• English

Traces of Oil
in the Peruvian Amazon

In the 1970s, an oil strike in Peru’s northeastern Loreto region was heralded as the path to development. Half a century later, communities in the area, most of them Indigenous, lack safe drinking water, health care and decent schools, and are left with a legacy of pollution. The question now: Can Loreto plan for a future beyond petroleum?

Published on July 18, 2022

The oil industry has left a legacy of oil spills and deforestation in the Amazonian oil field known as Block 192 in Peru’s Loreto region. Photo: Thomas Müller
César Mozombite of the mainly Kukama community of Cuninico, on the lower Marañón River, says oil spills have brought economic hardship to the affected communities. Photo: Ginebra Peña