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Peru's northern Amazon region, in particular, the lower Urubamba region, is being threatened by extreme ecological disturbance and exploitation by a multitude of multinational companies associated with the Camisea Project. This fragile eco system must be treated with the greatest sensitivity and highest standards when developing its petroleum resources.

This project began in 2003 when Peru, desiring to increase foreign investments in its country, reduced the royalties on the exploration of gas and oil. Peru's Amazon rain forests are a fragile eco system that also have a large reserve of gas and oil. With the reduced royalties, this area became a great investment opportunity for gas and oil companies all over the world

which immediately began leasing large blocks of land in the rain forest in which to begin exploration. The Camisea Project is a multinational project to bring oil and gas from the Peruvian Amazon region through the Andes to the Pacific coast. By 2010, this project will bring gas and oil to the western United States, Mexico, and other countries on the Pacific coast.

There are benefits and problems with this project. Though this project brings massive amounts of revenue to an impoverished nation, the project has also brought much harm to the ecological stability of the Amazon region.

Some of the problems are: deforestation, contamination of waterways by spills from the gas pipes, introduction of disease to indigenous peoples who have little or no immunity to these diseases, erosion and landslides from the clearing of land, the danger to endangered animal species indigenous to this area, and the danger of extinction to other plant, tree, and animal life in this region.

The value of the Amazon region to the ecological health of the world and its impact on world weather patterns is enormous. Conservationists monitor and watch with alarm at the rapid destruction of the world's rain forests and, in particular, the tropical rain forests.
The value of this region goes beyond its importance in regulating weather patterns and fresh water stores. It is also called the pharmacy of the world and contains 70% of the plants identified by the United States National Cancer Institute as useful therapies for cancer.
So far only one percent of the tropical rain forest's species have been analyzed. Therefore,
the deforestation and disruption of these areas is destroying a valuable natural asset to the entire world.

There are a multiple of problems to consider in the oil and

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