Peru Amazon Natives win key victory against big oil

Amazon Natives of the Achuar tribe together with Amazon Watch and EarthRights International have managed a significant victory in their long battle to get oil companies such as California’s Occidental Petroleum to both better care for the Amazon rainforest and compensate Natives for pollution.

The Achuar tribe numbers some 4,500 individuals that live on subsistence level in central-northern Peru and rely on fishing and hunting. Starting in the 1960s they began to see oil production and pollution in their area and its consequences. In May 2007, with the support of activists they sued Occidental Petroleum in Los Angeles accusing them of deadly pollution.

The Ninth Circuit Court decided Dec. 6 that it would judge over the matter reversing a previous U.S. decision from April 2008 that it was up to Peruvian courts to rule on the matter.

“This is a major victory for the rights of indigenous peoples,” said Marco Simons, Legal Director of EarthRights International, who argued the appeal before the Ninth Circuit. “Oxy will now face justice in the U.S. federal courts, rather than in a Peruvian legal system that has never compensated indigenous groups for environmental contamination.”

Peru Amazon Natives win key victory against big oil Indian Country Today ICT Global