by Alicia Davis, Greengrants Intern
The Machiguenga people of Peru share the Urubamba River basin with the Nahua, Yine, Kugapakori, and other indigenous peoples. They also now share their lands with a consortium of companies that have arrived to extract natural gas and build the Camisea Pipeline, which will carry natural gas across some of the most remote, sensitive, and biologically rich lands in Peru.
The Machiguenga only recently gained legal title to their communal lands, and yet they now face land protection issues that would challenge the most sophisticated experts. A shifting array of consortium members, including Shell, Hunt, Citigroup, and, now, PlusPetrol, an Argentine company with a bleak environmental record, have made inadequate attempts to consult, inform, or negotiate with the Machiguenga. At one point, the consortium demanded a Machiguenga response to an environmental impact assessment in 15 days.
An initial grant to COMARU, the Machiguenga Council of the Urubamba, allowed the Machiguenga to hire an expert to review the consortium’s environmental impact assessments. One assessment covers the gas exploration project and the second covers the planned pipeline. This expert checked the accuracy of the assessments and helped the Machiguenga better understand how the project will affect their lives. This and future analysis provides authoritative third party support for greater protection of Machiguenga interests and also points the way toward solutions, such as a rerouted pipeline, that might bring acceptable compromise.
Support of the Machiguenga has great secondary benefits as well. The Camisea gas project will affect a region of world-class biodiversity. It also will affect several smaller indigenous groups that live in voluntary isolation in the upper reaches of the Camisea and other rivers of the Urubamba Basin. These people purposely limit their contact with the outside world, and Machiguenga communities have long provided them an important buffer. As roads and facilities are built on Machiguenga lands, workers and colonists will gain even greater reach into more remote areas. A joint study by Conservation International, Global Environment Facility, and the World Bank concluded that the region’s biological and cultural richness may be unparalleled. There is no question that the Camisea project puts this richness in jeopardy.
The goal of COMARU is to protect the interests of the Machiguenga communities of the Urubamba. Machiguenga leaders recognize that a Camisea project in some form is probably inevitable, but they hope that their voices can be heard as decisions are made. The review and analysis commissioned by COMARU has found that the project will have an irreversible effect on biodiversity and on indigenous groups no matter how the project is conducted. The study also found that the project does not now meet World Bank environmental guidelines and policies on indigenous people. The consortium also has not sufficiently analyzed the project’s effect on local indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation or made plans to mitigate that impact.
This report is an important step in the Machiguenga’s efforts to gain a voice in their future and the health of their lands, and it has confirmed the suspicions of the Machiguenga and their supporters. The report finds that indigenous groups have not been given sufficient information or time to respond to the environmental impact assessments. Further, negotiation practices have served to divide, confuse and weaken the Machiguenga community
At stake here, at minimum, is the potential loss of local food resources, contamination of drinking water, introduction of disease, loss of security and freedom, and the destruction of archeological and cultural sites. When Shell Oil conducted preliminary exploration in the region in the 1980’s, an estimated 50 percent of the Nahua people died of diseases contracted from workers.
Members of the gas consortium have a history of carelessness and abuse. A Pluspetrol oil spill on the Marañón River befouled the Pacaya Samiria Reserve in northern Peru and affected an estimated 20,000 people. Water and food supplies were contaminated, and promised medical and food supplies were not delivered. Anyone receiving handouts had to sign a document of gratitude. An earlier Pluspetrol pipeline rupture contaminated the Chambira River, killing and sickening many Urarina indigenous people.
This consortium, especially since Shell dropped out, is unlikely to commit resources to protect indigenous people without substantial legal or political pressure. Increased international attention can help the Machiguenga defend their interests, and this report helps the Machiguenga and its national and international allies understand the risks of the project. Further work is needed to find ways to minimize the risks, encourage better government oversight of the project, plan for long term protection of communities throughout the Urubamba Basin and monitor the ongoing situation.
Although it may not be enough to stop the project, questions about the impact assessment were cited by the US representative to the InterAmerican Development Bank in his decision to abstain from a recent vote (September 10, 2003) on the project. Unfortunately, the abstention failed to halt the financing and was widely criticized. House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi, stated, “U.S. opposition at the InterAmerican Development Bank today would have sent a clear message that significant changes to the Camisea project are needed to protect the environment and indigenous peoples in Peru.”
For more on the IDB decision and the pipeline project, click here.
Amazon Watch has a web slide show and other information.