|
About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Free newsletter |
|
|
Report: 90 oil spills in Peruvian Amazon over 3 years Jeremy Hance mongabay.com March 03, 2011  An oil spill flows down Chuuntsa Creek in Oil Block 1-AB. Photo courtesy of: Amazon Watch.
"A week after the landmark ruling against Chevron in Ecuador for $9 billion of damage from operations in the 1970's and 80's, this new report highlights the ongoing devastation caused by the oil industry on the fragile Amazon ecosystem and the people that live there," said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director at Amazon Watch, in a press release. In June of last year a tanker spilled 400 barrels of oil into the Maranon River, which led to a blockade where indigenous protested called for Pluspetrol to pay them compensation for the pollution in the form reforestation, food, medicine, and cash payments.
Peruvian health studies have found that 98% of Achuar children have high levels of cadmium in their blood, and two-thirds suffer from lead poisoning. "[The report] raises serious concerns about Peru's aggressive development strategy to open the Amazon to oil drilling," said Gregor MacLennan, Amazon Watch Peru Program Coordinator, also in a press release. The government of Peru, led by President Alan Garcia, is currently pushing an oil boom. Around 70% of the Peruvian Amazon has been opened for oil and gas exploration and drilling, and a number of foreign companies have heard the call, including Talisman Energy, Petrolifera, ConocoPhilips, and Hunt Oil. The conflict between indigenous people living the region and big oil turned violent in 2009. A standoff between indigenous protestors and government police ended with 23 police officers and at least 10 protesters dead, though indigenous people say that bodies of protesters were dumped in rivers to hide the numbers killed.  A recent spill in a lake in Oil Block 1-AB from August 27 2010. Photo courtesy of: Amazon Watch.  An indigenous monitor documents a new spill in Oil Block 8. Photo courtesy of: Amazon Watch.  An Achuar family in a village nearby oil operations in Block 1-AB. Photo courtesy of: Amazon Watch.
Related articles
Tags: peru south america latin america amazon oil oil spills oil spill jeremy hance green environment governance corporate environmental transgressors pollution health fossil fuels law Environmental Law indigenous people indigenous rights tribal people tribal groups amazon destruction rivers water Amazon rainforest forest people rainforest rainforest destruction rainforest people rainforests threats to rainforests threats to the amazon threats to the rainforest tropical forests Environmental news index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements:
|
|
|
DON'T LIKE ADS? Become a mongabay supporter WEEKLY NEWSLETTER RECENT FEATURES
POPULAR PAGES Photos
CALENDARS 
BOOKS BY MONGABAY AUTHORS
FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 
HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS 
|
| | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright mongabay 2010 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect, an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region. Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant. |
