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A Murunahua man from south-east Peru. Some of the Murunahua remain uncontacted.
foto:David Hill/Survival
foto:David Hill/Survival
The head of Peru’s indigenous affairs department, INDEPA, has promised to investigate the possible existence of uncontacted tribes in a region where an Anglo-French oil company wants to build a pipeline, according to a press report.
The promise, allegedly made by INDEPA’s director Mayta Cápac Alatrista, was reported in an article by the Inter Press Service (IPS).
Cápac said he ‘would propose the formation of a team of experts to investigate the case on the ground,’ said the IPS article. A government commission on uncontacted tribes ‘could at the same time set up a group of experts to verify the presence of uncontacted native groups in the area in question, said Cápac.’
Cápac’s comments were reported not long after Peru’s Energy Ministry admitted that the existence of uncontacted Indians in this region was ‘possible’ and requested the company, Perenco, to write an ‘anthropological contingency plan’ in case of contact. Perenco denies the tribes exist.
Perenco’s plans for the pipeline were made public on the Energy Ministry’s website very recently. The aim of the pipeline is to help transport an estimated 300 million barrels of oil from the Amazon to a terminal on Peru’s Pacific coast – oil deposits that high-ranking officials in Peru’s government say will transform the country’s economy.
via Survival
PERU: Oil Pipeline and Uncontacted Tribes
LIMA, Apr 5, 2010 (IPS) - A 200-km oil pipeline that Franco-British oil group Perenco aims to build in the heart of Peru's Amazon jungle region is at the centre of a controversy because of the reported existence of uncontacted native groups in the area.
In early 2008, Perenco acquired the exploration and production rights to Lot 67, which has total reserves of over 300 million barrels.
The firm plans to build a 200-km pipeline, which would connect to an existing one, in order to pipe the oil to Peru's Pacific coast.
A Perenco spokesman told IPS that the company plans to invest 1.5 billion dollars in the project and that oil would begin to be pumped in January 2011.
The oilfield is in Loreto, Peru's northernmost, and largest, region. A remote, sparsely populated Amazon jungle region, Loreto comprises nearly one-third of the country's territory.
According to the Peruvian Rainforest Inter-Ethnic Development Association (AIDESEP), the pipeline would run through the ancestral territory of the nomadic Huaorani, Pananujuri and Aushiri tribes, which live in voluntary isolation in an area known as Napo Tigre.
The DGAAE, the energy project environmental unit of Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines, noted in March that Perenco had not included an "anthropological contingency plan" in its environmental impact study for the pipeline, as required for approval of the study.
The contingency plan is needed in case the company's workers run into uncontacted Indians.
Because of the characteristics of the remote jungle area where the pipeline will be built, and due to the fact that the environmental impact assessments for Lot 39 (worked by Spanish-Argentine energy company Repsol-YPF) and Lot 67 (Perenco's) have already recognised the "possible existence" of groups living in voluntary isolation, the plan must be presented "based on the precautionary principle and in order to avoid conflicts," the DGAAE said in a statement.
In a 2006 study, the ombudsman's office warned that the entry of outsiders to remote jungle regions could have disastrous consequences, due to the reduction of natural resources given the increase in population as well as the introduction of infectious diseases.
The report pointed out that native peoples who previously had little to no contact with the outside world are extremely vulnerable to diseases like syphilis, influenza, diarrhea and respiratory ailments.
Even the common flu poses a serious threat to the lives of these uncontacted peoples, because of their lack of antibodies, the ombudsman's report said.
Mayta Cápac, head of the National Institute for the Development of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples (INDEPA), a government agency, told IPS that a multisectoral committee in charge of approving the creation of reservations for uncontacted tribes would be meeting in the next two or three weeks.
She said she would propose the formation of a team of experts to investigate the case on the ground.
INDEPA, set up to oversee public policies in defence of indigenous rights, heads the multisectoral commission which is also made up of other government agencies like the Justice Ministry and ombudsman's office, with the participation of civil society organisations as well.
The commission must reach a decision on five requests for the creation of reservations for uncontacted tribes, including Napo Tigre.
