Amazon Watch works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin.

DEVASTATING OIL SPILL IN NORTHERN PERU

Photo Credit: Diario La Region

The oil company currently operating
Block 1-AB, Pluspetrol, has caused a major oil spill in the pristine Marañón River. Many remote indigenous communities have been left without potable water or food, and Pluspetrol failed to notify them that the spill was heading towards them so that they could collect safe water before the spill reached them. Local and national authorities have been slow to act, so the affected communities are reaching out to the international community for support.

We'll post more information here soon.

more »

Indigenous and community leaders from the Ecuadorean Amazon devastated by Chevron's oil contamination are in the U.S. Gulf Coast region to tour the Gulf spill area, visit with Native American tribes affected by BP's tragic Gulf spill, and exchange ideas on how to cope with the immediate and long-term environmental, health, economic, and cultural impacts of terrible oil disasters.

video and photos from the delegation »