PERU: Last Uninhabited Jungle Saved by Film
[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
September 19, 2000
By Abraham Lama
LIMA, Sep 19 (IPS) - The Peruvian government has closed the gate to transnational oil companies on the road to the world's last uninhabited jungle by declaring the Candamo Valley a biological sanctuary, a decision largely considered to be the result of the international success of a documentary film on the endangered area.
Surrounded by mountains that have been protecting the area since the Pleistocene era, the Candamo - located in the Peruvian Amazon - was for millions of years an untouched tropical region of great biodiversity. The valley's isolation has made it a natural refuge for species of flora and fauna that are unique in the world.
But lying beneath this earthly paradise is petroleum. Four years ago, the US-based transnational Mobil Oil obtained authorisation from the Peruvian government to set up drilling operations in the valley.
The concession triggered alarm throughout the global scientific community and environmental organisations. One group, Conservation International, was able to convince Mobil to accept an oil- drilling plan that would minimise the inevitable ecological impact of its activities in the Candamo.
Filmmaker Daniel Winitzky, meanwhile, made ''Candamo, la £ltima selva sin hombres'' (Candamo, The Last Uninhabited Jungle), a documentary portraying the Amazon paradise threatened by Mobil Oil.
The film reveals the Candamo as seen through the eyes and words of three natives, Mishaha, Melo and Manu, who play themselves on screen as they travel in a canoe to the hidden valley.
''The virtue of Winitzky is that he did not try to be an Indiana Jones, presenting a colourful external view, but instead let the authentic protagonists speak for themselves,'' said journalist R ul Serrano.
The film has won prizes at various festivals and will soon be shown by the Discovery Channel, available to paying viewers in 150 countries. The Peruvian government's newfound willingness to protect of the valley means Winitzky will have to change the documentary's ending before the Discovery Channel shows it.
''Mobil Oil's withdrawal from the Candamo Valley is like the movies of yesteryear in which the hero rescues the captive child and forces the evil petroleum company that usurped the land to flee,'' said Roger Rumrrill, an independent expert on Amazon issues.
''It is an interesting story, because now the hero takes a stand by making an environmental film, which wins international awards, sways public opinion and convinces Peruvian authorities to protect the Candamo Valley,'' added Rumrrill.
''But this victory is just the first round. It is not enough to declare the valley a protected area. It is also necessary to establish a plan for its appropriate and self-sustaining management,'' he concluded.
Mobil Oil made the surprise announcement in August that it was moving its operations out of the Candamo and returned control over the area to the Peruvian government.
Another oil company, Elf Aquitaine, of France, expressed its interest in replacing Mobil Oil in the Candamo, but by then the valley had been incorporated into the Bahuaje-Sonene National Park, turning it into a nature reserve protected by law.
The government's decision satisfied Antonio Brack, Peru's leading expert in genetic resources, who said it is ''a triumph for the environmentalist cause over the criteria that had previously dominated, criteria that prioritise exploitation.''
Rumrrill also applauded the government's pronouncement. ''One cannot stake all bets on petroleum, which is a finite resource, to the detriment of the forest, which is a renewable resource - practically eternal if we do not betray its purpose,'' he said.
''But we must truly protect the area with a modern approach, through forest management programmes that close the doors on the appetite of the mining and logging companies and the irresponsible and depredatory practices of settlers,'' stressed Rumrrill.
Brack, author of an encyclopaedic dictionary of Peru's useful plants, indicated that a law enacted in 1997 already establishes the management plans to be implemented in eight national parks, covering a total of 3.5 million hectares, and the nine nature preserves, which cover another 3.2 million hectares.
With the risk posed by the petroleum companies now out of the picture, the remaining threat to the Candamo are the gold mining operations in Madre de Dios department, where the valley is located, warned Brack.
''To extract one tonne of gold, they dump pour 22 tonnes of mercury, an element that becomes volatile and seeps into the soil and rivers, were it is absorbed by the fish, which are consumed by humans, causing irreversible damage to their health. The migration of the fish spreads the contamination to other rivers,'' he said.
For many Peruvian environmentalists, national park management should be based on the promotion of ecotourism, which has proven to be a profitable, non-depredatory activity that also generates numerous jobs.
''Currently, 25,000 tourists visit Madre de Dios annually, and ecotourism in that region could easily attract at least 100,000 of the 600,000 tourists who visit Cuzco each year,'' Brack pointed out.