Oil exploitation in Block 192 in Peru’s northern Amazon has become notorious for the pollution that has occurred over more than 40 years. Last week, indigenous leaders from the area came to Congress in Lima to present a petition with 8,000 signatures from 74 countries, asking the government for effective use of prior consultation and stronger institutions to monitor environmental impacts. As the Peru Support Group has frequently reported, key environmental institutions have been systematically weakened in the last three years, with their funding and powers reduced.

This plea was echoed by the UN Special Reporter on hazardous substances and wastes, Bastuk Tuncat (see here) for the visit of the UN group). He visited Block 192 to see for himself. Two years ago, the government put in place an ‘environmental remediation fund’, but serious remediation has yet to take place. Tuncat visited an area supposedly remediated. He reported that “what I saw was by no means a rehabilitated area. You could see all of the oil on the surface of the water. You could smell the oil kilometers before you arrived at the site”. See Oxfam blog: http://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2016/05/deja-vu-in-peru-the-un-sounds-the-alarm-again-on-extreme-pollution-in-peru/

The Oxfam blog ends with an urgent appeal to the next president to heed this important call to action.