Perú

The Peruvian Amazon, the fourth largest expanse of tropical rainforest in the world, is home to thousands of indigenous peoples speaking dozens of languages, including some of the last groups living with little or no direct contact with the outside world. Tragically, since 2003 nearly three quarters of the Peruvian Amazon has been leased to the international oil industry for the highest bid.More »

Letters from the (Amazon Watch) Campaign Trail, Part II

May 15, 2013 | Blog Post

Dearest Daughter, from Dad in the Amazon – Yesterday I left the Amazon jungle after an amazing week there. Prior to leaving however, I shared with my Achuar indigenous friends a dream I had about you.More »

Peru Spares Amazon Rainforest from Oil and Gas Push

New hydrocarbon sites will all be offshore, but campaigners fear contentious oil and gas development in Amazon will still go ahead

May 14, 2013 | The Guardian

Amazon Watch's Andrew Miller, currently in Peru, says the "sustained campaigns of local indigenous communities, their federations and international allies appear to have changed the government's calculus. Whereas in the past they promoted the oil rounds to international companies without advising communities, now they have to comply with the consultation law."More »

Letters from the (Amazon Watch) Campaign Trail

May 13, 2013 | Blog Post

Dearest Daughter, from Dad in the Amazon – This is my first international trip away from you since your birth eight months ago, and I already miss you tremendously. I want to explain to you the importance of this trip.More »

Fears Peru's Gas Expansion will Generate Conflict in UNESCO World Heritage Site

May 3, 2013 | Truthout

A department within Peru's Environment Ministry is concerned that the expansion of the country's biggest gas project in the southeast Peruvian Amazon could generate conflict between indigenous peoples living there.More »

A Message from the Achuar to Canada

April 11, 2013 | Blog Post

"I would like to thank our allies in Canada for their solidarity in this struggle. Thanks to the many actions taken we have achieved a great victory: a large and powerful corporation, Talisman, has been forced to leave our ancestral territory."More »

Reopening the Wounds of Bagua

Peruvian government actions to criminalize social protest started with indigenous peoples

April 2, 2013 | Blog Post

Almost four years ago gunshots in the Peruvian Amazon were heard around the world. Last month, the state prosecutor asked for the most severe charges against 54 indigenous leaders, including life sentences. These charges are an underhanded political tactic to criminalize social protest and intimidate grassroots leaders. More »

Mahogany’s Last Stand

Illegal logging has all but wiped out Peru's mahogany. Loggers are turning their chain saws on lesser known species critical to the health of the rain forest.

April 2013 | National Geographic

Illicit practices are believed to account for three-fourths of the annual Peruvian timber harvest. Despite a crackdown on mahogany logging that began five years ago and a sharp decline in production, much of the timber reaching markets in the industrialized world is reported to be of illegal origin. Most of those exports have gone to the U.S. but are now increasingly bound for Asia.More »

Peruvian Government Declares State of Environmental Emergency in Pastaza Region

March 27, 2013 | Alianza Arkana Blog | Blog Post

"We are still drinking contaminated water every day... We think that with the declaration of emergency the government will be forced to worry about us and can solve our problem sooner."More »

Peru Declares Environmental State of Emergency in Its Rainforest

Government reports high levels of barium, lead, chrome and petroleum-related compounds

March 26, 2013 | The Guardian

Lima, Peru – Peru has declared an environmental state of emergency in a remote part of its northern Amazon rainforest, home for decades to one of the country's biggest oil fields, currently operated by the Argentinian company Pluspetrol. Achuar and Kichwa indigenous people living in the Pastaza river basin near Peru's border with Ecuador have complained for decades about the pollution, while successive governments have failed to deal with it.More »

Peru Declares Amazon Oil Contamination Emergency

March 25, 2013 | Associated Press

Lima, Peru – Peru's government declared an environmental state of emergency on Monday in a remote Amazon jungle region it says has been affected by years of contamination at the country's most productive oil fields, which are currently operated by Argentina-based Pluspetrol.More »