A few months back 50+ indigenous people from the remote Peruvian Amazon found themselves the subject of a mainstream media storm. Not that they themselves knew anything about it: they live in what Peruvian law and the United Nations call “isolation” in the depths of the largest rainforest on Earth. The main focus was the threat posed to them - known most commonly as the “Mashco-Piro” - by loggers and one company in particular which had been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for years until its suspension in September.
But there is another, arguably even more severe threat to the Mashco-Piro that has reared its ugly head again over the last couple of years and was ignored by that recent media glut: the oil and gas industry. Perupetro, part of Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, is currently hawking a half a million hectare area, officially called “MD-XP-002”, that includes more than a quarter - 223,000 hectares - of the Madre de Dios Reserve (MDDR) established in 2002 to protect the land and lives of the Mashco-Piro and possibly other indigenous people in “isolation.”
MD-XP-002 is just one of 39 huge areas across Peru’s Amazon totalling an estimated 15.5 million hectares, according to an analysis of Perupetro figures by the NGO Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR), that is currently “under promotion” to oil and gas companies. It rubs right up against the indigenous Yine community, Monte Salvado, where the Mashco-Piro were photographed earlier in the year - on a beach opposite the village - which led to the media taking such an interest.
In addition to overlapping the MDDR itself, MD-XP-002 also includes almost 60% - 117,000 hectares - of the area that could become part of the reserve if it is expanded slightly to the east, as regional indigenous federation FENAMAD has been demanding for a very long time, and as was agreed by the Ministry of Culture and the state-run Cross-Sector Commission in charge of establishing reserves for indigenous people in “isolation” some years ago. As FENAMAD has argued for more than two decades, the reserve excluded large chunks of Mashco-Piro territory when it was created.
That Perupetro is attempting to entice companies into such a sensitive area of the Amazon is, on one level, almost as bizarre as it is stupid. There are any number of reasons for saying that: the existence of the supposedly off-limits reserve and the years-long attempt to expand it, the well-known danger that company workers would pose to people in “isolation” because of the latter’s lack of immunological defences, and the recent, well-publicised encounters between the Mashco-Piro, loggers and others which have led to violent conflict and people being killed.
Moreover, there is the fact that, unlike other parts of the Peruvian Amazon where the evidence for people in “isolation” is rather less incontrovertible - i.e. there aren’t the photos and video that there are for the Mashco-Piro - there is surely now no way that Perupetro, companies or anyone else could argue, as has happened previously in Madre de Dios and elsewhere in Peru, “They don’t exist! There’s no proof!”
That’s to say nothing of the public relations risk that a company would assume if contracted by Perupetro to operate in MD-XP-002, or the Peruvian laws and international jurisprudence, treaties and norms which would be violated if operations went ahead there. Prior consultation, anyone? Free, prior and informed consent?
Indeed, you could say that Perupetro couldn’t have chosen a worse time than about now - 2023 and 2024 - to attempt to open up part of the MDDR to oil and gas. Finally, this month, after a process dating back 13 years, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC announced that it has submitted the Mashco-Piro et al’s case to be tried by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in Costa Rica.
“After years of advocating for Mashco Piro rights, this submission to the Inter-American Court is a crucial step in holding Peru accountable for failing to protect their rights,” said Juliana Bravo Valencia, from the US-based NGO Earthrights International, which has been working with FENAMAD on the case, in a press release. “The Court now has an opportunity to set a precedent for isolated Indigenous Peoples, demanding recognition and protection of their territory against escalating threats to their existence.”
“It’s important the Peruvian state understands that our Mashco Piro brothers in isolation need to be protected,” said FENAMAD’s president, Alfredo Varga Pio, in the same Earthrights statement. “Their territories are being invaded and their lives are being put at risk. Let’s hope that now we can finally achieve full respect for them and the principle of no contact.”
The IACHR’s announcement made no mention of MD-XP-002, but no doubt that would only strengthen its argument that Peru’s government has been systematically violating the Mashco-Piro’s rights for years. In other words, the situation is even more dire than the Commission appears to be aware of. In addition to the logging concessions, illegal logging, narco-trafficking and now-defunct oil and gas blocks mentioned in the IACHR’s 1 November statement, there is now the prospect of a brand new oil and gas exploration zone in what is effectively the south-eastern corner of the Mashco-Piro’s territory.
To be clear, the MDDR is not the only reserve for people in “isolation” overlapped by the 39 areas currently being promoted by Perupetro, whose representatives are due to make their final public 2024 appearance trying to interest potential investors at the Latin America and Caribbean Energy Summit starting today in Punta del Este, Uruguay. According to DAR, those 39 areas include three other reserves for people in “isolation”, four “protected natural areas” including the world-famous Bahuaja Sonene National Park - where operations are much further advanced and significant gas deposits were apparently confirmed years ago - and 100s of indigenous communities and settlements.
As a result, the 39 areas affect up to at least 25 different indigenous peoples and include literally millions of hectares of their land. According to analysis by the Ministry of Culture, they impact 21 peoples - most of all, the Kichwa, Achuar, Urarina, Ashéninka, Asháninka and Awajún, in that order - and include 4.1 million hectares of their territory, but those figures don’t include the reserves for people in “isolation” nor any indigenous communities who don’t yet have title to their land.
In August, 75 organisations and individuals issued a statement urging Peru’s government to annul any of the 39 areas that include “protected natural areas” and existing or proposed reserves for people in “isolation”, arguing that indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon have already been badly impacted by oil and gas operations. In addition to the 15.5 million hectares falling within the new areas being promoted, existing concessions for exploration and exploitation include a further 2.7 million hectares. By far the most notorious is now known as Lot 192, where local communities, backed by indigenous federations AIDESEP and ORPIO, recently threatened to paralyse operations.
“Our country should comply with its international commitments to protect human rights, especially those of vulnerable populations such as indigenous peoples, as well as protecting our cultural and natural heritage and trade agreements such as the Trade Promotion Agreement between Peru and the United States, which establishes that certain environmental standards, such as the conservation of our forests, must be complied with,” that August statement said.
DAR’s Cristina López calls Perupetro’s plans “very alarming” and echoes concerns about past experiences and Peru’s international commitments, in particular those relating to climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and boosting the share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix.
“Oil and gas extraction in the Amazon has already generated significant environmental and social impacts that haven’t been remedied after more than 40 years,” López tells me. “Yet now operations continue to be promoted in highly sensitive areas like reserves for people in voluntary isolation and protected areas such as Bahuaja Sonene, and without having done any prior, free and informed consultation.”
Perupetro didn’t reply to my questions about which companies have shown interest in MD-XP-002 in particular or any of the other 38 areas. However, they have previously listed US giants Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Spain’s Repsol and Total from France as companies that have either expressed an interest or are worth approaching.