London (AP) The House of Commons in London is being urged by indigenous leaders of the Wampis Nation in Peru to prohibit foreign banks from supporting oil operations in the Amazon that they claim damage their ancestral rainforests.
The state-owned oil business Petroperu planned to upgrade a coastal refinery with the assistance of Santander in Spain, JPMorgan Chase in the United States, and HSBC bank in the United Kingdom. Crude oil from a 680-mile (1,094-kilometer) pipeline that passes through rainforest is processed at the plant.
Numerous pipeline breaches have occurred throughout the past ten years.
Following discussions on Thursday, Wampis leader Pamuk Te filo Kukush Pati told The Associated Press, “We have been protecting our forest for more than 7,000 years.” On Friday, the group intended to continue their tour.
We are in a really serious situation, he continued, and there is no assurance of life because their fishing waterways are now severely contaminated.
The most concerning discovery is that Petroperu is financed by multiple banks, according to Tsanim Evaristo Wajai Asamat, another Wampis leader. Additionally, these events are taking place throughout the Amazon.
In 2021, the U.K. nonprofit Bureau of Investigative Journalism first revealed that the banks were bookrunners of a $1 billion bond issuance for the refinery work. In their capacity as bookrunners, banks market the bonds to their clientele and rely on their standing to reassure investors. Each bank earned an estimated $583,000 in fees, according to financial data source Dealogic.
In an email, a Santander Bank spokesperson stated that the bank complied with all applicable environmental laws and carefully considered businesses before investing in Amazonian ventures. Indigenous rights are a core component of JPMorgan’s business, according to a spokesman. In a statement, an HSBC spokesperson stated that the bank had limitations on supporting projects in the Amazon.
According to Petroperu’s email, there have been 89 pipeline breaches in the past ten years. It stated that just two were brought on by equipment failure; the others were either the result of criminal activity or natural factors. According to the company, Petroperu has spent over $180 million cleaning up oil leaks over the past ten years.
In northern Peru, almost 15,000 Wampis inhabit 5,000 square miles (13,000 square kilometers) of forest and swamp. Rare birds and hundreds of fish species can be found in their territory.
When they proclaimed an independent government in 2015, partly to safeguard their ecosystem, the populace made headlines. It is not recognized by the Peruvian government.
Bond buyers faced financial risks related to the impact of oil leaks on local and indigenous people, according to Petroperu’s bond prospectus for the refinery project, which offers transparency to investors. It cautioned that there might be demonstrations, penalties, reparations, and bad press, and that Indigenous people have previously conducted hostile actions against our sites and facilities.
The prospectus also said that former Petroperu officials were the subject of criminal investigations by Peruvian prosecutors for oil leaks. Since then, Petroperu has denied that its executives are under investigation, claiming that prosecutors are interested in two lower-level employees. In an email, the business stated that it is assisting with the investigation.
In 2022, the year after the bond deal, Petroperu was hit with 66 fines by Peruvian authorities, including for further oil spills along the pipeline. Last year, the three banks conducted business with Petroperu once more, offering guidance as the oil giant attempted to modify the conditions of its debt.
Illegal mining and logging on their lands also annoys the Wampis. On Thursday, they were part of a number of delegations advocating for a proposed law that would criminalize British companies for endangering human rights and the environment.
After meeting with a baroness, delegations from Colombia, Liberia, and Mexico met with top officials from the Environment Department and the U.K. Foreign Office.
Northern Mexican Jess Javier Thomas González talked of a ten-year conflict with a mining firm that was listed on the London Stock Exchange, claiming that the corporation had illegally taken over and destroyed their farm.
According to him, the corporation has enormous political and economic clout in Mexico. He claimed that while it is a decent corporate citizen in the UK, they act differently in Mexico.
British companies should always take steps to prevent environmental problems, according to a U.K. government official, and their strategy for dealing with those that don’t is continuously reviewed.
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From Bogota, Colombia, Grattan reported.
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