|
Because hydrocarbons are now being exploited at a
rate 7 times higher than in 2003, the impacts of oil and gas activities need to
be scientifically studied. These studies
should rigorously identify and measure the effects on biodiversity, indigenous
groups and wilderness areas in this region.
This view was expressed to SciDev.Net by Martí
Orta-Martinez from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) and co-author of
a study on the predation of the Peruvian Amazon in this century by the granting
of land for gas exploration and oil.
"There is a need for universities and Peruvian
investigation centers to document and analyze these impacts in a coordinated and
systematic manner. A centralized database would be useful to devising policies
and strategies," he said.
According Matt Finer, U.S. forest ecologist,
member of the non-governmental organization Save America's Forest, and a leading
researcher on the subject, 48.6 percent of the Peruvian Amazon is covered by oil
and gas concessions. In 2003 this percentage was 7.1.
Plus, according to the technical evaluation
agreements and proposals for concessions, the percentage could grow to 72
percent in the coming years.
Over 17 percent of current concessions are in
protected areas, and more than half of all indigenous lands. They also
constitute over 60 percent of the area proposed as a reserve for indigenous
peoples in voluntary isolation or out of contact.
For authors, it is difficult to predict the
future of the western Amazon as it confronts a “second boom”� of hydrocarbon
exploitation. The first was in the seventies, when there was not "a regional or
systematic method to determine their environmental impacts."
Orta-Martinez
stated that science should help with comprehensive investigations of the effects
in each disturbed region, because currently, the environmental impact studies
are broken into individual lots or oil projects without having a regional
perspective.
Such investigations should expand the
accumulated bio-contaminants in the hydrocarbon industry, to monitor related
activities in illegal logging, the advance the frontier logging, agriculture and
livestock.
In particular, studies should be done on the
situation of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, who are highly
vulnerable to the spread of epidemics, he said.
The study, published in Environmental Research
Letters on February 16, presents a rigorous political debate with the goal of
preventing further environmental damage and minimizing the possibility of social
conflicts.
Translated by ENN.
| 
