Shipibo community secures major victory: Peruvian government suspends operations of palm oil company and issues multi-million dollar fine

The Shipibo community of Santa Clara de Uchunya, at the centre of an international campaign demanding the restitution of their ancestral lands in the Peruvian Amazon, has secured a major victory. Today, Peru’s environmental regulator ordered the palm oil company operating on their lands to halt operations and pay a multi-million dollar fine for environmental damages.

Peru’s environmental regulator, the Agency for Environmental Supervision and Accountability (OEFA), has ordered palm oil company Ocho Sur P to immediately suspend its industrial oil palm operations, pay a US$ 2.48 million fine to the regulator and undertake a series of time-bound remediatory measures.

The Shipibo community of Santa Clara de Uchunya has been struggling against the destruction and appropriation of their traditional lands for the purposes of conversion of forests to oil palm plantations since 2013.

OEFA’s investigative report determines a number of key infractions committed by Ocho Sur P in its intensive oil palm operations: operating without the required environmental permits; failing to undertake measures to avoid contamination due to the use of agrochemicals; the unauthorised disposal on-site of dangerous solid waste; a failure to implement facilities to safely manage hazardous waste.

For incurring these infractions, OEFA has ordered Ocho Sur P to pay a fine of 8,946,373 Peruvian soles or around US$ 2.48 million.

Efer Silvano Soria, community chief, said, “Our community has had to live for years with the impacts of the plantation operated by Ocho Sur P on our forests, waters and way of life. We welcome this positive decision from OEFA and we call upon them to stand firm and ensure compliance with these sanctions to send a clear message: there will be no impunity for companies which take over and destroy our lands, and sooner or later we will obtain justice and the restitution and remediation of our territory.”

Miguel Guimares, president of the Federation of Native Communities of Ucayali, which also participated in the process to sanction the company, said, “We welcome the fact that at last the Peruvian State is starting to recognise the scale of the environmental devastation caused by Ocho Sur P. The company’s attempts to evade responsibility appear increasingly discredited, and this multi-million dollar fine should serve as a wake-up call for Ocho Sur’s investors in the US who believe they can profit from the expansion of agribusiness in our Amazonian territories without environmental permits or our consent.”

The regulator has also ordered Ocho Sur P to undertake the following corrective measures: suspend all agroindustrial work, including maintenance, harvesting and processing of fresh palm fruit bunches; withdraw all equipment and machinery from the plantation; close down all installations and infrastructure located on the plantation; develop and carry out a project to decontaminate and reforest particular degraded lands within the plantation.

Failure to comply with these measures according to the detailed timeline established by OEFA will result in increases to the fine levied against Ocho Sur P.

While the community is celebrating the recognition of some of the environmental harms that have been committed by the company, the OEFA decision does not address the underlying issue of territorial self-determination. The people of Santa Clara de Uchunya continue to demand the permanent restitution of these lands to the community, and call on the State to formally recognise their right to manage and control this territory.

Leader Miguel Guimares said: “We also demand justice for the social and cultural harms the company has provoked, starting with the restitution of Santa Clara de Uchunya’s ancestral territory. Each day that the State delays in acting to resolve this situation, we continue to face intimidation, threats and attacks; the State must take immediate action to fulfill its obligation to protect us as we demand respect for our rights and territories”.

Earlier this week, an international campaign was launched by Land Rights Now in solidarity with Santa Clara de Uchunya, through which thousands of people are signing a petition to back the community’s calls upon Peru’s Constitutional Court to issue a decision upholding their land rights and order the return of their lands. 

Sign the petition: https://www.landrightsnow.org/get-involved/create-a-spark/save-the-peruvian-amazon/