Peru ignores UN calls to suspend Amazon gas expansion
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2014/jan/13/peru-amazon-forest-gas-expansion-un
The Peruvian government is pushing ahead with plans to expand gas operations in a supposedly protected reserve in the Amazon despite calls by the United Nations to suspend them.
The company leading the operations, Pluspetrol, moved one step closer to proceeding with the expansion of the Camisea gas project – Peru’s biggest ever energy development – following a report by the vice-ministry of inter-culturality (VMI) last week.
Pluspetrol’s plans include drilling 18 wells and conducting seismic tests in an “intangible” reserve for indigenous peoples living in “voluntary isolation” and “initial contact” which is also part of the buffer zone for the Manu national park, where Unesco says the biological diversity “exceeds that of any other place on Earth.”
