Santa Clara de Uchunya against palm oil plantation, Peru
Description:
In the territory of the Shipibo people of the Peruvian Amazon, the indigenous community of Santa Clara de Uchunya are facing the devastation of their ancestral forests and rivers. This is due to the aggressive expansion of a palm oil plantation operated by Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C., a member of an international agribusiness group known in Peru as the 'Melka Group' owned by Dennis Melka. By August 2015, more than 6,000 hectares of their forests had been destroyed to make way for palm oil and those who protest face death threats and intimidation. The project also caused contaminated rivers, killed biodiversity, and caused rampant loss of traditional livelihood [1]. Despite suspension orders from the Ministry of Agriculture, widespread condemnation from civil society and Peruvian government forest and agricultural ministries and a stop work order from the RSPO, the operations continue. On April 19, 2018, 81-year-old Shipibo-Konibo leader and traditional medicine healer/shaman Olivia Arévalo Lomas was shot in the chest and murdered. That same day, another Shipibo woman leader named Magdalena Flores Agustín received an anonymous envelope with two bullets and a death threat. The letter read: “you have 48 hours to leave here. One bullet for each of you” [1]. Shortly afterward, a social media video circulated depicting the lynching of Arévalo’s neighbor Canadian Sebastian Woodroffe, who had been spotted sneaking around Arévalo’s home around the time of her murder. Although some blamed the indigenous community for lynching him for their own customary sense of justice as a suspect for her murder, others believe the lynching is unrelated to the murder, which may instead have been politically motivated as part of a pattern of several other unsolved murders of indigenous activists who had repeatedly faced threats stemming from their efforts to keep illegal loggers and palm oil growers off their land [2]. |
Basic Data
| Name of conflict: | Santa Clara de Uchunya against palm oil plantation, Peru |
| Country: | Peru |
| State or province: | Ucayali |
| Location of conflict: | Nueva Requena |
| Accuracy of location | HIGH (Local level) |
Source of Conflict
| Type of conflict. 1st level: | Biomass and Land Conflicts (Forests, Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock Management) |
| Type of conflict. 2nd level: | Plantation conflicts (incl. Pulp Deforestation Land acquisition conflicts |
| Specific commodities: | Timber Palm oil |
Project Details and Actors
| Project details | Plantaciones de Pucallpa's palm oil plantation covers an extension of 5,889 hectares*. To date, at least 5,263 hectares of forests have been cleared to make way for palm oil. An independent study released in April 2015 by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project found that the vast majority of this deforestation came at the expense of primary forest. Planting appears to have started in 2012/2013; by 2015, most of the deforested area had been planted with palm oil. *6845.23 hectares according to MINAGRI (2015). |
| Project area: | 6,845 |
| Type of population | Rural |
| Affected Population: | 300-500 |
| Start of the conflict: | 2014 |
| Company names or state enterprises: | Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C. from Peru - Palm oil company implicated in the dispossession and depredation of the ancestral territory of Santa Clara de Uchunya. United Cacao Limited SEZC from Cayman Islands La Fiduciaria S.A. from Peru - On 2 September 2015, the same day that the Ministry of Agriculture issued the stop order to Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C., the properties (223 in total, totalling 10,392 hectares) on which the company - as well as nearby Plantaciones de Ucayali S.A.C. - had installed oil palm plantations were transferred to a trust managed by La Fiduciaria S.A. These same properties were put up for auction in late June/early July 2016. |
| Relevant government actors: | Dirección Regional de Agricultura Ucayali (DRAU) del Gobierno Regional de Ucayali (GOREU). COFOPRI (Organismo de Formalización de la Propiedad Informal). Dirección General de Asuntos Ambientales Agrarios (DGAAA) del Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego (MINAGRI). La Fiscalía Especializada del Medio Ambiente de Ucayali. Defensoría del Pueblo. |
| International and Finance Institutions | Alternative Investment Market (London Stock Exchange) (AIM) from United Kingdom - Capital raised on the AIM has been used to finance Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C.'s illegal activities. Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) from Malaysia - Industry body which certifies Plantaciones de Pucallpa's produce. |
| Environmental justice organizations (and other supporters) and their websites, if available: | Federación de Comunidades Nativas del Ucayali (FECONAU): https://www.facebook.com/feconau Forest Peoples Programme (FPP): http://www.forestpeoples.org/ Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL): http://www.idl.org.pe/ Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA): http://eia-global.org/ Kené, Instituto de Estudios Forestales y Ambientales: http://www.keneamazon.net/ |
Conflict & Mobilization
| Intensity | MEDIUM (street protests, visible mobilization) |
| Reaction stage | In REACTION to the implementation (during construction or operation) |
| Groups mobilizing: | Indigenous groups or traditional communities International ejos Local ejos Neighbours/citizens/communities Social movements Ethnically/racially discriminated groups |
