Peru's Pipe Dream Is a Nightmare

Posted: 25-Apr-2003; Updated: 31-Jul-2007

The Nanti people are one of the planet's most isolated groups. They inhabit the Camisea region of the Peruvian Amazon, one of most biologically diverse and pristine rainforests on Earth. Tragically, the Nanti are now threatened by a massive $1.5 billion natural gas project.

The project's 430-mile pipeline will slice though the rainforest to bring gas to a plant on the Pacific. "This could spell disaster for an important piece of the Amazon as well as its residents," says our social scientist Aaron Goldzimer. Environmental Defense has joined with other groups urging the U.S. Export-Import Bank not to support the project.

The pipeline threatens the delicate balance of the region. Contact with outsiders already may be endangering native peoples who lack immunity to diseases common in modern societies. Last year, 15 Nanti children reportedly died from unknown illnesses. In the 1980s, when Shell began exploratory operations in this area, almost half the neighboring Nahua people died from introduced diseases.

"Backing the Camisea project would set a dangerous precedent," says Goldzimer. "Taxpayer dollars should not help finance such destructive projects." The precedent is especially critical now that the Export-Import Bank must decide on a number of controversial projects, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in the Caspian.

So far, the Bush administration has played a constructive role in pushing other countries to develop environmental safeguards for their export credit agencies, which finance big infrastructure projects in developing countries. "This will be an important test," notes Goldzimer. "The U.S. Export-Import Bank has touted its environmental policies. Approving Camisea would make a mockery of its claim."

View the slide show Amazon: Swath of Destruction

FIND OUT MORE

Memo to Enrique Iglesias, President, Inter-American Development Bank

El Gas de Camisea y Los Pueblos Indígenas de la Amazonia Peruana

Other Sites and Resources

Sinai Serjali: Pluspetrol in the Kugapakori Nahua Reserve

Amazon Watch

The Smithsonian Institution: The Camisea Project

Global Response

Fern Briefing Note (January 2003) - Responsibility abroad: How Export Credit Agencies impact biodiversity (Adobe Acrobat required)

Sustainable Energy and Economy Network

Washington Post article: "Texas Firms Line Up U.S. Aid in Peru" (11/20/2002)