“A Canadian oil company has signed a deal with Peru’s government allowing it to explore land inhabited by one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes,” writes Survivor International, “the only international organization supporting tribal peoples worldwide,” according to its website.
Petrolifera, a Calgary-based oil and gas company, will be allowed “to explore almost four thousand square kilometres of a remote part of Peru where uncontacted Cacataibo Indians live,” according to a press release from May 13.
The Canadian company already has a license to work in land nearby where uncontacted Cacataibo also live, it adds.
“They have conducted seismic tests using dynamite there, and the IBC (Instituto del Bien Comun) and FENACOCA have appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to stop them. Despite this the Petrolifera CEO, Richard Gusella, has described his company as a ‘poster child’ for companies interacting with local communities.”
Yes, we hear that a lot from Canadian resource and mining companies, but “child” might be the operative word. When these contracts don’t work out, the Canadians tend to whine and complain (and sue) until they get their way. The Canada-Peru FTA, which is going through Parliament now, will lend a veneer of legitimacy to this kind of bullying from Canadian corporations operating overseas by facilitating the lawsuits through investor-state dispute resolution.
Petrolifera is 24 per cent owned by Conacher Oil and Gas Limited, which works out of the same address but which is primarily invested in Alberta tar sands. Hardly a poster child for sustainable development either.
Feel free to do some whining and complaining of your own:
Petrolifera Head Office
900, 332 – 6 Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
T2P 0B2
T 403.539.8450
F 403.538.6225
inquiries@petrolifera.ca