The request for the formation of the Napo Tigre reservation was presented by AIDESEP in 2005, but received "observations" in June 2009 on the grounds that it was not in line with "administrative norms or rigorous scientific methodology."
AIDESEP must respond to the observations in order to move ahead with the process, but the commission could at the same time set up a group of experts to verify the presence of uncontacted native groups in the area in question, said Cápac.
"The observations merely pointed to formalities, despite the fact that we have provided anthropological studies carried out in 2003 and 2004 and ratified in 2009 based on international standards," AIDESEP told IPS in a written communication.
The indigenous association said that given the possibility that there are isolated tribes in Lot 67, any activity to protect the vulnerable groups must be suspended, as has been done in Brazil.
In 2007, AIDESEP unsuccessfully sought a judicial stay in the case of Napo Tigre, and later filed legal action in the Constitutional Court to attempt to halt extractive industry activities in the area, which is still pending.
For its part, Perenco told IPS that it had carried out a study with 24 experts from different institutions, including INDEPA, which concluded that there was no presence of indigenous people in the area.
The company also stated that within Lot 67 there are no native settlements or villages, and the nearest population is located more than 30 km outside of the Lot.
AIDESEP, however, argued that the company contradicted itself because in its environmental impact study it admitted to the possible presence of isolated indigenous groups, as the DGAAE noted.
Asunta Santillán, an expert in indigenous affairs at Law, Environment and Natural Resources (DAR), a local NGO, said that neither Peru's laws nor institutions guarantee the protection of isolated tribes, despite the boom in oil, natural gas and mining projects.
Santillán told IPS that article five of the "law for the protection of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation or a state of initial contact" advocates the declaration of their territories as untouchable.
But "it cites as an exception those projects that are declared 'of public necessity', which opens a window for extractive industry activities," she said.
"To this imperfect law is added the weakening of INDEPA, which has been passed from one ministry to another without respect for its status as a vice ministry and which does not have sufficient resources to carry out its work," she added
via IPS ipsnews
Non-contacted tribe claim
Evidence can only be established when there is a coherent array of verified facts established through a scientific multi-disciplinary methodology.Background information
Since at least 1995 when the Block 67 was awarded, there has been extensive human activity in the area of Block 67. Despite this, there has been no evidence of uncontacted tribes within Block 67.
A first extensive seismic survey was conducted in 1997. This involved a team of several hundreds of local employees walking the length and breadth of Block 67 over several months. It also involved extensive aerial coverage of the Block 67 area.
At that time the Block was eight times larger than it now is and today, Perenco's focus is on an areas less than 0.5% of the current reduced area of the block.
Whilst the closest community to Block 67 is located 30 km away (see B67 map of the region and B67 project influence area), communities living from between 30km and 60km from the Block 67 are known to use the the area in order to hunt, gather food and collect wood. Furthermore, the army also regularly patrols this region which is near the borders with Ecuador and Colombia.
Despite all this activity, no evidence of non-contacted tribes was reported in the Block 67 area.
Regulations
In Peru oil and gas activities are today strictly regulated by the Hydrocarbon Law. This regulatory regime controls all aspects of oil and gas activities, in order to limit socio-environmental impacts. The regulation imposes the rules under which oil and gas activities have to be conducted in non contacted.reserves. (see Peru useful links).
Multi-disciplinary study
Upon acquiring the rights to explore and develop Block 67 early in 2008, Perenco commissioned a comprehensive study to establish the possibility of indigenous human activity in the area. The study involved a panel of 24 experts from the following institutions:
- Daimi, a consulting company with expertise in socio-environmental matters with considerable experience in this area in Peru and Ecuador
- Indepa: the governmental body in charge of the protection of the indigenous population of Peru
- The University of San Marcos in Lima
- The Amazon University of Loreto in Iquitos.
- The field work conducted shows that there is no physical evidence of non-contacted tribes in the Block 67 area.
- There is no indication of transhumance, which is a determining factor for the existence or non-existence of non-contacted indigenous populations.
- There is no sign that shows the subsistence activities in the jungle of a non-contacted tribe (hunting tools, huts, corn fields...).
