Camisea Gas Project
The already drilled gas extraction operations for “block 88” wants to expand to destroy even more indigenous native land. The area has suffered a range of direct and “indirect” impacts, from the loss of local fish and hunting populations on which native indigenous people of that land live on, to landslides, infectious diseases and SST outbreaks. Peruvian health ministry confirmed that incidences of infectious diseases had increased among one group, the Anti, to such a disturbing rate that only one in four now reaches adolescence.
Expansion of the gas project is the most damaging project In the Amazon Basin. From the improper development loans, scars to primary rainforest’s, and damage to semi- nomadic peoples who live In Isolation we can see why this Is true. This project has upset many In Peru, especially because It was bullet within the Fracas Marine Reserve, considered to be an internationally Important wetland area by the RAMS. Despite repeated appeals by Peruvian society, the consortium refused to choose an alternative.
There was a lot of push back and criticism from indigenous groups, Peruvian society, international Nags, USA congressional representatives and its own environmental auditors. They all agreed that this project would not only harm the people living there, but their own economy and image to the outside world. But even after all the signs they were given not to do it, the Inter-American development bank approved a direct loan of $75 million and a syndicated loan of $60 million to the transportation consortia In September 2003.
Evidence from the field indicates that Inter-American Development Bank endorsement effectively gave the project companies a green light to continue even though they knew of the projects flaws. The development bank gave an “Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Report” woo years after the project had started. Of the reports 138 pages, only 21 actually dealt with environmental and social impacts, and even then they were minimized. In the whole report there was only one paragraph that was about socio-cultural change, one of the biggest issues for the affected communities.
The development bank failed to honor loan conditions by refusing to release numerous documents about environmental and social management which in turn made them quickly close their loan provision deal. They didn’t touch on concerns of native rights being abused, local development, or community compensation for the land and lives they strayed. The Seamless gas project certainly left their mark on the Amazon. This Seamless project has without a doubt devastated some of the most diverse and threatened biological ecosystems In the world.
The remote, roadbeds, Aruba and Hecatomb regions have been considered by conservationists to be of almost unparalleled biological richness and the pipe is cutting its way through these areas. Migrants, loggers and developers to the area resulting in deforestation, environmental degradation and social pressures on the vulnerable aboriginal communities. The companies in charge have breached both modern industry tankards and international environmental guidelines.
The workers do not care for safety and because of this it has led to the death of nine workers and one Machinating child, drowned in the wake of a speeding consortium boat. Technical experts have documented that there are critical impacts to natural habitats because of persistent multiple landslides, massive soil erosion, and river sedimentation from the pipelines extremely steep route. Since the company consistently disregards the erosion control during and after construction, it has allowed heavy rainfall to wash thousands of tons of soil and vegetation into local rivers.
This is all unfortunate proof that this expansion of the gas project is scaring the Amazon forest. The Samisen project continues to Jeopardize not only the environment but the health and safety of the Machinating indigenous communities living in small communities along the Aruba and Samisen rivers. The pipeline construction and spills have caused a reduction in fish and animals that the natives need to survive. Illness has increased significantly throughout Aruba.
Dozens of cases of syphilis reported by the health post in the indigenous community of Grittier and on top of that, local health rockers testified that small children are at risk from chronic malnutrition. These semi-nomadic peoples live in voluntary isolation and choose to live the way they do, yet companies come in destroying their land and causing sickness. The government of Peru created the reserve in 1990 to protect these vulnerable people from intrusion, but this was obviously recognized as an international violation of indigenous rights.
Forty-two percent of the Nah population had already died from introduced diseases which they have no immunity to when shell conducted gas exploration in he mid-asses. The Nah took a first-time step of publicly communicating through local advocates their rejection of all oil and gas operations within their lands: “In the past, Shell worked here and almost all of us died from the diseases… We know that if another company comes here, our rivers and land will be destroyed.
What will we eat when the rivers are dead and the animals run away? ‘ Looking at the impacts that this project has done to the Peruvian Amazon, it’s easy to say it has not benefited anything other than the fact that the company gets their money. Its improper loans room the inter-American development bank, damages to one of the most biological sound places on earth, and the lasting effects it has on the indigenous peoples all play a part in this destruction of the nature of the Amazon.
If we could somehow take a look at how the Amazon would have turned out if it was UN-touched by this project, we might find the indigenous people still living in their voluntary isolation, with no increase in deaths to their population and no harm to their reserve, but unfortunately this is not the case. Without a doubt the expansion of this gas project has been the most damaging project in the Amazon Basin.
