- This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 13 years, 10 months ago by
.
- Posts
Peru tribes file IFC complaint over Maple pollution
Luis Andres Henao
LIMALIMA (Reuters) – A Peruvian tribe filed a complaint on Tuesday with the ombudsman of the World Bank’s International Finance Corp (IFC) against Maple Energy Plc, accusing the oil company of polluting its ancestral land and rivers in the Amazon.
Green Business | Gulf Oil Spill
Members of the Shipibo-Konibo indigenous communities in Canaan de Cachicuyo and Nuevo Sucre say Maple has contaminated their food and water, including five oil spills in the last 15 months.
“Our kids are drinking this water and getting sick. And while Maple is working in our territory and getting rich we’re suffering,” Joaquin Sanancino Rodriguez, a community leader in Canaan, told Reuters. “The issue has never been resolved; that’s why we’ve launched this demand.”
The tribe has requested help from the International Accountability Project, a U.S.-based environmental nongovernmental organization, to negotiate an agreement with Maple so that the company would accept responsibility and be monitored by the IFC.
The IFC, which promotes private sector investment in developing countries as a way to reduce poverty, has made loans to Maple.
Guillermo Ferreyros, Maple’s general manager in Peru, dismissed the claims by indigenous tribes. “We have been working in this area for 16 years and we have an excellent relationship with the community,” he said.
Lance Crist, a senior manager for IFC Oil & Gas, also dismissed the claims.
“We believe that Maple is committed to all of the steps that would be expected on an international best practice basis,” Crist said.
Natalie Bridgeman, executive director accountability counsel of the International Accountability Project, said filing the claim with the ombudsman would make it a faster process than suing in court and that they hope to have a resolution within one year.
Maple Energy is one of several foreign companies with operations in Peru, which is actively encouraging investment in its bid to become an exporter of oil and natural gas.
Mining and energy companies often run into trouble with remote communities whose residents say they contaminate their environment and water supplies and fail to share profits.
Last year, at least 34 people died and more than 100 were injured when tribes opposed to President Alan Garcia’s investor friendly policies in the Amazon basin clashed with police.
(Reporting by Luis Andres Henao; Additional reporting by Terry Wade and Patricia Velez; Editing by Richard Chang)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.