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

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.    

The letter supports the repeated calls from indigenous organisations in Peru to suspend these plans warning that if the expansion plans proceed they would; threaten the physical and cultural survival of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, violate Supreme Decree 028-2003-AG (that establishes that economic activities within the KNN Reserve are prohibited) and undermine Peru’s international human rights norms and obligations. 

The letter was copied to Eduardo Vega Luna who heads the Peruvian human rights ombudsman (Defensoría del Pueblo) and to Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter American Development Bank which has financed the development of the Camisea gas project as well as projects to protect the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti Reserve.

Read the full letter here in English or Spanish.

For further background information on the expansion of the Camisea gas project in the Peruvian Amazon click here.