Summary
From the rainforests of the Amazon, they brought their struggle right to the source. Two indigenous activists from Peru denounced concessions up for sale in front of a crowd of oil giants at the National Petroleum Engineer Expo in Houston, Texas. Their travel to this consortium of powerful oil players was made possible by a small grant from Global Greengrants Fund. The leaders voiced opposition to concessions drawn by the Peruvian government that intrude on official indigenous reserves and protected areas. As drawn, oil development on these blocks of land would have serious health and environmental repercussions for the people that have lived in the area for centuries. Three days after the Houston meeting, the Peruvian government made a surprise decision to redraw some of the concession boundaries according to the activists’ demands. This decision is a precedent-setting landmark in the on-going struggle for transparency and accountability in Peru’s Amazon region.
Greengrants is proud of the hard work that our grantees have put into this campaign. We have supported their efforts to bring together indigenous communities to safeguard land and livelihoods throughout the Peruvian Amazon region for years. In a rare moment of fruition, we are witness to the power of community mobilizing. Oil and gas companies in the region can no longer take for granted their unlimited access to power and resources – and we know that grassroots groups have played a key role in making this so. We congratulate our partners in their victory and invite you to join us in ensuring their continued success.
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Thanks to the sustained pressure of activists in Peru, including Greengrants grantees Grupo de Trabajo Racimos de Ungurahui, FECONACO, and AIDESEP, the Peruvian government made a surprise decision in early February to re-delineate land concessions in the Amazon that will be auctioned off to oil companies. The concessions intrude on official indigenous reserves and protected areas and threaten the health and well-being of some of the region’s most isolated populations and biodiverse environments.
Enabled by a $3,000 grant from Global Greengrants Fund, representatives from grassroots organizations and indigenous leaders convened in Texas to voice their opposition to the concessions to an audience of would-be oil company bidders, including Exxon Mobil. Immediately following this meeting, the Peruvian government announced that it would revise three of the concessions to exclude official reserves intended to protect some of the last native Amazonian populations still living in isolation and review four other concessions.
Oil and gas development has a long history of destruction and disregard for human rights around the world, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Amazon. The Camisea pipeline that runs through southern Peru has led to health threats for local indigenous populations that remain in voluntary isolation and damaged fragile ecosystems. The U.S. also has a finger in the mix—the U.S. Government Trade Development Agency gave a grant to the Peruvian Government in 2005 to map and market new oil and gas exploration concessions throughout the country. Within two years, the total area leased or to be leased to oil companies grew from 15 percent in early 2005 to nearly 70 percent of the entire Peruvian Amazon in early 2007!
Greengrants has supported grassroots action to fight for transparency and accountability in this region since 2002. One of our grants supported a study on the impacts of oil and gas development on cultural traditions and health. Another enabled indigenous groups to meet together to coordinate mobilization against oil and gas development. Yet another provided funds for an indigenous tribe to use a video camera to document the negative effects of oil and gas development on their people and lands, to later distribute in a campaign in the U.S. to bring awareness to their plight. Over the last five years, Greengrants has provided 45 grants totaling over $180,000 to support grassroots efforts to protect the culture, health, livelihood, and environment of Peru’s indigenous people, who are struggling to maintain control over their lands.
While this might not seem like a large amount of money in the face of the billions of oil companies, community mobilization has made a very real difference in the lives of local people. Amazon Watch, one of the key organizations helping to link indigenous communities’ struggles in Peru and a partner of our Global Advisor Rainforest Action Network, notes that some oil companies have already given up because of the often intense opposition of local communities that are increasingly aware of the ecological and public health crises caused by oil drilling in other parts of the Amazon. In a landmark decision in December of 2006, Occidental Petroleum announced that it was withdrawing from its remaining Amazonian concessions in Peru for a range of reasons including the determined and organized opposition of local communities. Conoco Phillips, meanwhile, has placed its three Amazonian concessions, two in Ecuador and one in Peru, “under review” for similar reasons.
Indeed, a small grant from Greengrants enabled indigenous leaders to convene in Texas to voice their opposition directly to oil companies – leading to a victory that many had hoped for but that none had counted on. In Amazon Watch’s press release, Lily la Torre, a leading Peruvian indigenous rights lawyer and director of Grupo de Trabajo Racimos de Ungurahui, said: “This is a positive development from the Peruvian government. Nevertheless, this decision simply demonstrates respect for human rights, legal norms and the constitution of our country, which all Peruvians and investors should already expect the government to uphold”.
Small grants can make a world of difference for the inspiring and committed work of grassroots activists. One has only to catch a glimpse of the determination in the eyes of our grantees to know that they have the capacity to take on even the most intimidating of challenges and work against all odds to achieve a brighter future for us all. We congratulate our partners in their victory and invite you to join us in ensuring their continued success.
Click here to read a Chicago Tribune article on the issue.
Click here to access profiles on our grantees’ work in the region.