Saturday 16 February 2013

Argentine gas giant to explore in Manu National Park World Heritage site


Secret plans for gas exploration in UNESCO World Heritage Site exposed
February 2013. A report leaked to British newspaper, The Guardian, has revealed secret plans by Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol to explore for natural gas in Peru's Manu National Park World Heritage site and an area inhabited by uncontacted tribes in southeast Peru.
Plans to search for gas in one of Peru's most important protected areas have been clouded in secrecy. But the leak exposes Pluspetrol's intentions to work in both an uncontacted tribes' reserve and the world-famous Manu national park.

Leaked report
The leaked report, written by environmental agency Quartz Services S.A. unveils Pluspetrol's hopes to expand operations beyond its current ‘block 88' into an area that has been dubbed ‘Fitzcarrald.' Block 88 is already one of the biggest natural gas projects in the Amazon, known as the Camisea project.

‘Development of the protected Manu National Park'
Quartz's report states its mission 'will contribute not only to the continuity of activity on Block 88, but also to the development of the protected Manu National Park.' On several occasions, Survival International has written to the Peruvian government and gas companies requesting information on the block, but has been told that no concrete exploration plans existed.

Nahua-Nanti reserve for isolated and uncontacted Indians
Fitzcarrald would cut the Nahua-Nanti reserve for isolated and uncontacted Indians in half and encroach into the Manu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for a biological diversity that ‘exceeds any other place on Earth.'

In 2011 a team of investigators employed by Pluspetrol were discovered by Nahua Indians carrying out studies in an area outside Pluspetrol's concession. Initially the Indians asked workers to leave their ancestral land, but they were later allowed to continue their work after the company offered gifts to members of the tribe.


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