Ecuador’s Tribes Fight Big Oil
May 2007
By Marianne Betterly
"It is no accident that most of the remaining natural resources are on indigenous land.
First the white world destroys their own environment, then they come asking for the last
pieces of land they have put us on, the earth we have protected." -Luis Macas, former
president of CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador)
www.amazonwatch.org
Ecuadorian ‘Motherland’ scarred with oil pits
The oil situation
The Huaorani, Tagaeri and Taromenane are some of the fiercest people on earth. Even
today, their warriors use handmade spears to hunt peccaries, turkey and squirrel. Lately
they have been using more powerful weapons to protect their land from oil developers
and loggers. Realizing that they needed more than spears, they have joined other
Ecuadorian indigenous people, the Cofan, Secoya, Siona, Achuar, Shuar, Kichwa, to fight
oil companies who drill for oil in their sacred lands. ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhilips and
Petrobras, ARCO, Petroecuador, OXY, and other multinational oil companies have been
plundering the Ecuadorian Amazon known as ‘the Oriente’ over the past 35 years. The
Amazon tribes are in a struggle ‘until death’ with the oil companies, demanding that they
cleanup the damage caused by oil exploration, pipelines and drilling. Some of these
groups are calling for a moratorium on all oil development.
The Ecuadorian Amazon, formerly a pristine ecosystem known for its incredible
biodiversity, is slowly being destroyed. Home to over 10 percent of the world’s species
1
with more than 150,000 plant species, 300 species of birds, and numerous mammals like
jaguars, ocelots, monkeys, hoatzin, this area is deserving of its Huaorani name, ‘Center
of the World.’ Over the past few decades oil pollution and wastewater toxins from the oil
industry has been harming these plants, insects and animals, as well as the 500,000
people who inhabit the Oriente.
“Oil extraction in the Amazon has already caused the extinction of the Tetete and Zaparo
nationalities and continues to threaten indigenous peoples.” 1
ChevronTexaco lawsuit
A six billion dollar class action suit, originally filed in 1993 by 30,000 indigenous people
and settlers, demands that ChevronTexaco clean up tons of toxins dumped into Ecuador’s
rainforest between 1964 and 1992. While the initial lawsuit was directed at Texaco, the
recent suit is against ChevronTexaco, later renamed Chevron, who purchased Texaco in
2001.
“We are fighting for life … The CEO (of Chevron) said that the problem is the
Ecuadorian government’s – that it is ‘not our problem’… David O’Reilly is not taking
responsibility for all of this damage they have done to humanity.” Humberto Piaguaje,
Secoya, April 25, 2007 in front of Chevron’s Corporate Headquarters.
According to Chevron’s president, Texaco cleaned up the oil pits in 1995 and any further
damages are PetroEcuador’s responsibility since they resumed oil operations when
Texaco left the country. Others see it differently.
Ecuador President Correa stated, “There was no cleanup here." He stressed that the
damage was “covered up” by merely dumping dirt over the contaminated soil and
wastewater ponds.
For almost 20 years Texaco drilled 350 wells and extracted 1.4 billion barrels of crude
without abiding by the typical practice of reinjecting the wastewater deep into the ground.
Texaco decided to save money and apparently ignore the inevitable environmental
2
impacts. Instead, they poured 18 million gallons of toxic wastewater into more than 700
open, unlined oil pits. The toxins that were left in those pits were a combination of brine,
crude, polycycle aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs -a known carcinogen), and volatile
organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, xylene, mercury, lead. Due to the wet,
rainforest climate, these toxins have seeped into the groundwater and traveled to nearby
villages, streams, rivers and forests poisoning the environment and people – all for
barrels of oil destined to the United States.
But the damage didn’t end there. Texaco periodically burned the oil, causing ‘black rain’
that released toxins into the atmosphere. Pipelines required to transport the oil to the
coast were built. In 1972 Texaco completed construction of a 310 mile pipeline with
numerous subsidiary pipes. This maze of pipe work had repeated leaks, ruptures and
unexpected discharges. Roads were built to access the oil production, requiring massive
deforestation. Crude oil was poured onto dusty roads in the dry season. It is no surprise
that the local people have witnessed an abnormally high increase in cancer, hepatitis, skin
infections, birth defects, spontaneous abortions and deaths in the surrounding areas since
the oil development began.
Like the Spartan 300, a few small tribes have rallied together to fight a seemingly
unbeatable battle against that 200 billion dollar company headquartered in San Ramon,
California. The current lawsuit filed in 2003 is finally coming to a head and will
hopefully be finalized in 2008.
