013 - Protection of Andes-Amazon rivers of Peru: the Marañón, Ucayali, Huallaga and Amazonas, from large-scale infrastructure projects

013 - Protection of Andes-Amazon rivers of Peru: the Marañón, Ucayali, Huallaga and Amazonas, from large-scale infrastructure projects

Latest version in this language: Version as sent to Plenary | Published on: 01 Oct 2021

RECALLING Resolutions 1.51 Indigenous Peoples, Mineral and Oil Extraction, Infrastructure and Development Works (Montreal, 1996) and 2.34 Multilateral and bilateral financial institutions and projects impacting on biodiversity and natural features (Amman, 2000), as well as Resolutions 2.19 Responding to the Recommendations from the World Commission on Dams (Amman, 2000), 19.29 Dam Construction, Irrigation and Water Diversions and 19.44 Water Regimes of Rivers, Floodplains and Wetlands (both adopted in Buenos Aires, 1994);

CONSIDERING that eight major Andean Amazon river basins, of which five are in Peru (Madre de Dios, Ucayali, Marañón, Napo and Putumayo), have some of the longest free-flowing river stretches in the world, contain high levels of sensitive biodiversity, and are critical for connectivity, sediment and water flow for the highly productive ecosystems in the lowland Amazon, including the floodplains in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve and the largest and most complex wetland in Peru, the Abanico del Pastaza;

AWARE that the Amazon Basin is home to over 2,400 known species of freshwater fish, of which nearly half are endemic, and that the fragmentation of Andes-Amazon connectivity could particularly impact migratory freshwater fish that are a vital source of protein for people in the Amazon Basin;

RECOGNISING that in Peru these rivers support over 14 indigenous ethnic groups, comprising over 424 communities that depend on these rivers and associated ecosystems for their livelihoods and culture, with local people consuming up to 500g of fish a day, and therefore these rivers play a key role with regards to local populations’ food security;

NOTING that several Peruvian cities and local communities in the Amazon Basin, depend on the resources from these rivers and associated ecosystems for food and economic activities;

CONCERNED that an increasing number of infrastructure projects in Peru, including dams and connectivity (Amazon Waterway) proposals based on dredging these rivers, are being carried out with very low environmental and social standards, poor citizen participation mechanisms, a failure to identify and incorporate ancestral knowledge of indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge of local communities, insufficient technical studies on the justification of these projects and their negative social and environmental impacts, including impacts on biodiversity and fish migration patterns, toxicological impacts from the disturbance of sediments, and impacts on indigenous peoples and local communities;

CONCERNED that 20 hydro-dam sites in the Marañón river were declared in 2011 of national interest, for which five proposals have been granted concessions, of which one is already in operation, two have expired, and two have valid concessions and could begin construction; and

CONSIDERING that there is local and indigenous opposition to major infrastructure projects, including opposition to the Amazon Waterway Project by the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) and Peru’s main indigenous peoples’ federations Organización de Pueblos Indígenas del Oriente (ORPIO), ORPIO, Coordinadora Regional de los Pueblos Indígenas de San Lorenzo (CORPI-SL) and Organización Regional Aidesep Ucayali (ORAU), and considering that the environmental impact assessment received over 400 observations from governmental institutions and civil society, and that the agreements regarding the prior consultation of indigenous communities had not been fully complied with; and ALSO CONSIDERING the opposition to the Chadín II hydro-dam project by the local communities of Tupén Grande and Mendán;

The IUCN World Conservation Congress, at its session in Marseille, France:

1. CALLS ON the Director General to:

a. send a letter to the President of Peru conveying the appeal in operative paragraph 3 of this Motion regarding the importance of maintaining the free-flowing nature (current connectivity status) of the Marañón River and of compliance with Peru’s environmental and social standards for large infrastructure projects, as well as the importance of creating a legal framework for the protection of emblematic free-flowing rivers in Peru; and

b. offer, as far as possible, technical support to Peruvian organisations that are IUCN Members, as well as to the Peruvian Government, in relation to the content of this Motion;

2. URGES the Republic of Peru to:

a. Re-evaluate the prioritisation of the Amazon Waterway Project in the current technical conditions, from the list of projects in the National Infrastructure for competitiveness Plan and to prioritise sustainable alternatives for promoting safe and improved Amazonian river transportation without dredging, through the creation of a space for technical and multicultural dialogue that includes the participation and proposals of indigenous peoples and local communities; and

b. communicate to the communities that would be directly and indirectly impacted by the Chadin II and Veracruz hydroelectric dams that the environmental licenses of the projects have expired, and that without a valid environmental license, the concessionaires cannot exercise any rights;

