Posts Tagged ‘Peru’

Half of the Nahua died after their land was first opened up by Shell for oil exploration in the 1980s.

Raya, a Nahua elder. More than half his people were wiped out after their land was opened up for oil exploration, Peru. © Johan Wildhagen/Survival

September 14, 2011

Isolated Indians in southeast Peru are being ‘bribed’ with painkillers and pens, as industry giants seek to open up their land to explore for gas.

Survival has learned that even members of INDEPA – the government agency set up to protect Peru’s tribes – have put pressure on communities so research can be carried out in the reserve where they live.

Workers from Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol have been into the Kugapakori-Nahua Reserve to conduct environmental tests on the land’s suitability. The reserve was created in 1990 to protect the territorial rights of vulnerable tribes.

Enrique Dixpopidiba Shocoroa, a Nahua leader, said his tribe have been given medical equipment, stationery, and promises of temporary work.

This worrying development comes as Peru’s President Ollanta Humala approves an historic law designed to guarantee indigenous peoples the right to prior consultation about any projects affecting them and their land.

But around 15 tribes have chosen to resist contact in the Peruvian Amazon, and several are inside the reserve. All face extinction if their lands are opened up.

Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry said, ‘Oil and gas drilling in uncontacted tribes’ reserves make a mockery of Peru’s new law. It also risks jeopardizing the government’s promise to protect uncontacted tribes, who are especially vulnerable’.

Half of the Nahua died after their land was first opened up by Shell for oil exploration in the 1980s. Today, uncontacted tribes still living in the region are at extreme risk of succumbing to diseases brought in by outsiders.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Threat to endangered tribes in Peru from oil and gas exploitation

For more information please contact Chloe Corbin: T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367 E c.corbin@survivalinternational.org W http://www.survivalinternational.org/

In the US: Christina Chauvenet T (+1) 202 525 6972 E cc@survivalinternational.org

Raya, a Nahua elder. More than half his people were wiped out after their land was opened up for oil exploration.

Peru’s ‘final attempt’ to stamp out uncontacted tribes: 18 July 2011

Peru’s Indian Affairs Department has revealed plans to open up uncontacted tribes’ reserves to oil companies – just days before the country’s new government takes office.

New laws would allow the state to grant oil and gas companies open access to the reserves, despite the extreme risk this would pose to the Indians’ lives.

The proposal has generated a wave of criticism from indigenous organizations.

Around 15 tribes have chosen to resist contact in the Peruvian Amazon; all face extinction if their lands are opened up.

Critics have highlighted the timely coincidence of the proposal with plans to expand the massive Camisea gas fields in south-east Peru.

The controversial gas project covers a significant part of the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti reserve, where several uncontacted tribes are known to live.

According to Peru’s leading Amazon Indian organization, AIDESEP, any new exploration in the reserve would breach conditions set by the Inter-American Development Bank, which funded the development of Camisea.

Both Peruvian and international laws state that indigenous people should be consulted about projects affecting their lands. In the case of uncontacted tribes, this consultation is impossible.

Survival is calling for all oil and gas exploration on uncontacted tribes’ land to cease immediately.

Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘This is an unbelievably cynical move by the outgoing government. If it keeps up this kind of work, the Indian Affairs Department will have no Indians to look after. Opening up uncontacted tribes’ reserves will almost certainly lead to their extinction and if the new administration has any commitment to protecting tribal peoples, it will abandon the plan.’

SOURCE ARTICLE

BPZ Resources Inc. and a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC agreed to end talks aimed at jointly exploring for oil and gas in Peru after oil prices slumped.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BPZ Resources Inc. may spend $300 million to jointly explore for oil and gas off Peru’s north coast, BPZ’s Chief Executive Officer Manuel Zuniga said today.

BPZ Energy, a Houston-based oil company operating in Peru, has unveiled a new investment scheme in Peruvian oil & gas alongside Royal Dutch Shell totaling $750 million over four years. Shell was active in Peru until 1998, when it decided to pass on the development of the Camisea gas fields.

NEW YORK (Associated Press) – Shares of BPZ Resources Inc. soared Thursday after the oil and gas exploration and production company said it is in talks with a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC about jointly developing properties in Peru.

In view of the overnight news from Nigeria it seems an appropriate time to publish for the first time on the Internet the most dramatic masterpiece about Shell and its atrocious track record, especially in Nigeria, that we have ever seen. Authored by Andrew Rowell, it was published by The Guardian over 10 years ago on 15 November 1997 under the title: Unloveable Shell, the Goddess of Oil.