| Forms of mobilization: | Artistic and creative actions (eg guerilla theatre, murals) Creation of alternative reports/knowledge Development of a network/collective action Involvement of national and international NGOs Lawsuits, court cases, judicial activism Media based activism/alternative media Official complaint letters and petitions Shareholder/financial activism. Street protest/marches Self-demarcation of the community's territory. |
Impacts
| Environmental Impacts | Visible: Biodiversity loss (wildlife, agro-diversity), Loss of landscape/aesthetic degradation, Deforestation and loss of vegetation cover Potential: Desertification/Drought, Food insecurity (crop damage), Global warming, Soil contamination, Soil erosion, Surface water pollution / Decreasing water (physico-chemical, biological) quality, Groundwater pollution or depletion, Large-scale disturbance of hydro and geological systems, Reduced ecological / hydrological connectivity, Air pollution |
| Health Impacts | Visible: Mental problems including stress, depression and suicide Potential: Malnutrition, Health problems related to alcoholism, prostitution, Deaths, Violence related health impacts (homicides, rape, etc..), Accidents |
| Socio-economical Impacts | Visible: Increase in Corruption/Co-optation of different actors, Displacement, Loss of livelihood, Loss of traditional knowledge/practices/cultures, Specific impacts on women, Violations of human rights, Land dispossession, Loss of landscape/sense of place Potential: Social problems (alcoholism, prostitution, etc..) |
Outcome
| Project Status | In operation |
| Conflict outcome / response: | Violent targeting of activists Project temporarily suspended Following a government investigation in August 2015, Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C. was issued with a suspension order. Nevertheless, in May 2016, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, who form part of an ongoing legal investigation into Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C.'s activities, found that the company continues working, in contravention of this order (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPU9nRilTe8&feature=youtu.be). - Following a formal complaint issued by the community in December 2015, the RSPO instructed Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C. to stop work, pending further investigation. This investigation is ongoing. - In late June 2016, notices appeared in the Indonesian newspaper The Jakarta Post announcing that Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C., along with another Melka-controlled company, Plantaciones de Ucayali S.A.C. (also subject to a MINAGRI suspension order since 2014), planned to sell their plantation lands through the Peruvian trust services company, La Fiduciaria S.A. According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, "The June 2015 sale announcement lists the offshore company “SH UOL Administrative Agent Limited,” based in Bermuda, as the beneficiary of the trust, but records are not available regarding who really owns this company. If this sale is structured specifically to evade Peruvian law or sanctions, the sale would be considered illegal, according to Peruvian environmental lawyer, Cesar Ipenza. However, even in absence of outright illegality, the trust structure allows anonymity, both of the true current owners of the properties and those who might be acquiring them." |
| Proposal and development of alternatives: | The community of Santa Clara de Uchunya are calling for their rights to their ancestral territory to be upheld, in accordance with the Peruvian Constitution and the ILO Convention No.169. |
| Do you consider this an environmental justice success? Was environmental justice served?: | Not Sure |
| Briefly explain: | The community of Santa Clara de Uchunya has not managed to stop the oil palm plantations, but the onwer is investigated. |
Sources & Materials
| Juridical relevant texts related to the conflict (laws, legislations, EIAs, etc) |
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| References to published books, academic articles, movies or published documentaries |
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| Related media links to videos, campaigns, social network |
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| Other comments: | La fiscalía ambiental y la procuraduría para delitos ambientales del Ministerio del Ambiente han tenido procesos penales en marcha contra tres empresas de palma aceitera en el Perú, una del Grupo Romero (Palmas de Shanusi, en Loreto) y dos precisamente vinculadas a Dennis Melka: Cacao Perú Norte y Plantaciones Ucayali (de la que es apoderado legal), acusadas de deforestar un total de 7 mil hectáreas de bosques en Tamshiyacu, Loreto, y Nueva Requena en Ucayali, respectivamente. |
Meta information
| Contributor: | Thomas Younger, updated by Dalena Tran |
| Last update | 10/10/2016 |
| Conflict ID: | 2363 |
Images |
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Aerial view of deforestation caused by Plantaciones de Pucallpa S.A.C.
Photo credit: Mathias Rittgerott / Rainforest Rescue.
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EIA-produced map depicting scale, location, and corporate connections of the clear-cut Amazon land now being auctioned by La Fiduciara S.A.
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Olivia Arevalo Lomas
Photo AWID
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