Talisman Energy Should Withdraw From Achuar Territory in the Peruvian Amazon, Says...

Talisman Energy Should Withdraw From Achuar Territory in the Peruvian Amazon,
Says Amazon Watch

CEO and Board Urged to Respect Indigenous Rights

CALGARY, Canada, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Amazon Watch will address
the CEO and board of directors of Talisman Energy at the company's Annual
Meeting today calling on the company to keep its promise to respect indigenous
peoples' rights to approve or deny any oil project on their territories. At
the request of the Achuar authorities, Amazon Watch is urging the company to
withdraw from Achuar territory in the Peruvian Amazon.

"The reality is that 84 percent --27 out of 32-- of Achuar communities within
Talisman's Block 64 in Peru have repeatedly expressed their vehement
opposition to drilling on their lands," said Gregor MacLennan, spokesperson
from Amazon Watch who is in Calgary to attend the AGM. "Talisman should abide
by its stated commitment to respect indigenous peoples' rights, and relinquish
its concessions within Achuar territory."

Meanwhile, in Peru, indigenous demonstrations against the Peruvian
government's grabbing of indigenous territories for oil and mining concessions
continue across the Peruvian Amazon during the past two weeks, shutting down
roads and fluvial traffic and crippling oil industry operations.

MacLennan, who has worked closely with Amazonian indigenous communities for
seven years, added that although Talisman is carrying out a Free and Prior
Informed Consent (FPIC) study due in early 2010, "the real question is, does
Talisman truly respect indigenous peoples' right to determine their own path
of development within their own territories? The UN Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples is very clear on this, as is Convention 169 of the
International Labor Organization."

Human rights groups have criticized Talisman's use of standard oil company
tactics of travelling village by village to pressure residents to sign oil
exploration agreements.

"Talisman's current tactic of so-called consensus gathering divides
communities and the Achuar people," said Lily la Torre, a Peruvian human
rights lawyer. "The Achuar have rights recognized under both national and
international law. For the past twelve years, they made it very clear as a
people that they would not accept oil extraction activity in their
territories. Any separate meeting with individuals or families is a
deliberate attempt to negate these rights."

SOURCE Amazon Watch

In Calgary: Gregor MacLennan, +1-415-395-6734 (US cell),
gregor@amazonwatch.org; Andrew Miller, +1-202-785-3962 (office),
+1-202-423-4828 (cell), andrew@amazonwatch.org; or Joseph Mutti,
+1-415-487-9600, +1-510-566-4346, joseph@amazonwatch.org, all of Amazon Watch