Peruvians Oppose Oil Concessions in their Lands

Peruvians Oppose Oil Concessions in their Lands



Feb 2007 - Indigenous leaders 
from the Peruvian Amazon, along with Peruvian and U.S. 
environmental and human rights groups, called on the Peruvian 
government last week to suspend its tendering of new oil 
concessions. All groups warn the oil development threatens to 
devastate Peru's pristine tropical rainforest and the native 
communities that live there. 
Perupetro, Peru's state owned oil company, launched its 2007 
bidding round on Friday at Houston's Petroleum Club, timed to 
coincide with the NAPE Expo, the oil prospecting industry's 
semi-annual trade show. Perupetro is hoping to attract U.S. 
energy companies to the drilling concessions. 
At the launch event, three indigenous leaders briefly took 
control of the stage to warn the potential investors who 
packed the room that indigenous communities will oppose and 
resist new explorations on their territory. 
From the stage, Robert Guimaraes, vice president of AIDESEP, 
an umbrella group representing Peru's indigenous Amazonian 
communities; Washington Bolivar, president of a local 
indigenous organization from the central Peruvian Amazon that 
would be impacted by one of the new blocks; and Mariella 
Stevenson, an indigenous woman from the Camisea region now 
living and studying in the United States, said that oil 
development would harm their peoples and their lands. 
Stevenson spoke for the group, in English. 
Washington Bolivar speaks while Robert Guimaraes holds a photo 
of the Peruvian Amazon outside the Petroleum Club in Houston 
immediately after the Perupetro launch event. . 
In total, Perupetro plans to tender 11 Amazonian blocks, 
covering approximately 22 million acres of highly biodiverse, 
intact primary tropical rainforest - an area larger than the 
state of Maine. 
During the intervention by the indigenous leaders, maps were 
distributed to the investors showing that that 10 of the 11 
blocks have significant conflict problems. 
Nine of the blocks overlap titled indigenous lands and were 
the focus of the verbal warning the indigenous leaders 
delivered to the potential investors. 
Four of the blocks overlap official reserves set up to protect 
some of the world's last native peoples still living in 
voluntary isolation. Three more blocks overlap proposed 
reserves for isolated peoples. 
At a press conference Friday in Lima, AIDESEP President 
Alberto Pizango denounced the Peruvian government's attempt to 
lease seven oil concessions on uncontacted peoples' territory. 

“We demand the immediate exclusion of those seven blocks,” 
said Pizango. “This is an attack on the life and health of 
these isolated peoples.” 
In December, AIDESEP issued a resolution demanding that no 
more oil concessions on indigenous territories be granted to 
oil companies and that reserves for isolated peoples be 
designated as untouchable zones. 
Three of the blocks overlap the newly created Sierra del 
Divisor Reserved Zone. Sierra del Divisor is unique because it 
contains the only mountain range in the Peruvian Amazon, and 
thus is home to rich biodiversity. 
These three blocks are illegal, according to Alberto 
Barandiaran, president of the Peruvian environmental and human 
rights organization DAR. 
“According to the law, Perupetro cannot create oil concessions 
on Reserved Zones because they may yet be classified as an 
area off-limits to oil exploration, such as a national park,” 
explained Barandiaran. 
A Reserved Zone is a temporary designation for an area 
determined to be worthy of protected area status, until the 
government places it one of the permanent categories. 
In front of the Houston Petroleum Club, from left, Robert 
Guimaraes, Washington Bolivar, Maria Ramos of Amazon Watch, an 
advocacy group based in the United States. 
The launching of the 2007 bid round highlights the Peruvian 
government's unrelenting effort to promote oil and gas 
exploration. 
“The new blocks mean that approximately 70 percent of the 
megadiverse Peruvian Amazon is now carved into oil 
concessions, said Dr. Matt Finer, an ecologist from Save 
America's Forests in Washington. “That's a massive chunk of 
primary rainforest; around 120 million acres, much greater 
than the size of California.” 
As recently as December 2004, less than 15 percent of the 
Peruvian Amazon was open to oil companies. In 2005 and 2006, 
the government signed contracts for the exploration of 26 new 
blocks, shattering previous leasing records. 
Finer warned that the oil blocks are being created and leased 
without any regional or long-term analysis of the social and 
environmental impacts. 
“In some regions, like the northern Peruvian Amazon, there are 
now more than 25 oil concessions operating simultaneously," he 
said. "No one is looking at overall impacts, we just get weak 
project-level studies.” 
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. 
Last week's call for a suspension of the bidding round was led 
by AIDESEP and several Peruvian NGOs, with the backing of U.S. 
environmental and human rights organizations, including the 
Amazon Alliance, Amazon Watch, Environmental Defense, Oxfam 
America, and Save America's Forests. 
These organizations met with Daniel Saba, the head of 
Perupetro, at his hotel the evening before Friday's launch 
event to make clear their concerns. 
Dr. Daniel Saba, chairman of the board of Perupetro, delivers 
his closing remarks at NAPE Expo in Houston. 
Saba said he was not interested in discussing their concerns 
until he returned to Lima and denied their request to speak at 
the microphone for several minutes the following day. 
Indigenous peoples of Peru run into a similar lack of interest 
in their concerns. AIDESEP Vice-President Guimaraes said, 
"Currently in Peru, there is a lack of political will to 
listen to the concerns of indigenous peoples." 
In Houston, Guimaraes was amazed that during the three hours 
of presentations during Friday's launching event, absolutely 
nothing was said of the overlap of certain oil development 
blocks and isolated peoples' reserves. “Perupetro is not 
telling the investors the true story about what they are 
really getting into," Guimaraes said. 
It was also revealed on Friday that U.S. taxpayers' money 
funded the studies behind the creation of the most 
controversial blocks. 
In May 2005, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency approved a 
$700,000 technical assistance grant to Perupetro to support 
the identification of eight new exploration blocks. 
Given the intense media attention in Peru to these events, the 
government was forced to take quick action. 
On Monday, Peruvian Energy Minister Juan Valdivia Romero met 
with AIDESEP President Pizango and agreed to modify the 
boundaries of three of the blocks so they do not overlap the 
Territorial Reserves established to protect the peoples living 
in voluntary isolation. 
The minister also agreed to form a commission to investigate 
whether three other blocks, which overlap potential 
Territorial Reserves which have been proposed for government 
consideration by AIDESEP, really do overlap isolated peoples' 
territory. The Commission has 30 days to deliver its findings. 

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