Protesters upset over oil and natural gas developments in the resource-rich Amazon are threatening to choke energy supplies in northern Peru, the country's environmental minister said on Tuesday.
Peru's government is encouraging investment in hopes of turning the country into a net oil exporter from a net importer.
Peru's government, which is encouraging energy companies to develop the resource-rich Amazon, is considering creating five new reserves to protect jungle tribes that are living in voluntary isolation.
Advocacy groups have been pressuring Peru to balance indigenous and environmental rights demands with those of foreign investors as the country tries to boost energy output.
Over 83% of rural families living in the Amazonian jungle of Peru have no access to electrical energy because of the difficulty and high cost of extending the electricity grid to the region. The sustainable use of biomass to generate energy could make a significant contribution in this regard, in particular in the form of liquid biofuels such as biodiesel and vegetable oils.
Indigenous rights groups praised Peru's petroleum agency on Thursday for excluding areas where isolated tribes live from an auction of oil and gas concessions. Rights groups say the decision is a turnaround for Perupetro, which previously had indicated it might open up the protected areas for bidding. "This decision acknowledges a certain standard ... that there will be no exploration or extraction of natural resources on lands inhabited by un-contacted tribes," said David Hill, a researcher with Survival International, an advocacy group.
More than 2,000 members of a religious sect recently marched up to the district of San Jeronimo, near the city of Cuzco in the southeastern Peru, to protest an official mining exploration request,
Argentina's biggest oil facility and natural gas producer Pluspetrol has come to a standstill following protests by the indigenous Achuar groups in Peru, who say that crude production is
Farmers in Alto Incariado, central Peru, are hoping that the fair trade label on their coffee crops will fetch them decent wages and give them the right to unionise. For this reason alone they have
Peruvian local communities are on the warpath. They are accusing mining companies of not only causing contamination in the region, but also holding them responsible for the seizure of their land.