Aidesep, an NGO formed in the 1980s, did not oppose the oil and gas activities in Block 67 for an initial 12 year period. It does not oppose oil and gas activities in blocks overlapping several existing non-contacted tribe reserves. In 2003 Aidesep presented a request for a non-contacted tribe reserve in the Block 67 area, the "Napo Tigre proposal". In 2005 Aidesep produced a report called "Aidesep Expediente Tecnico (part I, part IIa, part IIb, part III )" for this request and in 2007 Aidesep presented a claim rejecting all oil and gas activities in Block 67.
Indepa rejection report
Indepa is the Governmental body in charge of the protection of indigenous populations. A special commission, led by Indepa was created in March 2009. l. The Commission is in charge of the evaluation of non-contacted tribes reserve proposals. The reserve proposal was dismissed by the Indepa technical report issued by the Commission on 24/06/09 on the grounds that no scientific evidence of the existence of non-contacted tribe in the area had been presented by Aidesep.
Courts verdicts
Perenco has won in two instances a claim presented by Aidesep to block all oil activities in their proposed Napo Tigre non-contacted tribe reserve. An extract of the verdict states: "evidence presented by Aidesep does not demonstrate the existence of indigenous tribe in voluntary isolation in the blocks 67 and 39."
Both verdicts declared the claim of Aidesep to be groundless (First instance verdict / Second instance verdict).
A similar claim was filed in June 2008 by Orpio, a subsidiary of Aidesep. In this instance a public hearing was held in July 2009, which Orpio did not attend, nor did they request a different day to present their case to the Judge. In February 2010, the Superior Court dismissed the claim as void of grounds. Orpio has not appealed within the term granted by law, which means that they have accepted the sentence (see sentence attached).
Additional information
On the subject of non-contacted tribes, an article published in the French newspaper "Liberation" sets out some further information on the issue. The respected Peruvian anthropologist, Carlos Mora, has produced notes on the Aidesep "Expediente Tecnico". (Carlos Mora part I / part II).
via Perenco
Deadly pipeline threat to uncontacted tribes 25 March
Anglo-French oil company Perenco has revealed plans to build a pipeline deep into the heart of uncontacted tribes’ land in the Amazon rainforest.The pipeline is being built to transport an estimated three hundred million barrels of oil from the depths of the northern Peruvian Amazon. The company makes no mention of the tribes in its report detailing the potential social and environmental impacts of the pipeline, despite the fact they could be decimated by contact with Perenco’s workers.
‘Failing to mention that they’re working on the land of isolated tribal people is just like what the British did in Australia: make the tribal people invisible so they can claim the land for themselves,’ said Survival director Stephen Corry.
Perenco’s report was recently made public on the Peruvian Energy Ministry’s website. It fails to mention that the pipeline would cut right into the heart of a proposed reserve for the uncontacted Indians.
The Ministry has responded by failing to approve Perenco’s report. It has asked the company to write an ‘anthropological contingency plan’, given the ‘possible existence’ of uncontacted tribes in the region.
The pipeline is projected to be 207 kms long and to connect with another pipeline already built, which will transport the oil all the way to Peru’s Pacific coast. Perenco’s report says it would affect the forest for five hundreds metres on either side.
High-ranking officials in Peru hope the pipeline will help transform Peru’s economy. Survival and many other organizations are lobbying Peru’s government not to build it.
Perenco’s report says that production is expected in 2013. The company, chaired by Oxford University graduate Francois Perrodo, has denied the existence of uncontacted Indians in the region, even though the previous company working in the region admitted contact with them was ‘probable.’
via Survival
Uncontacted tribes threatened by ‘thousands of explosions’ 22 March
A Nahua man shortly after first contact in 1984. More than 50% of the Nahua died following contact.
A pioneer scientific study has revealed how some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes are threatened by ‘the detonation of thousands of seismic explosives’ on their land.
The study says that seventeen large areas in the Peruvian Amazon where oil and gas companies can work include land inhabited by uncontacted Indians.
The potential impacts on the tribes and their land are ‘severe and extensive’, says the study. These impacts include: ‘hundreds of heliports’, ‘the cutting of hundreds of kilometres of seismic lines’, ‘the detonation of thousands of seismic explosives’, oil spills and leaks, new roads, and the ‘unique potential of advancing the agricultural, cattle and logging frontiers’, all of which could be disastrous for the tribes ‘whose lack of resistance or immunity make them extremely vulnerable to illnesses brought by outsiders.’
