[Fwd: SHell in Peru]

[cd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

for those at the fbc conference, having sympathy for nigerian freedom
fighters, against Shell, and villianous oil companies, and their
bretheren, we pass this on

metta, dawn star
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total/
(best accessed using netscape)

Jonathan Luman wrote:
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________________________
> PlEaSe RePlY To chickadee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx NoT Me!
> _______________________________________________________________________________________
> 
> --
> Defenders of the Rainforest
> 9 Perkins Terrace
> Worcester, MA 01605-3706
> (508) 756-1819 AFTER 2:30 PM. (Jonathan Luman)
> http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/rforest/defendhome.html
> 
> "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine"
>                                        Thoreau
> 
>     ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Subject: SHell in Peru
> Date: Fri, 7 Feb 97 17:43:18 +0000
> From: chick-a-dee <chickadee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <seac+announce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> /** ppn.peru: 201.0 **/
> ** Topic: IPS: ENVIRONMENT-PERU: Communities Divided Over Shell Natural Gas **
> ** Written  3:09 PM  Feb  1, 1997 by newsdesk in cdp:ppn.peru **
>        Copyright 1997 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
>           Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
> 
>                       *** 29-Jan-97 ***
> 
> Title: ENVIRONMENT-PERU: Communities Divided Over Shell Natural Gas
> Scheme
> 
> by Pratap Chatterjee
> 
> CASHIRIARI, PERU, Jan 29 (IPS) - A brown scar, some three hectares
> in size, has marked the highland forests near this tiny, remote
> indigenous village in central Peru in the last three months.
> 
> The scar is a clearing created by the Anglo-Dutch multinational
> company Shell to drill a natural gas well named Armihuari. It is
> the first of four that will disfigure these forests, home of the
> Machiguenga peoples who have hunted and fished around the Urabamba
> river for 5,000 years. Close by are the Kugapakori peoples who
> have lived in fierce, self-imposed isolation from the rest of the
> world.
> 
> Out of concern for the forests and the peoples of this region,
> Shell says it is going to great pains to design what it calls a
> odel of environmental management and local participation.
> 
> But on closer inspection, the company appears to be creating
> problems for the people in this village and surrounding
> communities without offering much by way of compensation or
> security against pollution.
> 
> The company has come here in the hope of exploiting a gas field
> they have named Camisea, which they say contains 11 trillion cubic
> feet of natural gas and 600 million barrels of natural gas
> liquids, capable of supplying enough fuel to meet a century of
> energy needs for the capital city of Lima, some 500 kms to the
> east.
> 
> But in exchange for the land for the first well in Armihuari,
> the village of Cashiriari has only been promised electricity for
> three communal houses so far, in addition to an assortment of
> other trinkets like tin roofs and a supply of medicines.
> 
> The month-old agreement for the use of two hectares of land
> (Shell admits that it has used more than agreed initially) does
> not guarantee any compensation in case of accident, contamination
> of the local rivers, or destruction of the forests.
> 
> Tomas Vargas, the treasurer of the village who also runs the
> local health clinic, reluctantly produced the document he signed
> with Shell, arguing that he was misled by company representatives.
> 
> Shell also has an agreement with Nuevo Mundo, another
> Machiguenga village a day's journey downstream by boat. The
> company has agreed to pay the local community a monthly fee of
> 4,000 soles (some 1,600 dollars) for the right to construct an
> airport to receive flights directly from Lima to service the
> company's operations centre situated next to the village.
> 
> The Nuevo Mundo deal was signed with Alquilino Rios, a local
> leader. This deal has been bitterly opposed by other local
> leaders, including Efrain Barazo and Job Korinti from the
> neighbouring village of Kirigueti. They suspect the company of
> making plans to encroach on their territory.
> 
> ''The Shell maps showing the territory of Nuevo Mundo includes
> an old gas well called Mipaya that is on our land,'' says Korinti.
> 
> Shell officials, however, say they have no immediate plans to
> exploit Mipaya.
> 
> Located near a tributary of the Urabamba river, which
> originates near the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco on the eastern
> flank of the Andes mountains, this region is host to the highest
> recorded number of animals, birds, plants and insects in the world
