FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE:
February 6, 2007
Peruvian
Government to Exclude Isolated Indigenous Peoples Reserves from Amazon
Oil Concessions
Peru’s Human Rights
Ombudsman Launches Investigation as Indigenous Leaders, Environmentalists Welcome News
Interviews
and photos available on request.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
San Francisco – The Peruvian government’s
announcement that it is revising three rainforest oil concessions to
exclude official reserves intended to protect some of the last native
Amazonian populations still living in isolation received a warm welcome
from indigenous and environmental organizations today. The government
has also committed to review four other concessions.
Meanwhile, Peru’s human rights
ombudsman (Defensoría del Pueblo) has publicly launched an independent
investigation of all 11 new Amazonian oil concessions being auctioned
by Perupetro, the state-owned oil company, to ascertain whether they
infringe the rights of indigenous communities and violate Peruvian laws.
Both measures follow heavy
pressure from Peruvian indigenous leaders as well as Peruvian and US
environmental and human rights groups, who attended a presentation to
US investors in Houston last week by Perupetro, Peru’s state-owned oil
company. On Friday, indigenous leaders took to the stage at the
presentation at Houston’s Petroleum Club and told approximately 200
representatives of oil majors, including Exxon Mobil, that their
communities would vigorously oppose both the auction and exploitation
of any drilling blocks intruding on their tropical rainforest homelands.
AIDESEP, an umbrella organization representing
indigenous peoples from the Peruvian Amazon, has repeatedly warned that
contact with outsiders could cause epidemics as well as psychological
trauma and socio-cultural dislocation for the vulnerable populations.
The organization greeted the government’s
announcement positively but warned that another four concessions still
intrude on proposed reserves for indigenous groups living in isolation.
In a statement, AIDESEP demanded “the immediate exclusion of all seven oil
concessions that overlap Territorial Reserves for isolated indigenous
peoples, meaning both the ones that are officially recognized and those
that are proposed given these represent an attack against the life and
health of these extremely vulnerable populations."
The three concessions that will
be redrawn are Blocks 132 and 138, both in the central Ucayali region
of Peru’s vast tropical rainforest territories, and Block 133 in the
southern Madre de Dios region. Those three concessions intrude on the
State Reserves of Murunahua, Isconahua and Madre de Dios respectively.
The reserves were set up precisely to protect the isolated indigenous
populations that live there and to prevent any contact initiated by
outsiders, something that is banned under Peruvian and international
law.
“I don’t believe this will
generate major problems for the investors interested in exploring these
blocks as they are small areas and, in addition, these are regulations
used at the international level,” Juan Valdivia, the Minister of Energy
and Mines was quoted as saying by Andina, the Peruvian government’s
news service, following a meeting with AIDESEP yesterday.
Separately, the Peruvian
government will allow a commission, from INDEPA, a government agency
established to promote the culturally-appropriate development of
indigenous Peruvians and Afro-Peruvians, 30 days to present a report on
whether isolated native communities live in areas covered by four other
concessions, 135, 136 and 137 in the province of Loreto, and 139 in
Ucayali.
Lily la Torre, a leading
Peruvian indigenous rights lawyer and Director of Peruvian NGO Racimos
de Ungurahui, said: "This is a positive development from the Peruvian
government. Nevertheless, this decision simply demonstrates respect for
human rights, legal norms and the constitution of our country, which
all Peruvians and investors should already expect the government to
uphold.”
In total, Perupetro is tendering 11 Amazonian
blocks, covering approximately 22 million acres of highly biodiverse,
intact primary tropical rainforest. In addition to the three blocks
which intrude upon the reserves for indigenous peoples in isolation,
three overlap protected areas and nine
intrude upon titled indigenous lands. Only one block does not intrude
on either indigenous lands or protected areas.
In none of the blocks has Perupetro obtained
Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), an internationally-recognized
human rights benchmark intended to protect the rights of indigenous
communities whose lives and lands stand to be affected by extractive
mega-projects such as oil drilling.
The new blocks would mean that approximately 70
percent of the Peruvian Amazon, one of the largest areas of tropical
rainforest anywhere in the world, will be carved into oil concessions.
As recently as 2005, before the U.S. Government’s Trade Development
Agency gave Perupetro U.S. tax dollars to develop and market its oil
concessions, it was under 20 percent.
Huge areas of Peru’s rainforest, such as the
Lower Urubamba region in the south and the Corrientes River in the
north, and the indigenous communities that live there have already
suffered severe impacts as a result of drilling for oil and gas.
Perupetro’s bidding round comes as investors
grow increasingly concerned about the high risks of hydrocarbon
activities in remote areas of the Amazon. Some oil majors are already
giving up because of the huge logistical challenges and the often
intense opposition of local communities increasingly aware of the
ecological and public health crises caused by oil drilling in other
parts of the Amazon.
For fact sheet and map
of controversial concessions in Peru, see www.amazonwatch.org/PE07.pdf
PRESS CONTACTS:
Amazon Watch: Maria Ramos: 202.257.8061;
Atossa Soltani: 202.256.9795
Amazon Alliance: Trevor Stevenson 202.785.3334 Save America’s Forests: Matt Finer
202.680.2860
Environmental Defense: Aaron Goldzimer 202.297.2507
In Peru: AIDESEP:
+511 471.7118 o Luis
Eduardo Cisneros Mendez + 511.9.371.4481
# # #
