Report on the Rio Azul expedition and the Amarakaeri debacle in the making.

In 2012 a BBC-article appeared on the isolated Peruvian tribe we have been active for: Isolated Peruvian tribe pictured.

Our Christmas action in Holland that year raised the $4000 necessary to enable Fenamad - the local native indian federation - the establishment of a control post in the area where the isolated tribe has settled, to ensure that they will not be harmed.

 

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Uncontacted Indians fleeing

Hunt Oil’s helicopters have made hundreds of flights above Amarakaeri Reserve and Manu National Park. Result:  twenty-five Indians with no previous contact with the outside world have left that same forest. The Indians can be “observed” on the bank of the Alto Madre de Dios river. No one dares approach them. With no previous contact, they are suspicious of outsiders & will attack with their primitive weapons. As such, the locals respond with a “kill them all” attitude. The authorities don’t intervene. See the video images made by a passing tourist. Fascinating. Horrible.

Rio Azul Expedition 2011

A hundred and fourty kilometer walk through pristine forest 

Every day we wade across & along the meandering river dozens of times as we make our way down to its junction with the Alto Madre de Dios River. Jaguar tracks everywhere. During the day we see giant river otters playing, big groups of squirrel monkeys, plenty of macaws. Tapirs stumble through our camp at night. Howler monkeys wake us up.

Jaguar footprint.

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Oil disaster in the making

Oil company threatens native people

The Amarakaeri Communal Reserve is an important link in a chain of strictly protected nature reserves. The Harakmbut tribe lives along the major rivers or along the unpaved roads near the borders of the reserve. On rare occasions in the heart of the reserve,  footprints of uncontacted, nomadic Indians are still seen. The Amarakaeri Communal Reserve is supposed to be a protected area.  But it is under serious pressure by the world’s thirst for oil. The presence of exploitable quantities of oil and/or natural gas is likely. If so, total destruction seems inevitable. This is because Hunt Oil, the oil company involved, has a bad reputation in dealing with the environment and local people. Small chance that oil will be taken out in a careful manner like it would have if this would happen in the U.S. or Europe; here, big chance that spills would occur.

 

Read how special this area is and how serious the threats are for nature and for the local native communities. But this disaster is not entirely inevitable.  Act now! 

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Help us!

Seen the movie “Crude, the price of oil,” made in Ecuador, 2009, about oil exploitation by Chevron. Its about an extremely arduous legal battle, with claims into the billions. It now seems that Chevron is losing its case in an American court, all the while simply denying all responsibility for pollution, diseases and casualties.

What is happening in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve  is a replay of Ecuador. Just as in the movie, it is being played out again step by step right now in real time here in Peru. We sincerely hope that everybody who feels so sick and miserable after seeing Crude will read our report here. They can actively do something themselves to stop this replay. Our foundation “Biodiversiteit en Educatie” is looking for activists, lawyers, journalists, sponsors and donors to support the Harakmbut and their Reserva Amarakaeri. In exchange for your support, we simple biologists, will show you thebreathtaking beauty of the Amarakaeri tropical rainforest.

 

For help, support, questions, remarks or donations contact us.


Express you concern about the situation by signing the letter of Survival International: Letter


Foundation Biodiversity and Education