Oil companies have embarked on construction of a new gas pipeline in the Peruvian Amazon. The Camisea Gas Pipeline project is underway in a region of such remarkable biological and cultural diversity that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called it “the last place on earth” where anyone should drill for fossil fuels. The presence of the pipeline threatens the survival of indigenous peoples who live in voluntary isolation in one of the world's most biologically rich rainforests.
The Camisea natural gas project is the first major gas development in Peru. The Camisea Gas consortium, including Hunt Oil of Texas, plans to drill four gas wells, flow lines, a processing plant and two pipelines. Three out of four gas platforms will be built inside the Nahua-Kugapakori Reserve. Peru established this Reserve to protect nomadic bands of Yora, Nanti and Kirineri people from unwanted contact.
Pluspetrol and Veritas representatives stated that both companies practice forced contact with groups living in voluntary isolation within the Nahua-Kugapakori Reserve. Searching for and coming into forced contact with groups in voluntary isolation is in direct violation of international human and indigenous rights law. Traumatized residents explain how they were threatened with being arrested as terrorists and being decimated by diseases if they refused to move from their homes in Shiateni, a settlement between the headwaters of the Paquiria and Camisea rivers in the Kugapakori Nahua State Reserve. This disturbing news comes on top of mounting evidence that contacts between Pluspetrol and groups living in extreme isolation are far from rare.
The pipelines will pass within 300 meters of a community school and even closer to some homes, risking people's safety in the event of pipeline ruptures and explosions. Pipeline construction is also bringing a wave of workers and loggers to the area, challenging the indigenous peoples' rights to land and game. During the projected 33-year life of the project, environmental degradation and social and cultural breakdown are regarded by many observers as inevitable.
Outside the reserve dozens more indigenous communities are already experiencing conflicts and contamination generated by the pipeline project. These communities are seeking international support to prevent irreversible harm to the estimated 7,500 indigenous peoples of the Camisea region. Yine and Machiguenga communities are also affected by the project, and some have organized protests against the consortium.
A recent study by Amazon Watch and the Institute for Policy Studies found that no prior information about consultation reached communities; that there was no culturally appropriate mechanisms for indigenous participation in the project; no mechanisms for evaluation or feedback about the consultation; no maintenance of communication with local communities after consultation; and no clear indication of how the project would integrate community concerns into the World Bank's decision-making process.
A study commissioned by Peruvian indigenous organizations found that the project is already violating World Bank/IFC environmental policies. The research team concluded that Camisea “will have negative irreversible impacts on the biodiversity of this area and on indigenous groups living in isolation, regardless of the implementation of the strictest mitigation measures.”
