The Black Snake of Peru’s Amazon: The Northern Peruvian pipeline

Since 1979, more than 100 oil spills have occurred along the North Peruvian pipeline – a mega construction, stretching a massive 1,106 km from the Amazon to the Peruvian coast, operated and owned by state company Petroperu. The large majority of the spills happened after 2008 in Loreto, home of 27 different indigenous peoples, including indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation. The recent legislative changes to the Organic Law on Hydrocarbons, expose a worrying trend: the intent to weaken environmental institutions and indigenous peoples' rights, in order to promote investment and an expansion of the petroleum industry in the country. Read the publication from the Chaikuni Institute here.