San Francisco, CA – Peru’s state-owned oil licensing company, Perupetro, has auctioned a raft of concessions that intrude on current or proposed reserves to protect some of the last indigenous peoples living in isolation anywhere in the Amazon basin.
Peruvian indigenous organizations and Amazon Watch have condemned Perupetro’s actions, warning that many of the new concessions violate Peruvian and international human rights laws established to protect vulnerable populations with little or no resistance to common illnesses.
Three of the 12 Amazonian concessions intrude on current or proposed Territorial Reserves for isolated peoples and are likely to result in forced contact with these populations, according to AIDESEP, the representative organization of the Peruvian Amazon’s native peoples.
Other concessions intrude on titled indigenous lands, including block 143, which overlaps the ancestral territories of the Achuar people of northern Peru, who have repeatedly and publicly expressed their strong opposition to the oil industry’s attempts to enter their lands. AIDESEP has written to the bidding companies demanding that they stay out of the Peruvian Amazon.
However, in an apparent victory for the campaign to save Peru’s rainforests, another four of the 12 concessions, which would also have intruded onto Territorial Reserves, have failed to find bidders. This development may be a result of a delegation of indigenous leaders to a Perupetro roadshow in Houston earlier this year, where they stole the show, telling potential bidders that local communities would not welcome them.
AIDESEP President Alberto Pizango Chota warned that the bidders could be opening themselves up to lawsuit. “This would jeopardize the fundamental rights to life, health, physical integrity, lands and a stable environment [of isolated indigenous peoples], which would be liable to legal action in international human rights fora and supra-national courts,” he said.
Perupetro’s decision to press ahead with the auction comes despite a public commitment given by Peru’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Juan Valdivia Romero, on February 5, to exclude three existing Territorial Reserves and consider excluding four proposed Territorial Reserves.
The bidding results were revealed five days after a Perupetro spokeswoman, speaking in the Washington Post, suggested “there is no evidence” for the existence of isolated indigenous peoples, comparing them to the Loch Ness monster.
Maria Ramos, Amazon Watch’s Peru Campaigner, said: “This deeply disturbing statement reveals Perupetro’s contempt for the fundamental human rights of these vulnerable populations. The existence of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation in the Peruvian Amazon has been established beyond any doubt by experts from various academic institutions in Peru and elsewhere. The bitter irony is that by this troubling attempt to justify its flouting of international human rights norms, Perupetro is threatening the existence of these peoples.”
In addition to Isolated Peoples Territories, four of the 12 blocks overlap titled indigenous lands; local communities were not consulted. One of the most controversial is block 143, awarded to Hunt Oil, on Achuar land. This area was previously held by ConocoPhillips, which relinquished the concession under pressure from the Achuar and Amazon Watch.
The companies awarded concessions in the Amazon are: Samaraneftegaz S.A.A. (Block 130); Pan Andean Resources Pic. (Block 131); Talisman Ltd., Sucursal Peruana, and ECOPETROL S.A. (Block 134); Pacific Stratus Energy Ltd. (Block 135, 137, 138); and Hunt Oil (Block 143). Blocks 135 and 137 overlap the Yavari Tapiche proposed Territorial Reserve for isolated peoples, while Block 138 overlaps the Isconahua Territorial Reserve.
The Peruvian Amazon is one of the largest surviving areas of tropical rainforest anywhere in the world and is home to some of the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems as well as numerous indigenous peoples. Global deforestation currently accounts for between 20 percent and 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite this, the administration of President Alan Garcia has adopted a policy of unsustainable, industrial exploitation of the natural resources of the Peruvian Amazon. The latest round of concessions brings the total area of the Peruvian Amazon designated for oil and gas drilling to 70 percent. His administration is currently the target of widespread public unrest, including protests against its hydrocarbons policy.
For background on the campaign to support the indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon protect their rainforest homelands, visit www.amazonwatch.org.