3. ENCOURAGES the Republic of Peru to:

a. create a framework for protecting Peru’s free-flowing rivers;

b. take all necessary steps to ensure that aquatic and riparian ecosystems and territories of the local populations of the Amazon rivers are not significantly affected by the development of infrastructure projects in this region, including the Amazon Waterway Project and Marañón hydro-dams;

c. lead a South American regional effort for sustainable transboundary water management for the Amazon Basin that establishes issues such as common conservation goals and maintaining Andes-Amazon connectivity, sustainable use, information exchange and conflict resolution; and

d. respect standards set by International Labour Organization Convention No. 169, ratified by Peru in 1994 and Law 29785 (Ley de Consulta Previa de Perú), in relation to Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Prior Consultation rights, as a condition for the development of infrastructure projects that affect the rights of indigenous peoples;

4. CALLS ON bilateral and multilateral funding bodies to strengthen their safeguards for infrastructure projects affecting the biodiversity of Amazon rivers, including the need for requiring their clients to undertake rigorous studies based on scientific and local knowledge of the conditions of those rivers in order to understand their complexity and their relationship to the forests, land and ecosystems of the region; and

5. URGES United Nations agencies to support the countries of the Andes-Amazon region in generating knowledge, strategies and mechanisms to ensure the conservation of aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity of Amazon rivers in the face of infrastructure activities in the Amazon Basin, such as the Amazon Waterway Project and the Marañón hydro-dams.

In a recent study (Grill et al, 2019) the Maranon is identified as one of the world’s relatively few remaining ‘very log’ free-flowing rivers, with a connectivity index of over 99%. In 2011, Peru declared the construction of 20 hydrodams on the Marañón river of national interest. The expected impacts of the dams on extend beyond the Marañón river basin itself, potentially affecting both biodiversity and people in the entire Amazon Basin: including impacts for the sources of livelihood for the indigenous Awajuns and Wampis, as well as the obstruction of migratory routes for fish, the river’s flood pulse and its transport of nutrients, harming the river biota’s food supply, spawning, and shelter and ultimately impacting fishing harvests and the cultivation of crops.

The 20 proposed dams are in different stages of planning. The 600-MW Chadin II and the 635-MW Veracruz dams constitute the most immediate threats, with final concessions having been approved in 2014. However, neither project has commenced construction until now, and based on Peruvian law (Law 27446 and its regulations), which establishes a maximum validity of five years for environmental certifications, both projects should have lost their environmental certifications. However, the Peruvian government has not yes officially pronounced the environmental certifications as expired.

To learn more, watch the film Confluir: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo2Qgp2JuPM

References :

1. WCS Perú (2015). El Pongo de Manseriche: Entre los Andes y la Selva. Lima, Peru: WCS Perú.
2. Chuctaya, J. & Cañas, C. (2015). Diversidad de Peces de las partes bajas del río Marañón y su importancia económica para la región. Lima, Perú: WCS Perú.
3. Finer, M. & Jenkins, C.N. (2012) Proliferation of Hydroelectric Dams in the Andean Amazon and Implications for Andes-Amazon Connectivity. PLoS ONE 7(4): e35126.
4. Glave, M., Borasino, E. & Vergara, K. (2015) Análisis socioeconómico de la pesca en el ámbito del Pongo de Manseriche. Lima, Peru: WCS Perú.
5. Grill, G., Lehner, B., Thieme, M., Geenen, B., Tickner, D, Antonelli, F. ... Zarfl, C. (2019). Mapping the world’s free-flowing rivers. Nature 569, 215-221.
6. Lo, J. (2016) Perú: El río que no se deja llevar por la corriente. Mongabay. Retrieved from https://es.mongabay.com/2016/09/hidroelectricas-conflictos-amazonia-medio_ambiente-peru/
7. Makrakis, S., Bertão, A. P. S., Silva, J. F. M., Makrakis, M. C., Sanz-Ronda, F. J. & Celestino, L. F. (2019). Hydropower Development and Fishways: A Need for Connectivity in Rivers of the Upper Paraná Basin. Sustainability 11(13), 3749.
8. OSINERGMIN (2019). Supervisión de Contratos de Proyectos de Generación y Transmisión de Energía Eléctrica - Junio 2019. Retrieved from http://www.osinergmin.gob.pe/seccion/centro_documental/electricidad/Documentos/Publicaciones/Compendio-Proyectos-GTE-Construccion-febrero-2019.pdf
9. Rodriguez Martinez, M. & Castro, B. (2019) What is the Odebrecht corruption scandal in Latin America, and who is implicated? Euronews. Retrieved from https://www.euronews.com/2019/04/18/what-is-the-odebrecht-corruption-scandal-in-latin-america-and-who-is-implicated
10. Tognelli, M.F., Lasso, C.A., Bota-Sierra, C.A., Jiménez-Segura, L., Cox, N.A. (Editors)(2016). Estado de Conservación y Distribución de la Biodiversidad de Agua Dulce en los Andes Tropicales. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN
11. WWF Perú (2016). Marañón: Evaluación de Servicios Ecosistémicos. Lima, Peru: WWF Perú.

