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Under the lush forest, oil companies have discovered large deposits of oil. To access it, Gran Tierra, CNPC, Petroperú, Petroecuador and other companies are carving roads into the wilderness and ripping out old-growth trees. The oil producers are speeding up deforestation in the entire region. Currently, the Amazon rainforest is 83 percent intact.^1473714739 Scientists warn that we can no longer halt the destruction of the Amazon rainforest if this figure drops below 80 percent.¹⁴⁷³⁷ This would inevitably turn the Amazon rainforest into a savannah.

Peru: Fines Finally Piling Up

In the Peruvian Amazon, oil companies happily exploited the lack of environmental regulation and protection of indigenous peoples in the 1990s and 2000s. Oil companies such as Pluspetrol Norte, Occidental Petroleum and others took advantage of low environmental standards and disregarded indigenous rights.¹⁴⁷⁵¹ Many indigenous people live less than an hour’s walk away from oil production sites. Researchers have found that the closer they live to the oil sites, the more frequently they suffer from cancer and high lead levels in their blood. This is especially scary for children because high lead levels can severely harm their development.¹⁴⁷⁵³ In more recent years, the Peruvian Environmental Agency has been at the companies’ heels. Between 2011 and 2021, Pluspetrol Norte alone had to pay more than USD 47 million in fines for environmental destruction. Still, the dirty practices continue.^1475514757

In some indigenous communities in Peru, the fight against oil and gas drilling on their lands is becoming a lifetime task. One prominent example of indigenous resistance against oil production in the Amazon rainforest is the persistent fight of the Achuar People of the Pastaza River and the Wampis Nation. For 3 decades, they have effectively defended their lands against the attempts of international oil companies, such as Oxy, Talisman, and Geopark, to drill for oil in oil concession block number 64. Now, these communities are taking on state-owned Petroperú, a company infamous for its history of pipeline spills and destruction.¹⁴⁷⁷¹ Oil companies eager to expand into the Amazon have tried to spread distrust and division within the indigenous communities to prevent resistance. However, the Achuar People of the Pastaza River and the Wampis Nation have kept up the fight.¹⁴⁷⁷³

The Peruvian courts have not been of much help for the long-lasting fight of indigenous communities. In 2021, the highest Peruvian court turned down a case filed by the Achuar indigenous people against oil and gas activities on their land. The judgment undermines affected communities’ rights to free, prior, and informed consent.¹⁴⁷⁷⁵ However, the fight will not stop there. The Achuar People plan to overturn this judgment in the Interamerican system. They have already filed a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).¹⁴⁷⁷⁷

To banish all oil companies from their home once and for all, indigenous peoples and NGO allies are increasingly targeting financiers and investors.^1477914781 Any financial institution backing oil companies in the Amazon must expect resistance.