Newly elected Ecuador President Rafael Correa visited the oil ravaged areas in
Sucumbois on April 26, 2007. He stated it was thirty times worse than the Exxon Valdez
oil disaster that spilled millions of barrels of oil into Alaskan waters. His administration
is of the opinion that ChevronTexaco has not done its part to clean up the toxins left
behind despite the 40 million dollar effort made a decade ago.2
Marianne Betterly-Kohn
Humberto Piaguaje addressed a crowd protesting at Chevron’s Headquarters in
California. Guillermo Grefa on the left. April 2007
3
Humberto Piaguaje, representing the Secoya Indigenous People (Block 13), and
Guillermo Grefa, of the Kichwa tribe, both attended Chevron’s Annual Stockholders
meeting on April 25, 2007, to inform Chevron investors and upper management of the
devastating health and environmental impacts that continue to ravage the land and
people, due to ChevronTexaco’s oil operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon region.
“The forest is contaminated. The people are dying. Chevron thinks that they have cleaned
up the mess but they are wrong,” Humberto Piaguaje announced to the crowd assembled
in front of Chevron’s Corporate Headquarters.
Politics of Oil
Ecuador has been steeped in oil politics since the first Texaco oil well gushed in 1972. In
order to manage their land and reap profits, over the years the Ecuadorian government
has made deals with various oil companies by granting prospecting and drilling rights
using a ‘Block’ system whereby the government auctions 1.2 million acre areas, the size
of New Jersey, to the highest bidder, who then has drilling rights for a specified period of
time. As of 2006 there were 17 oil concessions in the Oriente. In order to transport the
oil, the oil companies with Ecuador government support have built two primary pipelines
to carry oil to the coast: SOTE, a 310 mile 400,000 barrels/day built in 1970s and a new
pipeline, OCP, 300 mile 450,000 barrels/day recently completed in 2003. It is estimated
that Ecuador has 4.6 billion barrels in oil reserves (2005). 3
4
Oil concessions Map, http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~eschniter/AMAZONIA/geo.html#oilcon
5
According to former Minister of Energy Rene Ortiz, Ecuador has become dependent on
oil money, since it generates one fourth of the gross domestic product (2005). Crude oil is
Ecuador’s biggest export with 560,000 barrels of oil extracted from Ecuador every day.4
Initially, oil exploration was promoted to bring prosperity to the impoverished country,
but oil has not solved Ecuador’s economic woes. The majority of the population lives in
poverty. Ecuador’s national debt has risen from $200 million in 1960s to 16.8 billion in
2007,5 and is pressured by the International Monetary Fund to continue oil exploration.
The tide may be turning, at least temporarily, since Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa,
wants to renegotiate the debt payment in order to increase spending on internal social
programs and reduce dependence on oil companies6
New oil struggles
While the ChevronTexaco lawsuit deals with health and pollution issues created over the
past few decades, there are ongoing struggles by the Indigenous Peoples to combat
current and future oil exploration, pipelines and construction of roads throughout the
Amazon.
One battle is to preserve Yasuni National Forest from further destruction. The Yasuni
National Forest is considered to be the most biodiverse forest in the world and covers 2.4
million acres, while providing a habitat to 90 species of frogs and 500 kinds of
birds.7
The Northern part of the Yasuni Forest continues to be open to oil exploration. This is
opposed by the Huaorani Indians (ONHAE) who want the entire 5 million acre region to
be closed to oil companies and loggers. Currently Petrobras and Andes Petroleum are
exploring and extracting oil in Northern Yasuni and territories north of the park.
The ‘Intangible Zone,’ an area declared by the Ecuadorian government to be off-limits to
logging and oil development, was created in 1999 and extends for 2 million acres from
the center of the Ecuadorian Amazon and includes the southern part of Yasuni National
Park. Since its inception, oil development has continued there, since the zone’s
boundaries were in dispute. Finally, due to a Presidential Decree in January this year, the
borders have been defined and oil exploration and extraction is prohibited, protecting
animals, plants and indigenous groups who live in isolation. A10 km surrounding buffer
zone continues to allow oil extraction, but restricts new oil access road construction.
Other oil efforts in the spotlight include oil extraction in Block 18, Achuar territory,
producing 32,000 barrels a day and exploration in Block 31, otherwise known as ITT or
Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil fields. In April 2007 the government of Ecuador
granted Petrobras and Petroecuador permission to extract oil in ITT, a 470,000 acre area
6
in the Northern portion of the Yasuni National Forest containing almost a billion barrels
of oil.8
The Shuar and Achuar and Kichwa have been in an ongoing struggle over their ancestral
land called Blocks 23 and 24 with Burlington Resources, who recently sold their rights to
ConocoPhilips and CGC. It has not been an easy fight. In 2003 they filed suit over
beatings and torture. But they are not ready to give up and continue to protest in Ecuador
and in the United States.