> and forms one of the vital headwaters of the Amazon Basin.
> 
> But in the last few decades Christian missionaries and oil
> companies like Shell, Total, and Petroperu have brought change to
> the more peaceful Machiguenga peoples, causing them to slowly
> settle into small villages.
> 
> Throughout the region, there are mixed feelings about Shell,
> which first worked in this region just over a decade ago when it
> drilled a series of wells in an effort to find petroleum. The
> company withdrew in 1986 when it only found gas and failed to
> strike an agreement with the Peruvian government.
> 
> Both Roman Diaz and Victoriano Melchor -- the headmen of the
> villages of Camisea and Segakiato which lie between Cashiriari and
> Nuevo Mundo --  allege that, at the time, Shell contract workers
> abused local women.
> 
> Human rights activists and environmentalists also say that the
> Shell operations attracted outside loggers who brought diseases
> that killed a major part of another indigenous community of Nahua
> peoples who have lived in isolation for centuries.
> 
> To avoid repeating such mistakes, Shell has hired one of the
> leading experts on the local communities, Peruvian anthropologist
> Alonso Zarzar, to help the company work with the communities.
> 
> Zarzar has drawn up two sets of detailed guidelines for Shell
> and has conducted workshops to ensure that the company's 360 local
> and expatriate contract workers do not violate local customs or
> bring in disruptive practices. Shell is also seeking to ensure
> that all its workers and visitors are vaccinated so that new
> diseases do not enter the region.
> 
> The company has also drawn up extensive plans to make sure that
> their work does not disturb the surrounding forests. Instead of
> building roads, all supplies are brought in by air or by river
> transport. Staff who hunt or fish or simply wander outside the
> drilling area are to be fired immediately.
> 
> But Peruvian activists say that the company has overlooked
> their moral responsibilities to the local peoples who have no idea
> of what is happening at the drilling site or what the future
> operations might involve.
> 
> Doris Balvin, an environmental lawyer from southern Peru who
> has spent the last decade tracking the impact of mining
> operations, says that the compensation to Cashiriari amounts to
> nothing more than a Christmas present.
> 
> Earlier this month, she travelled around the local communities
> where she was asked to translate the maps that Shell has given to
> the community from English to Spanish, so that local leaders like
> Tomas Vargas could understand.
> 
> ''If Shell really wanted to work with the communities, why have
> they not provided them with enough information? The agreement was
> signed in a hurry and the local people had no chance to consult a
> lawyer,'' she says.
> 
> The anthropologist defends the agreement.
> 
> ''It is extremely hard to work in this area,'' says Zarzar.
> ''For example, the communities keep their hunting grounds secret
> from other communities in order to protect scarce resources. How
> are we to decide what just compensation to give them when we
> cannot determine the exact impact on their life?''
> 
> ''It's my job to ensure that Shell provides appropriate
> benefits to the community,'' he adds. ''We have made sure that all
> the compensation will help the community as a whole and to make
> sure that we develop social capital for the long term.''
> 
> And while Zarzar acknowledges that the community has a right to
> a lawyer, he says it is up to their representatives to get such
> help. ''I have even attended the regional meetings of the
> Machiguenga organisations to tell them about our plans months
> before this agreement was signed,'' he points out.
> 
> Meanwhile, the activities of Shell have also exacerbated the
> existing divisions among the Machiguenga who have traditionally
> been represented by rival organisations.
> 
> The villages of Camisea, Nuevo Mundo, and Segakiato are
> represented by the Centre for Native Machiguenga Communities
> (CECONAMA), while the three other villages in the region --
> Cashiriari, Kirigueti, and Shivankoreni -- are represented by the
> Council for the Machiguenga People of the River Urabamba (COMARU).
> 
> Shell helped create an ''indigenous council'' with these two
> groups as well as other local, indigenous, non-governmental
> groups. The plan fell apart recently when COMARU withdrew from the
> council, increasing tensions among the communities.
> 
> ''We wanted to work with the communities in devising a
> mediation system to settle any complaints, but so far, we have not
> succeeded,'' says Murray Jones, the environmental chief for
> Shell's operations in Peru, who says he is willing to consider any
> alternatives. (ENDS/IPS/PC/YJC/97)
> 
> ** End of text from cdp:ppn.peru **
> 
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