Camisea Gas Field and Pipeline Project
The project threatens the livelihoods of indigenous people with water contamination, deforestation and erosion; rainforest colonization; and contact between isolated peoples and outsiders.
The Lower Urubamba and Camisea region of eastern Peru is at once a place of magnificent biodiversity and rainforest beauty, and a fossil fuel bonanza for Peru and a handful of companies seeking to extract the natural gas found under the jungle. The natural gas field located in this remote area of the Peruvian Amazon is also the home of several indigenous peoples, some of whom live in voluntarily isolation in a specially recognized protected area.
 |
| By: Jeff Deutsch/Oxfam |
IDB Funds Approved for Camisea Pipeline
Oxfam America has for several years supported efforts by partner organizations COMARU (the Machiguenga Council of the Urubamba River) and CEDIA (Center for the Development of Indigenous Amazonians) to carry out formal land titling of Machiguenga communities, to strengthen their organizations to better represent and defend the interests of their members, and more recently, to design initiatives for sustainable natural resource management.
Efforts are now underway by the government of Peru and a consortium of energy companies to tap into the gas and transport it to Lima and Callao, the capital city and main seaport of Peru, through two pipelines that must pass through dense jungles and over mountains. The project threatens the livelihoods of indigenous people in the project area by contaminating their sources of clean water and other natural resources, by deforestation and erosion, by opening rainforest areas for destructive colonization, and by forcing contact between vulnerable populations of isolated peoples and outsiders. Oxfam America is supporting efforts by its partner organizations to help indigenous communities in the project area defend their rights and livelihoods.
For more information on the Camisea Gas Field and Pipeline project:
Camisea Gas Field and Pipeline: Project Dangers
IDB Funds Approved for Camisea Pipeline
(September 12, 2003)
Report: "An Independent Environmental and Social Assessment of the Camisea Gas Project," commissioned by the Machiquenga Council of the Urubamba River (COMARU) and the Inter-Ethnic Association of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP). The report is available in both English and Spanish.
Other documents related to the Camisea pipeline, including the letters written by a broad coalition of civil society institutions to the IDB, are available in Spanish on www.observatoriocamisea.org.