by Caroline Totten

Created on: January 28, 2008

Should U.S. environmental standards apply when multinational companies develop the petroleum resources of fragile ecosystems such as Peru's Amazon?

When oil reserves were discovered in the jungle near Iquitos, Peru,
environmental standards were not a big issue. The Peruvian government was mainly interested in revenue. The U.S. government and the drilling companies were interested in oil. A deal was negotiated. Five years later, the details of that negotiation can be surmised by the condition of the environment.

The indigenous tribal natives are faced with oil spills that have polluted the Amazon River and affected the jungle, which is their supermarket. Although wild fruit and roots and game animals were never the modern version of gourmet, the people lived in harmony with the environment. Now they are wandering into the villages, hungry and homeless. They cannot read or write. They do not understand the value of oil, but they do understand the spoilage of habitat.

My information comes from my neighbor who, since 2002, has spent nine months of the each year in Iquitos. Initially, she went there with her husband, an engineer, who assisted with installation of an airstrip. The Peruvian government claimed the landing strip was a military installation, but essentially, it facilitated the needs of the oil industry. A U.S. loan to Peru financed the construction.

Subsequently, her husband was recruited to assist with establishing roads through the jungle. He met with the tribal leaders. He believed that roads would bring them into the 21st century and improve their living conditions. It has not happened yet.

Comfortable housing in Iquitos is available for wealthy foreigners, but the indigenous people live by sub-standards that would not be acceptable for the poor in the U.S. In the area where my neighbor lives, there is one butcher with a refrigerator. She, of course, has a refrigerator, air-conditioning, and servants. She shops daily at an open-air market where the locals sell jungle fruit, fish, and vegetables, sometimes-cultivated vegetables. She boils her drinking water. She likes it there. Her husband is trying to negotiate a supply of clean drinking water for the regional population.

The number of river people is reportedly 100,000, but this cannot be verified because it depends on who is counting and what is politically correct at the moment. They live in thatched huts built on stilts and situated in the Amazon River. They drink the river water, bathe in it,

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