In 2013, after decades of protests by the indigenous populations, government testing finally confirmed the devastating contamination of hydrocarbons and other toxic elements in the soil and water of four major river basins. The indigenous groups of the Pastaza, Corrientes, Tigre, and Marañon river basins in the Northern Peruvian Amazon have witnessed over 43 years of oil activities in their territories. This directly jeopardizes people’s health and well-being, as well as threatening the ecosystems they depend on to survive. By May 2014, all four river basins had been declared “environmental emergencies” and “sanitary emergencies” by the Peruvian government.
Argentinian-based oil company, Pluspetrol, has been operating the two large oil concessions affecting the area, Lot 1AB/Lot 192 and Lot 8, since 2001 and 1996 respectively. Despite the scientific results showing more than 352 times the allowable levels of certain heavy metals, Pluspetrol maintains a public discourse of “zero contamination”.
They generally blame their predecessors for the mess and portray themselves as a responsible company that generates local development and champions environmental stewardship. Making use of a powerful and twisted PR machine and the remote nature of their operations, Pluspetrol attempts to withhold the disturbing truth of their significant role in this environmental disaster from the Peruvian and international public.
Alianza Arkana is committed to working alongside the local indigenous federations to break the silence and shed light on these environmental and social atrocities.
This publication – The Misleading Art of Commercial Deception: How to Transform a Major Polluter into an Environmentally Sustainable and Socially Responsible Company – is grounded in the direct experiences and struggles of our indigenous partners affected by Pluspetrol’s activities.
We aim to dismantle Pluspetrol’s misleading public discourse and reveal still more disturbing facts behind the oil company’s social and environmental abuses in the Northern Peruvian Amazon.
Click here to download the full publication.
