In November 2002, fifteen children died from an outbreak of influenza in indigenous communities of Peruís remote Kugapakori Nahua Reserve. Similar epidemics in the region have followed construction of the Camisea Pipeline, a major liquid natural gas pipeline that crosses the territory of many indigenous peoples. These deaths are disturbing, especially because these communities had chosen to remain in voluntary isolation, intentionally limiting contact with outsiders.
Such communities are very vulnerable to diseases because they have not developed common immunities. Diseases have wiped out vast populations of indigenous people since the time of Christopher Columbus, and yet the Camisea Project Consortium has not made an effort to protect local people from the influx of outsiders to the area. The environmental and social impact assessments required for the Camisea project do not address health issues, despite the fact that the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) provides major financing to the project.
In 2003, Global Greengrants provided a grant to the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Amazon Rainforest (AIDESEP), a federation of Peruvian indigenous groups, to fund a preliminary study of the effects of the Camisea natural gas pipeline on the health of people in the Kugapakori Nahua Reserve and other communities in the lower Urubamba basin. Its goal was to learn about potential health effects and find ways to prevent the spread of illness.
Peruís decision to create the Kugapakori Nahua Reserve was motivated, in part, by the deaths of up to 60 percent of the Nahua people in the 1980s when loggers brought new diseases to the area. The Nahua, Nanti and Mastigenka have chosen voluntarily isolation to prevent further losses and maintain their cultural traditions. But from the beginning, the reserveís boundaries have offered only limited protection. Regional government authorities are notoriously corrupt, and there is little funding to support enforcement efforts. Loggers continue to make their way into the reserve, and the government temporarily declared half of the reserve a ìfreely available forestî from 2000 to 2002. In direct contradiction of the terms of the reserve, the government delineated several lots for natural gas exploration as part of the Camisea project.
AIDESEPís preliminary health study focused on the impact of the Camisea Gas Project on several Nanti villages that border Lot 88, three-quarters of which is in the reserve. There are already four active gas-extraction platforms in this area. Although Shell funded a baseline health study in 1996, there has been no further monitoring. AIDESEPís report recommends an immediate evaluation of local communities. This would allow for a late, but still acceptable, baseline study that would identify the villages affected, define indicators to track long-term effects, and develop protective strategies.
AIDESEP also recommends that research focus on emotional and social health. A medical anthropologist notes, ìFor the Matsigenkas, to be healthy and feel well are interrelated concepts that incorporate ideals of happiness, productiveness, kindness, as well as biomedical health.î For example, in the anthropologistís study, while the physical health of the Mastigenka appeared to have improved over the last 20 to 30 years, the Mastigenka themselves reported that their health and quality of life had actually deteriorated over this period, due to psychological stresses and social conflicts that have come with the gas project (Izquierdo, 2002).
Gas exploration and development activities have made it harder for the indigenous people of the reserve to gather food. Animals are driven away by the noise of construction, rivers are contaminated and fish populations are down, and increased water flow has caused canoe accidents.
According to AIDESEPís study, outbreaks of influenza, malaria and viral diarrhea significantly increased in several villages in 2002 and 2003. Acute respiratory infections have affected all inhabitants of several Nanti communities. In the Nanti village of Malanksiari, the infant mortality rate has reached 40 percent.
Without better guidelines, the consortium is likely to continue to put local people at risk. In one case, the consortium flew in a group of missionaries to a community of Nantis that are living in voluntary isolation. Illegal logging has also reached into previously isolated areas as a result of new roads that serve the Camisea Project.
The most vulnerable communities are those that have been the most isolated up to this point. AIDESEP reports that consortium officials often travel to isolated villages by helicopter, bringing pots, machetes, and knives as gifts, and tell people that if they stay in their villageócontradictory to the traditions of the Nantióthe company can help them. The officials often manipulate villagers with lies and take advantage of their lack of understanding of the modern world to gain concessions and agreements.
Gas reserves in the Nahua Reserve are thought to be ten times the size of other gas deposits in Peru, making expansion of this project inevitable. AIDESEPís push for a comprehensive follow-up health study is helping to bring public pressure to improve standards. In April 2004, a group of nongovernmental organizations, including AIDESEP, converged in Lima to persuade the InterAmerican Development Bank to stop its loan proceedings for Camisea. Thanks, in part, to information gleaned from AIDESEPís study, the IDB pledged that it would not close on the $75 million loan until further social and environmental conditions have been met.