Unreported World

As we travelled along the River Corrientes, cutting deep through the thick, green Peruvian Amazon, the only company we had was from the hidden animals whose shrieks pierced the jungle, and the occasional indigenous Indian in a canoe.

We were in one of the most untouched places on earth. But our magical journey came to an abrupt end when, after three days in the middle of this forest wilderness, we heard the loud thud of heavy machinery. As we drew closer to the settlement of Jose Olaya, we saw the distant flicker of a giant flame.

To say an oil refinery in the middle of the jungle is an incongruous sight is an understatement. Yet, not only has an oil company been working here for over thirty years, the original company had set up its operations on the site of a local Achuar community. As we walked through the village, among the discarded oil drums and detritus, the villagers were desperate to tell us they were paying a heavy price for what has happened here, and that they were not even consulted before drilling for oil began. One woman remembered when the company descended in helicopters – it was her first contact with the outside world - and she was terrified. The villagers told us they had lost their way of life; the noise of the operations has scared off the animals, making hunting impossible, and they said their waters had been polluted.

Because of what has happened in Jose Olaya, word has spread throughout the jungle about the impact that drilling can have on communities. As we travelled further into the forest, we realized that we were witnessing something remarkable: remote tribes, often with no connection to each other, are now joining together to protect their environment and fight government plans to auction off nearly three quarters of the Amazon to oil, gas and mining companies.

Even with local guides, we were lucky to be allowed entry into many of these communities – recent clashes with the government ended in over 30 deaths after thousands of indigenous Indians demonstrated against these government plans. This has left communities more suspicious and fearful of outsiders than ever before. And also more determined; at nearly every turn we were told that people here are prepared to fight to the death to protect the forest.

As we hung up our hammocks one night in a remote Achuar settlement where nearly every aspect of daily life is dependent on the jungle, one of the village elders came over to talk.

He pointed to the jungle around us and said simply, ‘If this goes, we all go.’

The Indigenous Indians of Peru are not simply fighting for their way of life, they are fighting for their survival.