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For Immediate Release
Contact: Sarah Gilbertz:,T,+44 (0)20 7687 8710,or,+44 (0)7504 543367,E,sg2@survivalinternational.org,W,https://www.,survivalinternational.org/,In the US:,Kayla Wieche (after 12 pm,EST,),T,(+1) 415 503 1254,E,kw@survivalinternational.org

UN Demands 'Immediate Suspension' of Amazon Gas Plans

WASHINGTON

The United Nations has demanded an immediate halt to the expansion of a major gas project in the Peruvian Amazon, over concerns that it poses a grave risk to the lives of uncontacted Indians living nearby.

In a letter to the Peruvian government, the UN's Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) requested the 'immediate suspension' of plans to expand the existing Camisea gas project further into the Nahua-Nanti reserve, as it 'threatens the physical and cultural survival of the indigenous peoples living there.'

The call follows an appeal to CERD by Peru's indigenous organizations AIDESEP, ORAU and COMARU, who are also launching legal action against the government and companies involved in the $1.6 billion project.

Camisea is run by a consortium of companies including Argentina's Pluspetrol, US's Hunt Oil and Spain's Repsol, and is one of the largest gas projects in the Amazon.

The gas project lies in the heart of the Nahua-Nanti Reserve that was created to protect the land and lives of uncontacted Indians.

Now the companies plan to carry out seismic tests in the forest - detonating thousands of explosives - and to drill more than twenty exploratory wells.

The work will have a devastating impact on the local inhabitants, who rely on the rainforest and its game for their survival. Any contact with the uncontacted Indians could prove fatal.

In 2003, a Supreme Decree was passed, as a condition of a loan by the Inter-American Development Bank, which prohibited any further expansion of the project. But in flagrant violation of the Decree, Peru's Ministry of Energy approved part of the expansion of Camisea in April 2012. The Ministry is imminently set to approve the next phase of expansion, costing $480 million.

Survival's Director Stephen Corry said today, 'The Peruvian government promised the Inter-American Development Bank that it wouldn't expand the Camisea project, and even passed a Supreme Decree to write the pledge into law. Now it's doing exactly what it promised not to. Small wonder the UN has demanded this reckless project be stopped.'

The movement for tribal peoples. Survival is the only organization working for tribal peoples' rights worldwide. We work with hundreds of tribal communities and organizations. We are funded almost entirely by concerned members of the public and some foundations. We will not take national government money, because governments are the main violators of tribal peoples' rights, nor will we take money from companies which might be abusing tribal peoples.