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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG>PERU UPDATE</STRONG><BR>A Bimonthly
Publication of the Peru Support Group<BR>Issue 151: Apr - May 2012</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.perusupportgroup.org.uk"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>www.perusupportgroup.org.uk</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face=Arial>The Problems of Securing Citizenship
Participation</FONT></DIV><FONT size=2 face=TTE29D9CA8t00><FONT size=2
face=TTE29D9CA8t00>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial>Andrea Boyco Orams, postgraduate student in
Development Geography at the University of</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bergen, reviews problematic efforts to include artisanal
fishermen in Ica’s development.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The recent passing of the Prior Consultation Law in
Peru has encouraged many to take a renewed look at the country’s participative
legislation. The law, which draws on Convention 169 of the International Labour
Organisation, provides for consultation with the country’s indigenous and tribal
populations (understood to be the descendants of those living in the country
prior to the arrival of the Spanish). It will apply only to groups that identify
themselves as being part of either ‘indigenous’ or ‘tribal’ communities.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>However, this legislation is not the only measure
that aimed at greater inclusion of vulnerable populations in
decisionmaking<BR>processes. A similar, albeit much scaled-down, initiative was
passed via supreme decree in 2008. The aim of this law was to<BR>provide for
some level of engagement with citizens prior to the commencement of hydrocarbons
projects. The decree opened participation in the process to all who wished to
take part, giving particular attention to vulnerable groups. Unlike the 2012
measure, it did not exclude stakeholders who did not belong to indigenous or
tribal groups. However, these earlier attempts to obtain local buy-in for
hydrocarbons projects were not without problems. An illustrative example of the
difficulties is the case of artisanal fishermen operating in the Paracas bay,
near Pisco in the Ica region.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG>The Fishermen and
Pluspetrol</STRONG><BR>Since 2004 the Paracas bay has been home to a processing
plant and series of pipelines as part of the Camisea gas project, led by
Pluspetrol Peru. Artisanal fishermen living nearby rely on the ocean for their
day-today activities and any small changes in the<BR>environment could have a
dramatic effect on their work. They are mostly an uneducated group as many move
into the family business while still very young. Some have criticised the
fishermen for what they perceive to be a poor work ethic, saying
group<BR>members work only to gather their daily income and show little interest
in expanding their operations. The long-term survival of their activities has
also been endangered by historical overexploitation of fishing stocks, both by
industrial and artisanal fishing operations. </FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial>For
all the above reasons, the fishermen should be classified as a vulnerable group
by Peruvian legislation. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>As a precondition for starting its operations, in
2003 the government requested that Pluspetrol sign eight socio-environmental
agreements with different stakeholders in its proposed area of operations. These
were to be signed only with associations of fishermen (loose groupings that
represent the interests of their members) that had registered with the Ministry
of Production. At this stage </FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial>separate accords
were signed with both of the associations of artisanal fishermen from the San
Andrés village. A third agreement was also signed with a grouping of five
similar associations from Pisco city. Under these arrangements, Pluspetrol
committed to pay US$ 800,000 to the fishermen over the project’s life span. The
funds were to be released periodically and were only to be used to finance
approved development projects.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Both Pluspetrol and the fishermen agree that there have been problems
since the start. The fishermen complain that Pluspetrol<BR>won’t accept the
projects they propose, and that the majority of the funds therefore remain
unused. They claim Pluspetrol should<BR>provide better guidance as to what they
believe constitutes a “proper” development project. Pluspetrol on the other
hand, says it<BR>is not their responsibility to train fishermen on how to design
and write qualifying project proposals. The result has been a growing<BR>sense
of mutual distrust. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG>Project Expansions</STRONG></DIV><STRONG></STRONG>
<DIV><BR>With two expansions of the project in 2008 and 2011 the fishermen
believed new compensation agreements would be drawn up.<BR>Those that had been
unable to access the development fund from the original project thus registered
themselves as family-based<BR>associations to qualify for the anticipated new
agreements. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In the event, Pluspetrol did not sign any new contracts under its project
expansion programme. Instead, from 2007 it began making<BR>payments to another
type of fund, known as a voluntary contribution fund, whose earnings would be
used for development projects in the nearby area. In contrast with the earlier
scheme, these sums were due to be distributed directly to individuals rather
than being channelled through associations. US$ 72,000 was set aside for the
area as a whole, and an additional US$ 2,000 was to be given to the fishermen.
While the larger fund has already been spent, no-one has yet been able to access
the US$ 2,000 as Pluspetrol is still finalising its plans for the distribution
of the money.</DIV>
<DIV><BR><STRONG>Monitoring Programmes</STRONG><BR>Discussions over access to
development funds are not the only problematic area of relations between the
fishermen and the firm. There have been other issues over a voluntary monitoring
programme set up when the Pluspetrol project started in 2004. Representatives
from the local population, including some of the fishermen, were invited to
participate in the monitoring process.<BR>However, these efforts quickly stalled
as the fishermen requested payment for their involvement to compensate them for
missing<BR>a day’s work. When Pluspetrol agreed to the payouts, those outside
the scheme claimed that those who had received Pluspetrol<BR>money had become
employees of the firm. This meant, they argued, that those who had received the
payments could no longer be trusted.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>An effort to restart the monitoring programme has begun within the
framework of the 2008 hydrocarbons decree mentioned above. </DIV>
<DIV>As part of this initiative Pluspetrol has begun training a number of local
stakeholders including students from the local university,<BR>port authorities,
and members of the Paracas National Reserve. Due to the previous difficulties
however, the firm has taken the conscious decision not to include the fishermen.
This runs counter to the principle of citizenship participation as outlined in
the<BR>2008 legislation. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The artisanal fishermen in the Paracas Bay are just one example of a
problem that is replicated right across the country. Although the particular
circumstances may vary, many other sections of the population have also proved
unable to effectively participate in local development decisions. Careful
attention will need to be paid to how the Prior Consultation Law is applied at a
local level to ensure all vulnerable groups that should be consulted are indeed
being included in the process.</DIV>
<DIV></FONT> </DIV><BR>
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