‘More of the Peruvian Amazon has been leased to oil and gas companies over the past four years than at any other time on record,’ says the study, published in ‘Environmental Research Letters’.
The study cites drilling in northern Peru by a British company as ‘extremely controversial’, although it does not mention the company, Perenco, by name. Perenco, which has recently revealed plans to build a pipeline into the region, is working ‘within a mega-diverse and largely intact section of the Amazon (where) there is strong anthropological evidence (of) uncontacted indigenous peoples.’
The study says that a massive 72% of the entire Peruvian Amazon is now open for exploration and drilling. Survival is campaigning against exploration in parts of the Peruvian Amazon inhabited by uncontacted tribes.
via Survival
UN report means no oil exploration on uncontacted tribes’ land 17 March
A recently contacted Mastanahua man in Peru. Some Mastanahua remain uncontacted. foto: David Hill/Survival
A report by a major UN body urges Peru’s government to suspend the hunt for natural resources on indigenous land if the people living there have not given their full consent.
The urgent recommendation, made by the International Labour Organisation’s ‘Committee of Experts’, effectively means that no drilling for oil and gas should take place on land inhabited by uncontacted tribes.
The ILO’s report was published just before Anglo-French company Perenco revealed its plans to build an oil pipeline deep into the heart of uncontacted tribes’ territory, and while Repsol-YPF waits for permission from Peru’s government to detonate seismic explosions in the same region. Perenco denies the tribes exist, but Repsol says their existence is ‘possible’.
The ILO cites isolated Cacataibo Indians as an ‘emblematic’ example of the Peruvian government’s attitude to indigenous peoples. An unknown number of Cacataibo live without contact with outsiders, but a Canadian oil company, Petrolifera, has signed a contract with the government to explore on their land.
‘The Committee encourages the government of Peru to suspend the exploration and exploitation of natural resources which are affecting the peoples covered by … Convention (169) until such time as the participation and consultation of the peoples concerned is ensured,’ says the ILO.
The ILO’s Convention 169 is the only international law for indigenous people. Peru ratified it in 1994, but has consistently failed to abide by it.
Survival director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘This is a desperately embarrassing setback for Peru’s government. It must heed the ILO’s recommendation and stop giving indigenous land away to multinationals without the people’s consent – especially if it is inhabited by uncontacted tribes.’
via Survival
New report confirms uncontacted tribe has been fleeing to Brazil 17 March 2009
One of the photos in Survival's new report. These houses were built by uncontacted Indians who have been fleeing from Peru to Brazil. foto: Gleison Miranda/FUNAI
A report published today by Survival International confirms that some of the world’s last uncontacted Indians have been fleeing from Peru to Brazil in order to escape illegal logging.
The report details evidence found by employees of the Brazilian government’s Indian Affairs Department (FUNAI) since 2004. The evidence consists of numerous sightings of the Indians and includes photos of arrows belonging to them and houses built by them. It also includes mahogany boards which have floated past the FUNAI team’s protection post on the remote Envira River, coming downriver from Peru where uncontacted Indians are known to live.
‘(There has been a) forced migration of autonomous groups in Peru, caused by mahogany exploration in the headwaters of the Jurua, Purus and Envira (rivers in Peru),’ says Jose Carlos Meirelles, head of the FUNAI team, in the report. ‘The collection of arrows (belonging to the Indians) on my table is piling up. . . The situation will only be resolved when the Indians are left alone on the other side of the border.’
Loggers have illegally invaded the uncontacted Indians’ land in Peru in search of some of the last commercially-viable mahogany trees in the world. They are often armed and expose the Indians to diseases to which they have no immunity. After loggers forced first contact with members of the Murunahua in 1996, an estimated half of the tribe were wiped out.
Survival’s report urges Peru’s government ‘to protect uncontacted Indians’ land by removing all loggers and prohibiting the entry of any other outsiders and any form of natural resource extraction in areas where they live. . . At present, uncontacted Indians are at huge risk and face extinction.’
