The International Rights of Nature Tribunal has ordered the Peruvian government to halt all actions aimed at reactivating oil extraction in Block 64, an oil field located in the Amazonian region of Loreto.
The ruling targets state oil company Petroperu and corporate operators over extensive social and environmental damages caused to the Achuar, Wampis, and Chapra indigenous nations in northern Peru.
Block 64 is located in the Morona district within the Datem del Maranon province of Loreto. For more than 30 years, successive Peruvian governments have awarded oil concessions that overlap with ancestral indigenous territories. A total of 22 indigenous communities currently live alongside oil extraction activities in the area, while nine communities face a 100 percent overlap of their territorial lands.
The ethical ruling was announced on Thursday following a hearing in Puyo, Ecuador, held during the 12th Pan-Amazonian Social Forum. The forum brought together indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, local communities, and social movements from across the Amazon basin to evaluate six regional cases concerning the impacts of fossil fuel extraction.
The tribunal panel was composed of judges Francesco Martone, Patricia Gualinga, Natalia Greene, Mario Melo, and Pablo Solon. Pedro Arrojo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, also delivered an intervention during the hearing.
Judge Tatiana Roa announced that the court formally recognizes the rights of Mother Earth and the rights of indigenous peoples over their ancestral territories. Speaking on behalf of the tribunal, Roa demanded that the Peruvian state suspend all actions intended to restart Block 64 and review all previous decisions that authorized oil exploitation in the area.
Tribunal Demands and Legal Appeals
The tribunal demanded full compliance with the right of indigenous communities to prior consultation and consent. It also called for the complete environmental restoration of damaged Amazonian ecosystems and emphasized that land defenders must be permitted to carry out their work without facing threats or persecution.
In addition, the tribunal ordered its decision to be submitted to international organizations and to the inter-American human rights system, where a petition requesting the formal annulment of Block 64 is currently pending.
Three Decades of Indigenous Resistance
The Achuar, Wampis, and Chapra nations have sustained a 33-year resistance against oil extraction on their ancestral lands. During the hearing section dedicated to Peru, indigenous leaders and legal representatives presented detailed accounts of environmental degradation.
Elmer Kunchim, president of the Federation of the Achuar Nationality of Peru, stated that indigenous communities reject oil extraction because it pollutes nature, harms human health, and causes widespread disease. He explained that oil development contaminates local rivers, forests, and agricultural fields, which serve as the markets, pharmacies, and primary basis of subsistence for their communities.
Achuar leader Nelton Yankur stated that the forests serve as their medicine and supply all their basic needs. He noted that natural remedies and traditional foods sustained their people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Olivia Bisa Tirko, president of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation, and Elio Sesen, a lawyer representing the Wampis Nation, also detailed severe damage to local water sources, wildlife, and community life.
Olivia Bisa expressed deep concern over the long-term health consequences seen in nearby indigenous territories affected by oil operations, stating that local children have lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals in their blood. She added that their own territories suffered crude oil spills in 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2024 caused by Block 192 and the Norperuano Pipeline operated by Petroperu, which damaged their communities despite operating outside their official borders.
Oil Spills and Corporate Failures
The testimonies align with findings from the research study The Shadows of Hydrocarbons, which recorded 1,460 hydrocarbon spills and leaks in Peru between 1997 and May 2023. The study revealed that 57 percent of all spills occurred in the Amazon region, with Loreto suffering the highest burden at 707 incidents. Block 64 forms part of Peru's northern oil transport route, which encompasses the Norperuano Pipeline and two Petroperu refineries.
Indigenous organizations emphasized that Block 64 has operated without proper prior consultation, violating International Labour Organization Convention 169, which has been legally binding in Peru since 1995. The treaty guarantees indigenous peoples the right to free, prior, and informed consent regarding high-impact development projects.
Organizations denounced Petroperu and former corporate partners, including GeoPark, for violating these collective rights. A 2018 environmental impact study submitted by GeoPark drew more than 100 formal objections from the Wampis Nation and FENAP. The objections highlighted a failure to acknowledge existing environmental liabilities, copied passages from Wikipedia, inadequate waste management plans, and insufficient details regarding the transport of heavy crude oil along the Morona River.
GeoPark withdrew from the project in 2020, leaving Petroperu as the sole operator. State-owned Petroperu has since been searching for a commercial partner to reactivate oil extraction in Block 64 while managing a prolonged financial crisis.
