More Than Three Decades of Struggle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oil block 64 is located in the rainforest, precisely in Morona district, Datem del Mara\u00f1on province, in Loreto, and overlaps with the ancestral territories of the Chapra, Achuar and Wamp\u00eds Nations, directly affecting 22 of their Native communities.\nHowever, the risks are not limited to the area covered by the oil block activity. According to information from Petroper\u00fa and the environmental impact assessment submitted unsuccessfully by GeoPark in 2019, the crude oil would be transported by barge along the Morona River (a river system on which numerous Indigenous communities depend) before being pumped at the Morona station into the Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three Nations have been resisting oil extraction in Block 64 for 33 years. Their opposition is also grounded in their direct experiences of pollution in their territories and in neighbouring areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During their interviews with the media, representatives referred to the contamination caused by oil spills and environmental liabilities affecting Indigenous Peoples living around Blocks 192 and 8. Olivia Bisa, President of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation, stated: \u201cTheir sons and daughters have blood contaminated with lead, cadmium and heavy metals. Their future is contaminated.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Indigenous Peoples point out that although activities in the block have been suspended since 2020, they themselves have experienced spills linked to oil infrastructure in 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2024. Among the most recent incidents, they recall the spill that occurred in September 2022, when a section of the Northern Peruvian Oil Pipeline ruptured as a result of corrosion, according to findings by OEFA, Peru's Environmental Assessment and Enforcement Agency. The spill affected the lives and health of communities belonging to the Wamp\u00eds and Chapra Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communities reported delays in containment efforts and damage to streams and cochas (Amazonian lagoons used as essential sources of water and food, as fish are a staple of their diet). These communities also lack access to piped water.\nThe President of the Chapra Nation stated that her efforts to raise the alarm about this ecocide resulted in four criminal complaints being filed against her by Petroper\u00fa, which alleged that she had obstructed remediation efforts. She maintains that the accusations were unfounded, as she was not even present in the district at the time. One of these complaints has since been dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2024, Petroper\u00fa, through one of its contractors, was conducting a pressure test on the Northern Branch Pipeline when it ruptured at kilometre 12. In this area, the pipeline lies on the bed of the Pastaza River. The crude oil spread rapidly through the river and reached lakes, cochas, agricultural plots and riverbanks, affecting more than 13 communities of the Achuar and Kichwa Nations, according to Elmer Kunchim, President of the Federation of the Achuar Nationality of Peru. \n\nBecause there is no access to safe drinking water, the spill contaminated the communities' primary sources of water and food. To this day, communities report that they continue to find traces of hydrocarbons in these ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to official information generated by OEFA and OSINERGMIN and analysed in the Shadows of Hydrocarbons Report (2024), between 1997 and May 2023, 1,460 oil spills and hydrocarbon leaks occurred in Peru. Of these, 831 - or 57% - occurred in the Amazon, primarily in Indigenous territories, while 43% occurred along Peru's coast, in territories inhabited by fishing communities.\n\nThe trend is also increasing. The annual average number of spills between 2021 and 2023 increased by 353%, reaching an average of 146 spills per year, more than three times the annual average recorded between 1997 and 2019, when the average was 41.3 spills per year. Petroper\u00fa has accumulated 191 spills, ranking second among the companies with the highest number of recorded spills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In their interviews, Indigenous leaders also highlighted that, according to the findings of the report mentioned above, 72% of crude oil spills are linked to operational failures and corrosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Indigenous Peoples, these incidents demonstrate that the impacts of oil activity persist for years and directly affect water, food security and the lives of their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Questioned Project and Unresolved Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The experiences of contamination are compounded by concerns regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment submitted by GeoPark in 2019, when the company was the operator of Block 64.\nThe assessment received more than 100 observations, several of which were submitted by the Achuar and Wamp\u00eds Nations. These concerns addressed, among other issues, the identification of existing environmental liabilities in the area, which cannot be left unattended, the insufficient information regarding waste management, and the transportation of crude oil by vessels along the Morona River.\nThe company failed to address the observations, withdrew from the assessment process and ceased operating the block in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three nations also argue that the project is marked by violations of their right to prior consultation and to free, prior and informed consent. They question any attempt to reactivate the project without first resolving these outstanding issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Territories Are Not Sacrifice Zones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Defending their territories has also placed Indigenous leaders at risk. Olivia Bisa has been granted personal protection measures due to the threats she has received. However, she argues that these mechanisms do not function adequately in the Amazon, where the State's presence is limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the proposed reactivation of Block 64, the three nations are putting forward an alternative: to stop expanding the oil frontier, advance towards an energy transition, and address the damage caused to the health of communities and nature by decades of extractive activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Chapra, Achuar and Wamp\u00eds Nations, an energy transition cannot simply mean stopping the approval of new projects. It must also mean healing the territories and the communities that protect them\u2014territories and peoples that have already been harmed by an industry imposed upon them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Por Lorena Mendoza, Comunicadora para Per\u00fa, y Guisela Loayza, Asesora legal de ACSA Tras el veredicto del Tribunal Internacional de los Derechos de la Naturaleza, los pueblos advierten que la experiencia de d\u00e9cadas de actividad petrolera demuestra que no existen condiciones para reactivar el lote y exigen al Estado detener la expansi\u00f3n de los combustibles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[20,15],"class_list":["post-14079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuencas-accion-global","tag-comunicacion","tag-peru","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cuencasagradas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/E33A4225-1024x683.jpg\")
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