Concern over Environmental Conservation Program in Eastern Bolivia
8/23/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Letter of Concern over Environmental Conservation Program in
Eastern Bolivia
Source: International Rivers Network
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: July 21, 1999
To:
Ms. Kathryn Fuller, President, World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th Street
NW, Washington DC 20037. Fax: (+1.202) 293.9211
Dr. John Robinson, Vice President International Programs, Wildlife
Conservation Society, 2300 South Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460.
Fax: (+1.718) 364.4275
Dr. Peter H. Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Gardens, 2345 Tower
Grove Ave, St. Louis, MO 63110 Fax: (+1.314) 577.9595
Ing. Mario Terceros, Presidente del Directorio; Atn. Sr. Hermes
Justiniano, Director, Fundaci›n Amigos de la Naturaleza Fax: (+591.3)
32.9692 email: fan.bolivia.dci@mail.scbbs-bo.com
Ing. Jorge Orellana, Rector de la UAGRM :Atn. Dr. Mario Suarez R.,
Director, Museo Noel Kempff Mercado
Fax: (+591.3) 36.6574 email: museo@museo.scz.entelnet.bo
The undersigned environment and human rights organizations are writing
to note our strong concern over the "Draft Protocol for an
Environmental Conservation Program in Eastern Bolivia" signed on June
11, 1999 between your organizations and Enron International, Shell
International Gas, Transredes, and GasOriente Boliviano. The protocol
commits these corporations to paying $20 million for a conservation
programme which your organizations will jointly implement. The
Protocol was a major factor in the decision by the US Overseas Private
Investment Corporation to subsidize the corporations' Cuiab Pipeline
project (see attached note by the Bolivian Forum on Environment and
Development - FOBOMADE).
We believe that your secret negotiations with these corporations and
the deal you have struck with them has major implications not just for
the gas pipeline project it has facilitated, but also for campaigns
against the financing of destructive development in general. The
'Draft Protocol' sets a precedent that corporations will be able to
buy your support for whatever destructive development projects they
might be involved in thus undermining the efforts of NGOs and
community groups struggling to stop or redesign these projects.
As you know, the gas pipeline which the Project Sponsors intend to
build through the Chiquitano forest and Pantanal regions of Bolivia
had been the focus of an intensive public awareness and lobbying
campaign by environmental organizations in the US and Bolivia, as well
as by local populations, monitoring committees, and others, who sent
OPIC letters expressing their opposition to the construction of the
gas pipeline along the route originally designated by ENRON. The
environmentalists' and local residents' concerns focused on the
pipeline's potential impacts on the endangered Chiquitano dry forest
and the people dependent upon it. As your Draft Protocol notes, the
Chiquitano is "a primary forest of global importance" and the threats
to the forest "will be accelerated by the construction of the Cuiab
Pipeline that will intersect the Chiquitano dry forest." Your
organizations had earlier joined FOBOMADE and local organizations in
studies supporting an alternative, less destructive, pipeline routing.
The environmentalists' campaign was directed at the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation, a U.S. government agency which was assessing
whether to help finance the pipeline. Under OPIC guidelines, the
agency cannot fund projects in primary forests. Your organizations
signed the Draft Protocol just days before OPIC's June 15 vote on
whether to support the project.
The Draft Protocol states that its provisions would not be made public
until a final agreement was signed. However, OPIC and Enron provided
copies to US government officials as part of their successful lobbying
for the pipeline loan to be approved by OPIC's board, despite
widespread opposition to the loan. Presumably your organizations must
have been aware that the Draft Protocol would be used in this way -
that is, in denying local populations the right to negotiate regarding
their own natural resources.
We believe that the role of your organizations in negotiating the
Draft Protocol with the Project Sponsors has been highly inappropriate
and unethical, displaying disrespect for local populations, violating
the rights that they, who have been guardians of these forests, should
have in deciding the forests' fate.
We have a number of specific questions regarding the negotiations and
the Draft Protocol.
1) At what point, and with what right did your groups decide to
support the more destructive pipeline route favored by the Project
Sponsors? Was your earlier support for the alternative route changed
because of the offer of money from the Sponsors?
2) Did your groups exploit the lobbying of environmental organizations
opposing the loan to gain a more lucrative deal from the companies?
3) Did your groups yield to insistence from the Project Sponsors that
the document be signed before the OPIC vote, knowing that it would
then be used to push through the loan guarantees?
4) Why was a document which has important ramifications for
populations in the Chiquitano region not discussed with local people
and leading Bolivian environmental groups?
The undersigned organizations believe that the ethical issues raised
by your deal-making with the Cuiab Pipeline sponsors have long term
ramifications for the future of environment and social justice
campaigns.
We therefore intend to publicize this issue with the intention of
initiating a broad debate on the role of international conservation
organizations in facilitating destructive development projects in
exchange for funding for their conservation projects.
We look forward to hearing from you on this important matter.
Yours sincerely
Fobomade - Foro Boliviano sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Fax:
(+591.2) 33.2919 email: fobomade@mail.megalink.com
Coalici›n Rios Vivos Paraguay-Paran -Plata Fax: (+55.67) 924.9109
email: ecoa@msinternet.com.br
International Rivers Network
Fax: (+1.510) 848.1008 email: patrick@irn.org
Amazon Watch
Fax: (+1.310) 456.0388 email: asoltani@igc.org
Rainforest Action Network
Fax: (+1.415) 398.2732 email: amazonia@ran.org
Project Underground
Fax: (+1.510) 705.8983 email: dannyk@moles.org
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Glenn Switkes, Director, Latin America Program,
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
South America/Am,rica do Sul:
Tel/Fax/Message/Recados: +55 65 791 1313
email: glen@zaz.com.br
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