Group Criticizes Peru's Plans to Drill in Amazon | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

Group Criticizes Peru’s Plans to Drill in Amazon

May 21, 2010 | Latin American Herald Tribune

U.S. environmental group Amazon Watch denounced plans by Peruvian oil company Petroperu to “open the last vestiges” of that country’s Amazon region to oil drilling.

Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch’s executive director, was quoted in a press release as saying that those plans threaten “some of the most biodiverse forests on the planet and the lives of the indigenous peoples who depend on this forest for their livelihoods.”

“The current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a clear demonstration of the risks involved. An oil spill in the Amazon would create an ecological disaster,” she added.

Amazon Watch’s release said that Petroperu sent representatives this week to Houston and London to promote 25 new oil concessions “which open the last vestiges of the Peruvian Amazon to oil drilling.”

The group added that affected indigenous groups nationwide have expressed opposition to the plans and noted that the International Labor Organization “has called on the Peruvian government to suspend new contracts until an adequate consultation process is in place.”

“In its rush to sell off the Amazon, the Peruvian government has failed to address the underlying causes of the Amazon-wide protests last year. This new oil bidding round just serves to provoke further conflict,” the press release quoted Gregor MacLennan, Amazon Watch Peru’s program coordinator, as saying.

At least 34 people were killed last June in indigenous protests against legislative decrees that gave Lima the power to grant mining, logging and drilling concessions on Indian lands without consulting residents.

The laws were meant to ensure that Peruvian law conformed to a free-trade agreement with the United States.

Blockades of rivers and highways were lifted after the two most contentious decrees were repealed.

Separately, Peru’s Congress on Wednesday approved a bill that requires the government to consult Indians about matters related their territories.

The purpose of the consultations will be to reach agreement between the government and the indigenous peoples, Mario Rios, a legal adviser to one of the sponsors of the bill, told Efe.

He added that if no agreement is reached and the public interest is at stake “the government can take necessary measures to ensure the public interest prevails, as long as the rights of indigenous peoples are respected.”

Saul Puerta, secretary of Aidesep, the Indian-rights organization that organized last year’s protests, told reporters that the new law is “a great step (in favor of) reconciliation between the government and (indigenous peoples).”

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