Oil hunt drives Peru’s last native people to a corner

Though celebrities around the world play at roughing it in the jungle, in Peru it’s not just a game for those living isolated from the outside world. There are small groups of the Cacataibo community living in the Cordillera Azul mountain range in Amazonia, near the Brazilian border. Most of the Cacataibos have come into contact with Western culture, but those who remain totally untouched by the outside world are now being ever more cornered by oil prospectors and loggers.

“Our brothers are together in groups of some 20 families with some 20 members each. Their living space is in great danger given that there is oil and natural gas in the region,” said Edith Bolivar of the Native Federation of Cacataibo Communities (FENACOCA).
Both the Peruvian state and Canadian oil firm Petrolifera Petroleum, based in Calgary, are interested in these natural resources. In their search for oil and gas, workers have since July 2007 entered the traditional territories of the Cacataibos, breaking paths in the rainforest. Petrolifera executive chairman Richard Gusella does not find this problematic. “We don’t know if there are any isolated tribal members in the area.

There have been reported sightings from time to time, as we understand it, but we don’t know,” he said. However Gusella stressed that all workmen are “sensitised” to the issue, but left open the issue of how they have prepared for a possible meeting with the Cacataibos. “We have a licence from the government, so we will keep prospecting,” he added.

Economic Times