The publication of the report comes as FUNAI prepares to construct another protection post in a similar part of the rainforest. FUNAI has also recently finished demarcating a new reserve for the tribes, bringing to three the total number of areas set aside for uncontacted Indians in this region.
Mr Meirelles was in the plane last year when photos of one of Brazil’s uncontacted tribes were taken. The photos, released by Survival, made headlines around the world.
via Survival
Cf. também:
Peru bars oil companies from uncontacted tribes’ reserve 8 March
A reserve inhabited by uncontacted tribes in the remote Peruvian Amazon can no longer be explored by oil and gas companies.
The Madre de Dios Reserve was created in 2002, but three years later a Chinese company, Sapet, was given permission to work there in an area known as ‘Lot 113’. Sapet’s contract has now expired and, according to a Perupetro map dated 31 December 2009, the reserve is not to be included in the latest ‘auction’ of land to companies currently scheduled to be held in May.
Twenty-one of the uncontacted Indians who live in the reserve were photographed from the air just over two years ago.
‘The news of the definitive elimination of ‘Lot 113’ from Perupetro’s oil maps is an important decision because, as well as guaranteeing the integrity of isolated peoples in Madre de Dios, it is an excellent precedent for the protection of isolated peoples in other regions and countries whose territories are included in oil lots,’ said local indigenous organization FENAMAD.
In 2006 Sapet agreed not to work in the reserve after lobbying by FENAMAD and national indigenous organization AIDESEP. But Perupetro maps described the reserve as open for exploration until very recently.
In many other parts of Peru the government continues to allow companies such as Perenco, Repsol YPF and Petrobras to work on uncontacted tribes’ land.
Survival director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘It’s great news that the Madre de Dios Reserve has been excluded from Perupetro’s oil lots. Peru must now apply that precedent to elsewhere in the country and make sure that no region inhabited by uncontacted Indians is invaded by oil and gas companies – especially in the upcoming auction.’
via Survival
'They exist' – uncontacted Indians spotted from the air 1 October 2007
Twenty-one uncontacted Indians have been spotted from the air during a flight over one of the most remote parts of the Peruvian rainforest. Their territory is currently being targeted by illegal loggers.
The Indians were spotted on the shores of the Las Piedras river in Peru’s south-eastern Amazon. They left their shelters on the beach to watch the plane, chartered by Peru’s Environment Agency, fly overhead. During the plane’s second pass, one of the Indian women, carrying arrows and accompanied by a small boy, gestured aggressively, whilst the rest of the group sought refuge in the undergrowth.
‘This is the most recent recorded sighting of them,’ stated Peru’s national Indian organisation, AIDESEP. ‘The uncontacted tribes exist. If we don’t act now, tomorrow could be too late.’
In total, there are an estimated 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru and all of them are under severe threat, mainly from logging and oil exploration. Because of their isolation, they do not have immunity to outsiders’ diseases and any form of contact can be fatal for them.
The sighting comes after the chairman of Perupetro, Peru’s state oil company, stated that it was ‘absurd to say there are uncontacted peoples when no one has seen them’, while another Perupetro spokesperson compared the tribes to the Loch Ness monster.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘What further proof is needed of the uncontacted tribes’ existence? There they are for all the world to see – Peru’s most vulnerable citizens whose government now needs to do its duty by them. It is time for their rights to their land to be recognised and respected, for oil and gas exploration to be banned from their territories, and for all loggers and other outsiders to be removed.’
via Survival
The Uncontacted Indians of Peru
At risk of extinction from disease and land loss
In the depths of the Amazon rainforest in Peru live tribes who have no contact with the outside world.Oil workers and illegal loggers are invading their land and bringing disease. They won’t survive unless this stops.
The greatest threats to Peru’s uncontacted Indians are oil workers and illegal loggers.
More than 70% of the Peruvian Amazon has been leased by the government to oil companies. Much of this includes regions inhabited by uncontacted tribes.
Oil exploration is particularly dangerous to the Indians because it opens up previously remote areas to other outsiders, such as loggers and colonists. They use the roads and paths made by the exploration teams to enter.
