die and the animals will run away. The helicopters, boats and tractors that will come will frighten the animals who will run far away from here. Minister, we ask you, what will we eat when the rivers are dead and the animals have run away?” Read full Nahua statement (en español)
Peru’s national indigenous organization AIDESEP also issued a statement in support of the Nahua beseeching the Peruvian State, all hydrocarbon companies interested in Lot 57, national and international civil society to uphold the national and international legislation that promotes the rights of indigenous peoples to be consulted, to self determination, to health and to live in a healthy environment, all of which ensure their continuity as peoples. Read full AIDESEP statement (en español)
The energy concession Block 57 covers the Nahua’s traditional territories. Repeated unannounced visits by helicopter by the Camisea company Pluspetrol, partner to Hunt Oil of Texas, alerted the Nahua to the companies’ interest in exploring Block 57, adjacent to Camisea’s Block 88.
The Peruvian government created the Nahua Kugapakori State Reserve to protect the Nahua, Nanti and Kirineri peoples who live with little or no contact with the outside world, yet the Camisea companies Hunt Oil and Pluspetrol are violating the rights of these vulnerable peoples by forcibly contacting them and exposing them to disease and malnutrition.
