Climate activists blockade Peruvian Embassy & companies list

19 June 2009
Cli­mate change activists have blocked the entrance to the Peru­vian Embassy today in protest the country’s killing of indige­nous peo­ple in the Ama­zon rain­for­est.

Up to 100 peo­ple have been killed in recent clash­es over attempts to extract oil, gas, min­er­als and tim­ber from the for­est where indige­nous peo­ple have lived for cen­turies. On June 5, the gov­ern­men­t’s secu­ri­ty forces attacked a peace­ful block­ade, lead­ing to blood­shed on both sides with 30–100 esti­mat­ed deaths, over 100 injuries and numer­ous dis­ap­pear­ances.

Since the clash­es, the Peru­vian gov­ern­ment has sus­pend­ed some exploita­tion in the area, but it is unclear whether some com­pa­nies will be allowed to con­tin­ue.

Pro­test­ers from Lon­don Camp for Cli­mate Action are demand­ing to deliv­er a let­ter of protest to Peru­vian Ambas­sador Ricar­do Luna. The calls for oil and gas com­pa­nies in the Ama­zon to sus­pend their oper­a­tions until the gov­ern­ment agrees to peace­ful nego­ti­a­tions with local rep­re­sen­ta­tives; for an inde­pen­dent and impar­tial inquiry into the vio­lence; and for the lift­ing of all charges against Alber­to Pizan­go (the Pres­i­dent of Peru’s Ama­zon Indi­an organ­i­sa­tion, AIDESEP)

Pro­test­er Sam Gar­den­er said: “This protest is to show sol­i­dar­i­ty with the thou­sands of indige­nous peo­ple that are risk­ing, and some­times los­ing, their lives to pro­tect their homes in the Ama­zon.

“By destroy­ing the Ama­zon rain­for­est to extract fos­sil fuels, we are accel­er­at­ing cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change. The Ama­zon removes vast amounts of car­bon diox­ide from the atmos­phere. By cut­ting it down to remove yet more fos­sil fuels we are speed­ing towards a world­wide cat­a­stro­phe.”

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15.6.09: Live­ly and well attend­ed demo at the Embassy by Colec­ti­vo Peru­ano, togeth­er with the Coor­di­nado­ra Lati­noamer­i­cana, and was sup­port­ed by Latin Amer­i­can Youth Against Vio­lence

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Some of the com­pa­nies with new con­tracts in the Ama­zon and else­where in Peru (signed April 2009, some indi­vid­u­al­ly and some as part of a con­sor­tium with Peru­petro) that I can find (but unable to secure direct links/locations in the UK) are:

Plus­petrol — http://www.pluspetrol.net/
Reliance — http://www.reliancepetroleum.com/
CNPC — http://www.cnpc.com.cn/eng/
Petrope­ru — http://www.cnpc.com.cn/eng/
Faulkn­er Suits Explo­ration (US)
Olympic (US or Cana­di­an)
Petro­lif­era — http://www.petrolifera.ca/
Pan Andean Resources (Dublin based) — http://www.panandeanresources.com/contact/
Kei (Aus­tralia)
Petro­Viet­nam (Viet­nam)
Gold­en Oil — http://www.goldenoilcorp.com/new/english/company/company01_4.php

How­ev­er, some of these com­pa­nies DO have UK based offices and trad­ing:

EMERALD ENERGY PLC
http://www.emeraldenergy.com/contact.htm
With a reg­is­tered office in Lon­don.

CONOCO PHILLIPS
http://www.conocophillips.co.uk/ContactUs/index.htm
An Amer­i­can com­pa­ny that is report­ed to have a new “mega con­ces­sion” of 10.5 mil­lion hectares in the Ama­zon for oil explo­ration.
Offices and activ­i­ties in Lon­don, Aberdeen, Teesside, Hum­ber, Thed­dlethor­pe, War­wick

There’s a report on their activ­i­ties in Peru here: http://www.amazonwatch.org/conoco2009.pdf

The sit­u­a­tion in Peru cur­rent­ly is dire.… the indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties have been mobi­liz­ing and resist­ing since April and at this time when their lead­ers are threat­ened with arrest and there are wide­spread mur­ders and dis­ap­pear­ances occur­ring it is key that those of us ben­e­fit­ting from these explo­rations (in the Glob­al North) do what we can to show sol­i­dar­i­ty and to put the pres­sure direct­ly on the com­pa­nies that are treat­ing Peru as a smor­gas­board of ways out of the cur­rent eco­nom­ic cri­sis…