Resources

On 27 January 2014, Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines formally approved the Camisea gas project's expansion plans within the Kugapakori, Nahua and Nanti Reserve after the Ministry of Culture finally gave its endorsement of the project.

Groundbreaking research reveals severe impacts of the Camisea gas project on isolated indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon

This report highlights the existing impacts of the Camisea gas project in the south-east Peruvian Amazon on indigenous peoples living in ‘voluntary isolation’ (‘isolated peoples’) in the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti and Others’ Reserve.

Peru’s Ministry of Culture (MINCU) has issued a report that blocks, at least temporarily, the expansion of the country’s biggest gas project in the Amazon rainforest in a Reserve set aside for the protection of isolated indigenous peoples. 

On 1 November 2013 indigenous and civil society organisations from Peru including FENAMAD, AIDESEP, Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR), and the National Human Rights Coordinator presented evidence in a hearing before the Inter-American Commission.The petitioners documented the failure of the Peruvian government to provide effective protection for isolated indigenous peoples in Peru.

In statements published in a Peruvian national newspaper and online, both AIDESEP (the national indigenous Amazonian organisation) and over 50 Peruvian and international civil society organisations, including Forest Peoples Programme, have reiterated their demand that the State establish strict measures for the protection of isolated peoples in Peru.

Photos in an internal report by a Peruvian government agency reveal illegal clearings in a reserve in the Amazon purportedly protecting indigenous peoples living in ‘voluntary isolation’ and ‘initial contact.’

Source: The Huffington PostA 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.

In an embarrassing u-turn the Peruvian Vice Ministry of Culture has withdrawn its formal observations on the proposed expansion of the Camisea gas project within a Reserve for isolated peoples which included the conclusions that the health, traditional economic activities and ways of life of the indigenous peoples in ‘initial contact’ and ‘voluntary isolation’ (‘isolated peoples’) in the region will be severely impacted and two of them, the Nanti and the Kirineri, could be made ‘extinct.’

Source: The TimesThree ministers in Peru have resigned in protest at plans to drill for oil in a reserve for indigenous tribes, who risk being exposed to diseases that could kill them (James Hider writes). 

Source: Huffington PostMembers of the Nahua people living within a reserve for indigenous peoples in 'initial contact' and 'voluntary isolation' in the Peruvian Amazon say they will refuse to allow a gas consortium led by Pluspetrol to operate in their territory.

Peru’s Vice-Ministry of Inter-Culturality (VMI) has issued a critical report temporarily blocking the expansion of Peru’s biggest gas project and claiming that two ‘isolated’ indigenous peoples living in the region could be made extinct if it goes ahead.

Source: The Huffington PostOn 1 March this year the United Nations' Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) wrote to the Peruvian government urging it to "immediately suspend" the expansion of the country's biggest hydrocarbons development.The Camisea gas project, as it is known, is superimposed over a supposedly "intangible" reserve established to protect the land, rights and lives of indigenous peoples living in "voluntary isolation" and "initial contact" who could be decimated by any kind of contact.

Source: The Huffington PostBack in late February, following the revelation that oil and gas company Pluspetrol wanted to conduct "geological exploration" in Manu National Park in the Peruvian Amazon, a company spokesperson did a high-profile interview with Lima-based newspaper El Comercio.

Source: MongabayA 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.The detonations are part of 2D and 3D seismic tests planned by Pluspetrol in its search for new gas deposits in the Camisea region—plans that are currently pending approval by Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM).

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) played a catalytic role in the development of the Camisea gas project in the Peruvian Amazon in 2002/2003 despite having no specific policy for projects impacting indigenous peoples.

O Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento (BID) teve um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento do projeto de gás de Camisea na Amazônia Peruana em 2002/2003, apesar de não ter então nenhuma política específica para projetos que impactam os povos indígenas. Quando o Banco adotou uma política em 2006, ignorou-se uma cláusula fundamental sobre os povos em isolamento, durante o empréstimo de 400 milhões de dólares americanos no ano seguinte. Entretanto, as tentativas do Banco de “proteger” uma reserva para povos indígenas em “isolamento voluntário”, diretamente afetados pelo projeto Camisea, foram quase plenamente ineficazes, e atualmente estão sendo ainda mais minadas pelos planos de expansão das operações dentro da Reserva Pede-se ao BID que aprove estes planos e o mesmo poderia fazê-lo a qualquer momento.

Click here to read UNCERD's formal communication to the Permanent Mission of Peru (in Spanish only), which calls on the Peruvian government to suspend plans to expand the Camisea gas project in the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti Reserve for peoples in isolation and initial contact. 1 March 2013.

On 22 February 2013, 58 international human rights and environmental organisations (including Friends of the Earth-France, the Sierra Club and Rainforest Foundation Norway) submitted a letter to President Ollanta Humala appealing for the prohibition of expansion plans of the Camisea gas project within the ‘Territorial Reserve for ethnic groups in voluntary isolation and initial contact, Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti and others’ (KNN Reserve). These plans include proposals to carry out intensive seismic testing and build twenty-one wells, a flowline and associated infrastructure within ‘Lot 88’, and possibly establish a new concession, ‘Lot Fitzcarrald’, in the adjacent area.    

Indigenous peoples' organisations in Peru have appealed to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CERD), a UN human rights body, to prevent the expansion of the Camisea gas project within the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti Reserve because it could lead to the extermination of peoples living in isolation.