The leader of a northern Peruvian Amazon community is in Calgary to plead with Talisman Energy to withdraw their oil drilling operations from their ancestral home.
Peas Peas Ayui wants the company to cease operations immediately after running exploratory wells in the area for close to 8 years.
Mitchell Anderson from Amazon Watch tells 660News the leader brings a simple message.
“With Talisman Energy operating there we can not live in peace. The oil company has brought conflict between brothers and sisters and they cannot risk having that ancestral territory destroyed by contamination and divisions between brothers and sisters.”
Anderson says the Achuar people have been living in the area for 1000’s of years.
“It’s their ancestral territory, where they bury their dead, have their gardens and hunting grounds and the Canadian company simply has their eyes set on the crude in the ground.”
