ACTION
ITEM
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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Bolivian
Pipeline is Destroying Tropical Forests
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
12/26/99
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
A
pipeline is being built in Bolivia through the largest dry tropical
forest
areas in the world -- the Chiquitano Tropical Forests, a
globally
significant and unique ecosystem. The
U.S. government is
providing
some financial aid for the project through the US Overseas
Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC).
Due to
requests from many list subscribers, in addition to passing on
the
usual full-blown ACTION ALERTS, I will be passing on ACTION ITEMS
for
other stories when appropriate and available.
These will be
opportunities
to write to those responsible for global ecological
destruction
and voice your concerns. The contact
information will
appear
in this overview and commentary section, as below. Recipients
are
welcome to turn this highly general information into more
elaborate
action alerts. ***Please pass on to me
names and addresses
of
government officials in the major tropical forest countries, major
companies'
contact information, and other targets for letter writing
campaigns
to shutdown ancient forest loss worldwide.
ACTION
ITEM: Contact the President of the US Overseas Private
Investment
Corporation through their web site http://www.opic.gov/ ,
through
email at info@opic.gov , or via snail mail at:
George
Munoz
President
and Chief Executive Officer
US
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
1100
New York Avenue, N.W.
Washington,
DC 20527
USA
Request
that funding be immediately halted for the natural gas
pipeline
in Bolivia, utilizing information from the press account
below.
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Environment: Bolivian Pipeline Is
Destroying Tropical
Forests
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: December 22, 1999
WASHINGTON,
(Dec. 22) IPS - Environmentalists want the US government
to end
financial aid for the construction of a natural gas pipeline
in
Bolivia which, they charge, is destroying pristine forests and
harming
local communities.
The 630
km pipeline project is owned by Gas Oriente Boliviano, a
consortium
made up of Texas-based Enron International, Shell
International,
and the Bolivian company Transredes.
The US
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) provided a $200
million
loan agreement for the project in June, when Enron declared
the
pipeline would be of "world class" environmental and social
standards
and include various safeguards to protect the forest and
local
indigenous communities.
But
Atossa Soltani, executive director of California-based Amazon
Watch,
says that since construction began, she and others had
witnessed
a "world class disaster."
"Enron
continuously has demonstrated a clear lack of commitment to
protect
the fragile ecosystem and address the concerns of locally-
affected
people," she said.
OPIC's
funding for the project went through in the face of demands
from
environmentalists and local communities to have the route
altered
to avoid this forested area.
The
pipeline traverses one of the largest dry tropical forest areas
in the
world -- the Chiquitano Tropical Forests listed by the World
Wildlife
Fund (WWF) as one of the 200 most important ecosystems
throughout
the globe.
Nearly
100 mammal, bird and reptile species, including hyacinth macaw
and the
ocelot in the Chiquitano are protected under the Convention
on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), say
environmentalists.
WWF,
Amazon Watch and Friends of the Earth have accused Enron --
which
heads the construction consortium -- of failing to control
erosion,
water and air pollution, illegal hunting and unauthorized
access
to the route that runs alongside the pipeline.
After
visits to the construction site, Soltani and a geology
professor
at the University of California said that Enron had
violated
several OPIC guidelines as well as Bolivian law.
Their
report said that, without authorization from Bolivian
authorities,
Enron built a new air strip, widened several access
roads,
and installed new workers camps close to small towns and in
pristine
forest areas.
"Of
great concern, is Enron's plans to build new access roads through
pristine
tropical forests," Soltani said, adding that such roads
would
be a violation of the company's loan agreement with OPIC.
The
report said the ongoing construction had an adverse social impact
on
surrounding communities. Funds were never dispersed for land
titling
for indigenous communities and an Indigenous Development
Plan.
"The
company is also failing to adequately enforce the workers code
of
conduct," the report said. Between 700 to 1000 workers poured into
small
surrounding indigenous and farming towns at weekends, bringing
with
them a host of violent crimes, trash, and prostitution.
"OPIC
has been caught red-handed in violations and broken promises,"
says
Jonathan Sohn, an analyst with Friends of the Earth.
"It
is time that OPIC's Board of Directors, the General Accounting
Office
and the US Congress did an investigation of how OPIC is using
tax-dollars
to finance tropical forest destruction," he says.
OPIC
has denied violating environmental and social guidelines. In a
seven-page
written response, the agency argued that, based on the
challenges
of operating in a tropical ecosystem, the project was
making
"good progress" with its environmental and social objectives.
OPIC
insisted that "No new access roads have been build and none are
planned."
The
agency said the claims of erosion and other negative
environmental
impacts had been based on limited observations that
took
place right after the land was cleared and before controls were
put in
place.
It
admitted that a "few incidences" were reported in local
communities
regarding misconduct by local workers, but they had no
lasting
impact.
"Our
monitors have spent a considerable amount of time in camps and
local
communities and report an atmosphere of mutual respect and good
community
relations," OPIC said in its statement.
The
pipeline project forms part of a $2.1 billion, 3,150 km scheme to
transport
natural gas from Bolivia to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Starting in
Ipias,
Bolivia, the new project would branch off the existing
Bolivia-Brazil
pipeline.
It
would then run northeast through San Matias to Cuiaba, a small
city in
the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, where Enron is constructing
a
480-megawatt, combined-cycle natural gas power plant.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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