“The Shuar is fierce. We are rejecting the oil companies here.”9
Conclusion
In a bittersweet twist to the oil frenzy, some estimate the oil reserves will run out in the
next decade or two when the oil companies will finally pack up and leave -- after the land
and people have been destroyed. Sadly, most of the profits will be sent out of Ecuador to
oil companies in other countries, leaving Ecuador a wasteland - decimated forest, oil pits,
leaking pipes, toxins in the ground water and streams, exterminated and extinct species of
fish, plants, and wildlife and, most tragic of all, poisoned people. The forest continues to
be destroyed by clear cutting, due to road construction, logging and immigration, all of
which severely impacts the biodiversity of the rainforest and the sanctity of the land.
The oil struggle is going to become more intense as the world oil market dries up, and
countries like China and India compete with the U.S. and Europe for an ever-shrinking
pot of oil. The health of a small group of indigenous people in Ecuador and the pristine
jungles of the Amazon will be overlooked by the demands of the oil-dependent nations to
keep their motors running. I hope that Ecuador’s indigenous peoples can convince
ChevronTexaco of its corporate responsibility to the world to clean up the mess that it left
behind. Perhaps if they are forced to spend some of the billion dollars of profits made in
Ecuador on the health of the people and the environment they have nearly destroyed, it
will awaken similar ethics in other oil companies who are vying for a piece of the oilsoaked jungle. Maybe it will even challenge a few of us to question our dependence on
oil – from vehicles, boats and jets -- to its use in agriculture and clothing. We need to
honor mother earth, not hasten her destruction. We need to wake up to the mess that we
are leaving our children, not focus on next quarter’s bottom-line or the latest SUV. It may
not be too late if we start today.
“The land is like our mother….we respect her, live from her, we are born from her, we
grow in her and eventually we return to her” 10 Marlin Santi, Kichwa.
7
http://petroecuador.com.ec/mapas/mapas.htm
Indigenous People of Ecuador
8
http://petroecuador.com.ec/mapas/mapas.htm
Protected Areas of Ecuador
What are some of the things that each of us can do to help save the Ecuadorian Amazon?
1. Boycott Chevron, ConocoPhilips and other oil companies that are destroying Ecuador
and other oil rich countries. Ask where your oil comes from.
2. Reduce your oil consumption. The United States uses 25 percent of the world’s oil for
5 percent of the world population.
3. Stop driving gas-guzzling cars, SUVs, trucks. If you must drive, get a fuel efficient car
– or take public transportation.
4. Car pool
9
5. Ask your public transit companies to purchase vehicles that are more gas/diesel
efficient. Most buses get 2 to 3 miles per gallon.
6. Stop using leaf blowers – a gas-guzzling waste of energy to move debris from one spot
to another.
7. Buy locally grown food and products thereby reducing the need to ship and truck
goods around the world
8. Teach your children about the world – how other people live, think, communicate and
how they honor their environment.
9. Honor your own environment – local parks, sea shores, lakes, streams – even your
own backyard. Keep them clean. Avoid using pesticides, herbicides and gas-powered
machinery.
10
1
“The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador” http://conaie.nativeweb.org/brochure.html
“Chevron caused environmental ‘barbarity’ in Ecuador: Correa”, April 26, 2007,
http://www.chevrontoxico.org/article.php?id=357
2
3
“Ecuador”, Ecuador Country Analysis Briefs, http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/ecuador.pdf
“Ecuador’s ‘Divided State’ is pulled towards the Left”,
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=469
4
“Ecuador Economy Minister says country will try to make payment on bond debt in February”,
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/17/america/LA-FIN-Ecuador-Debt-Payments.php
6
“Ecuador tribes vow to fight oil threat”, .http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4308537.stm
7
“Ecuador Indians vow to fight Petrobras Oil Development”,
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31623/story.htm
8
‘Petrobras and Petroecuador sign memo of understanding’
http://www.noticiaspetrobras.com.br/interna.asp?idioma=ing&id_noticia=2838&nome=Internacional&id_e
ditoria=23
9
‘Burlington Resources in Ecuador’ video Amazonwatch.org
10
‘Burlington Resources in Ecuador” video www.amazonwatch.org
5
11