"Alert: Amazon waterway project has doubled the areas where rivers would be dredged without consultation" - 25 November 2020

The Regional Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO) and the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Forest (AIDESEP) warned that during the preparation of the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of the Amazon Hidrovia project, the areas where the rivers would be dredged were doubled (13 areas were consulted, and later 24 additional ones were discussed)...It should be noted, that the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC), recognizes that this [area] could continue to increase...On November 24, a new public hearing was held in the framework of the lawsuit by AIDESEP and its regional base ORPIO to enforce the prior consultation agreement of the Hidrovía Amazónica project that establishes that a consultation process will be carried out. In addition, it is proposed to modify the payment schedule, bringing forward the start of State payments to the company from this month of December on, despite the fact that there is no approved Environmental Impact Study and therefore, no action has been taken to implement the project and, finally, the deadline for submitting the EIA is extended until January 2022... Given that this addendum proposes to formalize the extension of new dredging areas not consulted, AIDESEP, as well as its bases ORPIO and ORAU, have formally submitted to the Ministry of Transport on November 11, 2020, a request for prior, free and informed consultation to this proposed addendum to the contract...