‘
My people all died. Their eyes started to hurt, they started to cough, they got sick and died right there in the forest. Nahua woman describes contact
’
Shell and the Nahua tragedy
In the past, oil exploration has led to violent and disastrous contact with isolated Indians.In the early 1980s, exploration by Shell led to contact with the isolated Nahua tribe. Within a few years more than 50% of the Nahua had died.
Several oil companies are now working in areas where uncontacted Indians live, including the territories of the Cacataibo and Nanti tribes.
These companies are Perenco, which has taken over Barrett Resources, Repsol-YPF and Petrolifera.
Meanwhile, Peru describes its policy to international companies as ‘open door’. The government is actively encouraging new companies to explore in areas inhabited by uncontacted tribes including the Mashco-Piro and Isconahua.
Mahogany: ‘Red gold’
The other principal threat is illegal loggers, many of them after mahogany. Known as ‘red gold’, mahogany commands a very high price on the global market.Peru’s rainforest has some of the last commercially viable mahogany stands anywhere in the world, prompting a ‘red gold fever’ for the last of them.
Tragically, these are the same regions where the isolated Indians live, meaning that loggers invade their territory and contact is almost inevitable.
In 1996 illegal loggers forced contact with the Murunahua Indians. In the following years over 50% of them died, mainly from colds, flu and other respiratory infections.
Loggers have also been forcing members of an uncontacted tribe to flee from Peru across the border into Brazil.
Survival estimates there are 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru. All of them live in the most remote, isolated regions of the Amazon rainforest.
They include the Cacataibo, Isconahua, Matsigenka, Mashco-Piro, Mastanahua, Murunahua (or Chitonahua), Nanti and Yora.
Multiple threats
All of these peoples face terrible threats – to their land, livelihoods and, ultimately, their lives. If nothing is done, they are likely to disappear entirely.Uncontacted tribes are extremely vulnerable to any form of contact with outsiders because they do not have immunity to Western diseases.
International law recognises the Indians’ land as theirs, just as it recognises their right to live on it as they want to.
Following first contact, it is common for more than 50% of a tribe to die. Sometimes all of them perish.
Uncontacted for good reason
Everything we know about these isolated Indians makes it clear they seek to maintain their isolation.On the very rare occasions when they are seen or encountered, they make it clear they want to be left alone.
Sometimes they react aggressively, as a way of defending their territory, or leave signs in the forest warning outsiders away.
The Indians have suffered horrific violence and diseases brought by outsiders in the past. For many this suffering continues today. They clearly have very good reason not to want contact.
What can we do about it?
Survival is urging the Peruvian government to protect these isolated Indians by not allowing any oil exploration, logging or other form of natural resource extraction on their land.The government must recognise the Indians as the owners of their land.
After a Survival campaign in the 1990s, in collaboration with local indigenous organisation FENAMAD, the oil company Mobil pulled out of an area inhabited by uncontacted tribes in south-east Peru.
A vast amount of evidence, including video footage, audio material, photographs, artifacts, testimonies and interviews, has been collected over the years.
For example, on the 18th of September 2007 a plane chartered by the Frankfurt Zoological Society checking for the presence of illegal loggers flew over a remote part of Peru’s south-eastern rainforest. By chance they came across a group of twenty-one Indians, probably members of the Mashco-Piro tribe, in a temporary fishing camp on a river bank.
Just six weeks after the sighting, Peru’s President Garcia wrote in a newspaper article that the uncontacted Indians had been ‘created by environmentalists’ opposed to oil exploration.
Almost all the isolated Indians are nomads, moving across the rainforest according to the seasons in small, extended family groups.
In the rainy season, when water levels are high, the tribes, who generally do not use canoes, live away from the rivers deep in the rainforest.
During the dry season, however, when water levels are low and beaches form in the river bends they camp on the beaches and fish.
Turtle eggs
The dry season is also the time of year river turtles appear on the beaches to lay their eggs, burying them in the sand.The eggs are an important source of protein for the Indians, and they are experts at finding and digging them up.
The Indians’ appearance on the beaches means that they are most likely to be seen by loggers, other outsiders or neighbouring, contacted Indians at this time of year.
Besides turtle eggs, the uncontacted Indians eat a variety of meat, fish, plantains, nuts, berries, roots and grubs. Animals hunted include tapir, peccary, monkey and deer.
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