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Contexto: En Perú se viene desarrollando el proyecto Hidrovía Amazónica en la región amazónica de Loreto. En dicha región se alberga al menos el 50% de los bosques amazonicos del Perú , así como Areas Naturales protegidas (como el Parque Nacional Güeppí-Sekime, Parque Nacional Yaguas) Reservas Nacionales (como el Pacaya Samiria), áreas de conservación regional, territorios indígenas (siendo la región con la mayor población indígena y comunidades nativas), además se encuentra el mayor complejo de Humedales como el Abanico del Pastaza declarado sitio Ramsar, sobre estas áreas confluyen importantes rios amazónicos como el Huallaga, Marañon y el Amazonas que no solo abastecen de agua dulce a la población sino también alberga ecosistemas acuáticos con diversidad de peces importantes para la población local y su seguridad alimentaria.
El proyecto Hidrovia Amazónica sería el primer proyecto de infraestructura fluvial en ríos amazónicos no solo en el país sino en toda la cuenca amazónica, por lo cual no se tiene referentes previos en cuanto análisis e información sobre el impacto de este tipo de proyectos en estas áreas con alto valor ecosistémico.

En qué consiste el proyecto: ordernar el tráfico fluvial, dragado de ciertas zonas denominadas "malos pasos", retiro de troncos del lecho del río, e instalaciones de estaciones informativas. Sin embargo, el estudio de impacto ambienta elaborado no precisa zonas de dragado, ni sus posibles impactos, tampoco ha identificado pasivos ambientales.

Implicancias del proyecto en la población local y el ecosistema acuático: debido a la poca información desarrollada y especializada (a pesar de haberse requerido) las poblaciones indígenas han observado que este proyecto, en especial los dragados en ríos amazónicos podrian afectar su fuente de alimentación (peces) así como remoción de áreas contaminadas (por otras actividades extistentes como los derrames de petróleo en la amazonía) y si no se considera el valor e importancia ecosistema de este tipo de áreas sensibles sumado al cambi climático en la cual conlleva a un comportamiento aun mas inestble de los rios amazónico (épocas de creciente y vaciante de los rios) las poblaciones indígenas consideran que sería un riesgo de pérdida y afectaciones.

Proceso desarrollado por las poblaciones involucradas: Aidesep es la organización indígena que alberga a las comunidades del área de influencia del proyecto, estás están representadas a su vez por sus bases, las federaciones regionales ORAU, ORPIO y CORPI-SL

Reportajes, articulos y videos sobre el proyecto hidrovia amazónica:
http://www.inframazonia.com/
http://www.aidesep.org.pe/noticias/aidesep-pide-senace-asegurar-el-derecho-la-participacion-indigena
http://www.orpio.org.pe/?p=931
https://lta.reuters.com/articulo/peru-ambiente-idLTAKCN1TX2MR
https://redaccion.lamula.pe/2019/08/21/hidrovia-amazonica-ministerio-de-cultura-consulta-previa-pueblos-indigenas-observaciones/jorgepaucar/
https://larepublica.pe/economia/2019/07/03/hidrovia-amazonica-eia-despierta-incertidumbres-sobre-impactos-del-proyecto/

Estandares y salvagurdas: Este tipo de proyectos requiere un minucioso cumplimiento de estandares socioambientales, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta que se trata de la primera experiencia en la cuenca amazónica sobre proyectos de infraestructura fluvial con dragados en rios amazónicos. Actualmente el proyecto esta concesionada a la empresa COHIDRO, compuesto por capitales Chinos y Peruanos.
  • Asociación Amazónicos por la Amazonía [Peru]
  • Centro de Conservación, Investigación y Manejo de Áreas Naturales - Cordillera Azul [Peru]
  • Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales [Peru]
  • Instituto de Montaña-Asociación Instituto Andino de Montaña [Peru]
  • Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental [Peru]
  • The WILD Foundation [United States of America]
  • Wetlands International [The Netherlands]

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