A Report by Amazon Watch and Save America’s Forests

ConocoPhillips in the Peruvian Amazon ConocoPhillips in the Peruvian Amazon

Authors: Mitch Anderson, Matt Finer, Daniel Herriges, Andrew Miller, Atossa Soltani

Design: Design Action Collective (Oakland, CA)

This report has been produced jointly by Amazon Watch and Save America’s Forests, two non-governmental organizations with extensive field experience in northern . Much of the information herein was gathered during a series of field visits to and elsewhere in Loreto, in late 2008 and early 2009.

Amazon Watch works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with indigenous and environmental organi- zations in the Amazon in campaigns for corporate accountability, sustainability, human rights, and the protection of ecological systems.

Save America’s Forests works to protect the forests of North America and the west- ern Amazon by generating and advancing science-based conservation strategies.

Cover photo: Headwaters of the currently pristine Nanay-Mazán-Arabela region. Photo © M. Hidalgo Photo: R. Foste r Table of Contents

Executive Summary ...... 2 Introduction ...... 5 ConocoPhillips in the Peruvian Amazon ...... 6 Ecological Concerns ...... 11 Indigenous Communities and ConocoPhillips ...... 15 Indigenous Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation . . . . . 18 Conclusions and Recommendations ...... 22

ConocoPhillips in the Peruvian Amazon 1 Photo: R. Foste r

The tropical rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon, second in expanse only to that of Brazil, has EXECUTIVE emerged as a flashpoint for the oil industry in Latin America and for ConocoPhillips in particular: the company is now the SUMMARY AND leading holder of exploration acreage in Peru with over 10.5 RECOMMENDATIONS million acres. The Peruvian state exhibits a weak regulatory capacity and little political will for protecting the environment, indigenous rights or public health. As such, Conoco Phillips’ adherence to Peruvian state requirements does not go far enough to guard against potential liabilities from human rights and environmental impacts of its operations.

Depending on ConocoPhil- ety organizations, indigenous lips’s course of action, the com- federations and institutional pany will emerge either as a shareholders. Focusing on the leader in the field of corporate enormous stretch of land un- social responsibility among the der ConocoPhillips’ control in oil industry in Latin America Peru, this report details some or become the subject of vis- of the downside risks facing ible criticisms, campaigns, the company and provides and legal actions brought by a concrete recommendations for growing group of civil soci- consideration.

2 ConocoPhillips in the Peruvian Amazon CONOCOPHILLIPS IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON the region covered by the Alto Nanay-Pintuyacu-Chambira Regional Conservation Area. The study’s recommendations Since its acquisition of Burlington Resources in 2006, include, “Restrict[ing] intensive commercial use in Nanay- ConocoPhillips has been an increasingly significant player in Mazán-Arabela Headwaters. The area’s soft substrates and efforts to develop oil and gas resources in the Amazon Basin. steep gradients are subjected to an almost continuous natural ConocoPhillips currently holds exploration and drilling erosion, making the headwaters extremely vulnerable to any rights to five concessions covering over 10.5 million acres of activity that increases the rate of erosion—timber extraction, tropical rainforests in Peru, a larger territory than that oc- oil extraction, mining, or large-scale agriculture. If intensive cupied by any other U.S. oil company in the Amazon Basin. use is permitted in the area, the increase in erosion will trig- ConocoPhillip’s holdings in Peru comprise what could be ger heavy sedimentation in the three watersheds, resulting in consider