Skip to content
Menu
REDD-Monitor
  • Start here
  • About REDD-Monitor
  • REDD: An introduction
  • Contact
REDD-Monitor

Peru approves the expansion of the Camisea gas project into indigenous peoples’ reserve

Posted on 30 January 20143 December 2014

Peru has given the go-ahead to the expansion of the Camisea gas project onto the land of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. The impacts on the people and their forest will be devastating.

Peru’s Ministry of Culture has approved plans by Pluspetrol (Argentina), Hunt Oil (USA) and Repsol (Spain) to drill more than 20 new wells and carry out seismic tests in a concession called “Lot 88”. But about three-quarters of the concession is inside a reserve established to protect the livelihoods and lands of the indigenous peoples living there.

Hundreds of workers will move into the Kugapakori, Nahua, Nanti and Others’ Reserve, leaving indigenous peoples extremely vulnerable to diseases or epidemics to which they have no immunity.

When Shell carried out explorations in the area in the 1980s, the company cleared paths into the forest. Subsequently loggers used the paths to enter the region. The result was the death of nearly half of the Nahua tribe.

James Anaya, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, visited the region in December 2013. In his preliminary observations and recommendations, Anaya wrote,

Clearly these groups are extremely vulnerable, so the government and the company must act with extreme caution and not proceed with the proposed expansion without first ensuring conclusively that their human rights would not be violated.

He also noted Peru’s international obligations under UN Convention 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples, and wrote that,

The government should to carry out a process of consultation with indigenous peoples in the area of Lot 88 before taking a decision on the proposed expansion of the mining project.

In approving the Camisea extension, Peru ignored the UN’s recommendations.

Earlier this month, Forest Peoples Programme produced a detailed report revealing the severe impacts of the Camisea gas project on isolated indigenous peoples.

The Kugapakori-Nahua Reserve was created in 1990, covering an area of 443,887 hectares. It was set up to protect the rights of the Kugapakori and Nahua indigenous peoples.

In 2003, Peru’s President issued a Supreme Decree and an updated map which upgraded the legal status of the reserve. It also changed its name to the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti and Others’ Reserve. The aim of the reserve was to protect its “territorial, ecological and economic integrity” for the benefit of the “Kugapakori, Nahua, Nanti and other indigenous peoples” living in “voluntary isolation” and “initial contact”.

The Decree prohibits “development of economic activities” other than those of the people living there, and prohibits granting of “new rights” to exploit natural resources.

The are more than 40 REDD projects in Peru and the government is involved in the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and the UN-REDD programme. But as in other countries, REDD is taking place in parallel with business as usual. In terms of stopping deforestation (or even reducing it), REDD is irrelevant as long as it fails to address the drivers of deforestation.

A recent report by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) found that Peru’s rate of deforestation is likely to increase rather than decrease. Mary Menton, one of the authors of the report said,

“Peru is experiencing economic growth. Much of this growth is happening — and is likely to keep on happening — at the expense of the Peruvian Amazon.
 
“All this investment is going on without full consideration of the social and environmental impacts. And there isn’t enough in the way of policies or institutions that serve to protect the forest.”

Commenting specifically about the Camisea expansion project, Conrad Feather of Forest Peoples Programme told to The Guardian,

“The problem with such plans is that they avoid the fundamental question that these peoples, and not the Peruvian government or an oil and gas company, should be determining their own future.
 
“We are being asked to believe that a series of guidelines on paper, however well thought out, are sufficient to address the inherently unpredictable and potentially lethal nature of first contact, a Pandora’s box that once opened, no one, not even a multinational oil and gas company, can control.”

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SUBSCRIBE!

Recent themes
30x30
Natural Climate Solutions
WWF's conservation scandals
Aviation and offsetting
Conservation Watch

Recent Comments

  • Ben on Response from Kurt Kaiser, Director of Compass Carbon: “Your article was of great concern to us”. And some questions for Kaiser from REDD-Monitor
  • James Mewa Kamaya on Papua New Guinea’s Forest Authority cancels Mayur Resources’ Kamula Doso REDD project
  • Benedikt von Butler on Switzerland’s offsetting deal with Peru excludes REDD. It will still not reduce emissions
  • Chris Ibe on Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow
  • Xindia on Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow

Recent Posts

  • REDD-Monitor is moving to Substack
  • REDD Project in Brazil Nut concessions in Madre de Dios, Peru finally started paying communities a decade after the project started. “I’m still lacking money,” says one community member
  • REDD-Monitor’s top ten posts in 2022
  • The harsh reality of 30×30: The EU is keen to allow extractivism in the 30×30 target – but not Indigenous Peoples’ territories
  • Human rights abuses against Indigenous Peoples and the proposed “30×30” target

Recent Comments

  • Ben on Response from Kurt Kaiser, Director of Compass Carbon: “Your article was of great concern to us”. And some questions for Kaiser from REDD-Monitor
  • James Mewa Kamaya on Papua New Guinea’s Forest Authority cancels Mayur Resources’ Kamula Doso REDD project
  • Benedikt von Butler on Switzerland’s offsetting deal with Peru excludes REDD. It will still not reduce emissions
  • Chris Ibe on Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow
  • Xindia on Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow

Issues and Organisations

30x30 AB 32 Andes Amazon Boiler rooms California Can REDD save ... ? Carbon accounting Carbon Credits Carbon Offsets CDM Conservation-Watch Conservation International COP21 Paris Cryptocurrency Deforestation EcoPlanet Bamboo Evictions FCPF Financing REDD Fossil fuels FSC Green Climate Fund Greenpeace Guest post Human rights ICAO Illegal logging Indigenous Peoples Natural Climate Solutions NGO statements Plantations R-M interview REDD and rights REDD in the news Risk RSPO-Watch Safeguards Sengwer The Nature Conservancy UN-REDD UNFCCC Verra World Bank WRM WWF

Countries

Australia Bolivia Brazil Cambodia Cameroon Canada China Colombia Congo Basin region Costa Rica DR Congo Ecuador El Salvador European Union France Gabon Germany Guyana Honduras India Indonesia Kenya Luxembourg Madagascar Malaysia Mexico Netherlands Nicaragua Norway Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Republic of Congo Sierra Leone Spain Sweden Tanzania Thailand Uganda UK Uncategorized United Arab Emirates USA West Papua
©2025 REDD-Monitor | Powered by SuperbThemes!