Mick Jagger Tested as Peru’s Environmental Ambassador

Photo: Mick Jagger

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Music legend Sir Mick Jagger has been drawn into a bitter row over an ‘illegal gas grab’ in the Peruvian Amazon.

Peru’s government has provoked fury from indigenous groups after it was discovered that it is attempting to explore for gas in an Amazon reserve despite explicitly promising never to do so.

The reserve is the territory of several vulnerable uncontacted tribes, and a crucial buffer zone for the Manu National Park, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for having a biological diversity that ‘exceeds any other place on Earth.’

After visiting the Manu region Mick Jagger was made an Environmental Ambassador by Peru, who described him as a ‘great support in our fight to protect our ecology’. Survival International has written to the Rolling Stones’ frontman, saying ‘Peru’s last uncontacted tribes are in imminent danger… please ask the Peruvian government to stop endangering their lives.’

Peru’s plan to expand its massive Camisea gas project has been clouded in secrecy. Nine years ago it confirmed it would never expand the project eastward into the Nahua-Nanti Reserve, home to several uncontacted tribes, and passed a Supreme Decree confirming the pledge.