In countries like Peru, the high price of oil is driving a new wave of regressive legal attacks benefiting the oil industry that threaten the environment and Indigenous peoples.

Anglo-French oil company Perenco is attempting to block the creation of a special reserve for Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, who are particularly vulnerable to violence and communicable diseases when outsiders enter their territory. Perenco’s motive is financial, as the proposed reserve overlaps its oil concessions.

Peru’s national Indigenous federation, AIDESEP, has spearheaded the long struggle to create the Napo-Tigre Reserve. Its approval was the result of more than 19 years of constant campaigning, and it signifies that the Peruvian government has finally recognized that there are indeed peoples in voluntary isolation living in this region of the Amazon whose lives and rights must be protected.

Such attacks are examples of how the oil lobby keeps the current legal framework – the product of years of struggle by Indigenous movements and civil society – under constant siege.

We must join in solidarity with Indigenous organizations to defend their rights and territories. The global imperative to stop oil expansion – whether in the Amazon or anywhere else – is one of the most urgent causes that humanity has to address, before it is too late.