Hard on the heels of its rejection of the EIA for the Hidrovia megaproject reported last week, the Ministry of Environment’s national certification agency, SENACE, has now turned its attention to Geopark, a Chilean company seeking to exploit Lot 64 in Loreto, citing a number of deficiencies.

These include failure to identify areas directly or indirectly affected by the operations planned, to specify their anticipated impact, and failure to assess the scope of environmental damage left by the previous operator Talisman, or to take into account the local culture.

The Ashuar Federation FENAP whose territory is overlaid by Lot 64 assert that two wells will directly affect the inhabitants of the Putunsa community, while Talisman failed to clean up oil spills from its own operations.

SENACE has allowed 30 days for Geopark to respond. FENAP for its part demands the cancellation of all three concessions in its territory (Lots 64, 166 and 196) on the grounds that there was no prior consultation process.