Who is going to clean up Peru's northern Amazon after decades of companies spilling oil and dumping billions of barrels of toxic production waters? Certainly not US company Occidental which ran the biggest concession, Lot 1-AB, until 2000, nor, it would seem, Petroperu, which ran the other major concession, Lot 8, until 1996 and operates the...
"I've seen a publicity campaign saying that Pluspetrol is working hand-in-hand with the communities, that they protect the environment, our health, our children. It makes me ashamed for them to see this advertising they aren't living up to. They don't care. What's more, they won't admit all the bad things they have done. The people who don't live...
The Conversation | The relative success of direct action in recent decades contrasts with the often bloody encounters that went before, from which poorly-armed Indians invariably emerged badly.
The Guardian | Members of the indigenous Achuar tribe from the Peruvian Amazon have won an undisclosed sum from Occidental Petroleum in an out-of-court settlement after a long-running legal battle in the US courts.
Digital Journal | Members of two different Peruvian native groups have occupied the airport of Pluspetrol, an Argentine oil company that is accused of failing to compensate local communities for damage to the environment.
Fusion | No one ever expected Cuninico, a small riverside fishing village tucked in the heart of the world’s largest rainforest, to run out of drinking water. But it happened last June. Since then this remote Amazon hamlet has relied on state-run oil company PetroPeru to deliver shipments of bottled water from the nearest city, nine hours down river.
The Guardian | The Manu national park and its buffer zone in Peru was international news early last year after scientists found it is "top of the [world's] list of natural protected areas in terms of amphibian and reptile diversity", beating off stiff competition from the Yasuni national park in neighbouring Ecuador. What these news reports didn't acknowledge...
Once again, the most prolific oil complex in Peru's Amazon region has exploded with local indigenous protests, grinding oil production to a halt. Both Achuar & Kichwa indigenous communities have risen up, stopping roughly 3,100 barrels/day of oil production.
VICE | A conflict is raging in Peru's Amazon forests between indigenous groups and an Argentinian oil company. The Amazon dwellers have halted drilling and blockaded a jungle road for two weeks in protest of what they claim is a decades-long environmental catastrophe.
The Guardian | Hundreds of indigenous people deep in the Peruvian Amazon are blocking a major Amazon tributary following what they say is the government's failure to address a social and environmental crisis stemming from oil operations.
Common Dreams | A large group of indigenous Peruvian community members took control of an airport in the Andoas region of the Amazon on Monday to protest Argentine energy company Pluspetrol, which they say is polluting the land and exploiting resources in the region to build their oil drilling operations.
Upside Down World | Plans are afoot to abolish a reserve for vulnerable indigenous peoples in Peru's Amazon in order to exploit massive gas deposits and facilitate Christian evangelization, according to a report by Lima-based NGO Perú Equidad - Center for Public Policies and Human Rights.
Alianza Arkana Blog | Last week, indigenous women sent a clear message to visiting government officials: If there is no real movement toward solutions to the appalling contamination in their territories, then there will be no more bidding on the oil under their territories.
Alianza Arkana Blog | 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 Guardian | Three Peruvian judges are scheduled to meet on April 1st following a lawsuit filed to stop a gas consortium from operating in a reserve in the Amazon created for indigenous peoples living in "initial contact" and "voluntary isolation."
Alianza Arkana Blog | Last week Peruvian governmental authorities released test results that prove alarming levels of contamination in Peru's largest national reserve, Pacaya Samiria, part of Kukama Kukamilla indigenous territory.
The Ecologist | Amazon tribes in Peru's rainforest are at risk of "massive deaths" from new diseases to which they lack immunity, gas company Pluspetrol admits – as it tries to expand its Camisea gas project into a Reserve for isolated indigenous people.
The Guardian | Indigenous people in Peru have suffered "devastating consequences" as a result of extractive industries in the Amazon rainforest, according to the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights.
Alianza Arkana Blog | Peruvian activists recently told Amazon Watch that the question now isn't what areas of this region have been polluted, but instead what areas are actually still clean.
Huffington Post | A United Nations committee says that plans by Peru's government to expand a controversial gas project in the Amazon could threaten the "physical and cultural survival" of indigenous peoples.
Alianza Arkana Blog | The situation in the Corrientes is not new, and well-documented, as FECONACO noted: "since the 80s, studies in the region have shown the effects of contamination in fish, waters, and even the public health in communities."
Huffington Post | Pluspetrol is currently planning on expanding its operations in a concession known as 'Lot 88', almost 75% of which overlaps the supposedly 'intangible' Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti Reserve which was established for indigenous peoples in 'voluntary isolation' and 'initial contact' in 1990, borders Manu National Park and acts as part of its official...
Huffington Post | The United Nations' Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination wrote to the Peruvian government urging it to "immediately suspend" the expansion of the country's biggest hydrocarbons development. The government's response? To claim there is nothing illegal about the expansion, no threat to the "isolated" indigenous peoples, and that it...
Mongabay.com | A consortium of gas companies headed by Pluspetrol and including Hunt Oil plans on detonating approximately 38 tons of explosives in the south-east Peruvian Amazon in one of the most biodiverse regions in the world.
Huffington Post | Pluspetrol is currently planning on expanding its operations in "Lot 88", and sometimes plays down the existence of the "isolated" people as a way of parrying concerns about the impacts its operations might have on them. Three new wells have already been approved by Peru's Energy Ministry, and the green light for a further 18 wells, seismic tests...
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.
Alianza Arkana Blog | "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."
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...
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.
