primatesperu

I envy the ostrich, his head in the sand,

no tears he sheds, for the loss of his land,

denuded and treeless, the grasslands are paved,

a new world surrounds him, but he thinks he is saved,

'cos he can't see the shit that is hitting the fan,

the death of his kind for the comforts of Man,

a black Armageddon is coming to pass,

as the rulers get rich blowing smoke up his arse

- Brian Philips, August '09

Peru welcomes Hunt Oil into the Amazon jungle

"Just weeks after a bloody conflict between indigenous protesters and Peruvian police, Hunt Oil begins exploration in the Peruvian Amazon"

So begins an article at Mongabay.com on the recent move by Peruvian President Alan García to allow Texan Hunt Oil Compnay into the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve.

The BBC reports: In October 2007, President Alan Garcia published a series of articles trying to explain what he saw as the main cause of poverty. He called it the Dog in the Manger syndrome. Mr Garcia argued that communally owed land in many Peruvian communities led to an inefficient use of natural resources because it was a free resource open to everybody. Soon afterwards, Congress allowed President Garcia to issue decrees encouraging oil and gas extraction, commercial forestry, and large-scale agriculture in the Amazon. Indigenous groups see those decrees as threatening their ancestral lands and way of life [1]

A excellent article by Finer et al. in 2008 titled Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples provides some startling visuals that show the level to which Alan García's plan to reduce poverty in Perú has been put into effect.

Figure 2. Oil and gas blocks in the western Amazon. Solid yellow indicates blocks already leased out to companies. Hashed yellow indicates proposed blocks or blocks still in the negotiation phase. Protected areas shown are those considered strictly protected by the IUCN (categories I to III). Taken from Finer et al. 2008.

The number of species of mammals (A), birds (B), and amphibians (C) across the Americas, where the highest diversity occurs in the western Amazon. Detailed view of the western Amazon region, outlined by the box in A, for mammals (D), birds (E), and amphibians (F). In this region hydrocarbon blocks overlap areas of exceptionally high biodiversity. Protected areas shown are those considered strictly protected by the IUCN (categories I to III). Taken from Finer et al. 2008.

Figure 4. Focus on Peru: Oil and gas blocks in Peru, including all IUCN categorized Amazonian protected areas, protected areas not yet placed in an IUCN category, and key features discussed in the text. Taken from Finer et al. 2008.

Finally, on the 10th of June 2009, Peruvian Congress suspended two of the land laws or decrees set forth by García.  Human rights groups have accused the government of covering up the true extant of the violence between the police and indigenous populations.