Resources

Indigenous organisations petition Peruvian government to protect the rights of isolated peoples before the Inter American Commission on Human Rights

22 Nov 2013
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.

Peru: Indigenous and human rights organisations demand that the State guarantee strict protection for indigenous peoples in isolation in the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti Reserve

23 Oct 2013
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.

Peruvian indigenous organisations insist that the World Bank establishes mechanisms to ensure that the Forest Investment Programme (FIP) in Peru respects their rights

07 Oct 2013
On the eve of the Peruvian government's final consultation with indigenous peoples on the draft investment plan of the FIP, indigenous organisations expressed their cautious welcome of the latest version of the plan, which includes key agreements on their customary land rights reached with indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, they expressed their grave concern that last minute adjustments were made to the plan without their agreement.

Peru commits to respecting indigenous peoples’ rights to land and resources in its forest and climate plan: but will it keep its promise?

01 Oct 2013
On 2 August 2013 indigenous organisations and representatives of the Peruvian government reached an agreement to modify controversial aspects of the government’s draft Forest Investment Plan (“FIP Plan”), an initiative financed by the World Bank’s Forest Investment Programme (FIP), to address deforestation. The plan was due to be presented to the World Bank’s FIP sub-committee in October 2013 but a draft version was roundly denounced by indigenous organisations in July as it continued to ignore indigenous proposals and violated Peru’s legal obligations to respect indigenous peoples’ rights to land and resources and the World Bank’s own safeguard policies. 

Peruvian government u-turn paves way for illegal expansion of Camisea gas project

04 Sep 2013
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.’

World Bank’s Forest Investment Programme in Peru denounced by indigenous organisations who demand suspension of consultation process

12 Jul 2013
Yurimaguas, 10th July 2013: On the eve of a government consultation of indigenous peoples in Yurimaguas on the latest draft of its Forest Investment Plan, an initiative financed by the World Bank's Forest Investment Programme, to address deforestation, indigenous peoples organisations in the San Martin and Loreto regions of the Peruvian Amazon have rejected both the planned consultation as well as warned that the latest draft still fails to respect their rights. They highlight the failure of the Peruvian government to conduct consultation in good faith due to inadequate prior notice or allocation of sufficient time for the event as well as the failure to include the Candoshi, Shawi and Shiwilo peoples in the same consultation process. More seriously still they highlight that the current proposal includes plans for the creation of the Shawi regional conservation area (ACR Shawi), a new protected area that overlaps with indigenous peoples’ customary lands. They say that this plan has not respected indigenous peoples rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and, as a result, risks serious land and resource conflict with indigenous peoples.

The Huffington Post: Peru Set to Ignore UN Plea to Suspend Amazon Gas Expansion

04 Jul 2013
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.

Mongabay: Over 30 tons of explosives to be detonated in Manu National Park buffer zone

26 Jun 2013
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).

Indigenous organisations in the Peruvian Amazon denounce intentions of parliamentary commission to promote highway cutting through protected areas and indigenous territories

30 Apr 2013
Indigenous organisations of the Purus province including ORAU, FECONAPU and ECOPURUS have denounced the intentions of some members of the Indigenous peoples' parliamentary commission to endorse a proposed law that would render the construction of a major highway cutting through the Purus region as a 'public necessity'. If endorsed by the commission, the law could then be considered for approval by the Peruvian parliament.

International organisations request intervention of Peruvian President to prohibit expansion of Camisea gas project within Reserve for isolated indigenous peoples

01 Mar 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.