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Overview
The Shuar and Achuar peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon want it to be known that the position of our communities is 'no' to oil exploration, 'no' to dialogue and negotiation, 'no' to deforestation, 'no' to contamination, and 'no' to all oil activities.
-- Bosco Najamdey, President of the Shuar Federation.
ConocoPhillips's Oil Projects Vs. Indigenous Communities and Rainforest Protection
Ecuador comprises one of the world's 17 'megadiverse' regions, holding 10% of the earth's plant species and 18% of its bird species. According to a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute expert, Ecuador is 'arguably the biologically richest real estate on the planet.' (1) The Shuar, Achuar, and Kichwa peoples have inhabited the remote rainforests of southeastern Ecuador for millennia. Their Amazon territories form part of the northwest corner of the Amazon Basin, an area dubbed 'surely the richest biotic zone on Earth,' which 'deserves to rank as a kind of global epicenter of biodiversity.' (2) Due to a mix of geography and resistance to outsiders such as rubber tapers and missionaries, the Shuar, Achuar, and Kichwa have remained fairly isolated with their cultural traditions and way of life intact.
The indigenous federations representing the peoples that have lived in these extraordinarily biodiverse areas for thousands of years are opposed resource extraction on their lands. They point to the fate of other forest communities living near the major oil producing regions of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon, where wide-spread oil and toxic contamination has caused increased incidents of cancer and other illnesses among the local peoples who have no option but to bathe, fish and drink from polluted rivers. Weak environmental regulations have also led to extensive deforestation, loss of biodiversity and natural habitat destruction from the opening of road and pipeline networks into previously roadless, rainforest territories. In addition, throughout the northern Ecuadorian Amazon, the draw and infrastructure of oil projects has resulted in the large-scale displacement of indigenous peoples and the dispossession of their land by migrants from other regions.
For these reasons, the Shuar, Achuar, and Kichwa have denounced plans for oil extraction in Blocks 23 and 24 since the Ecuadorian government first awarded the concessions and subsurface mineral rights. Instead, they are calling for a plan to permanently protect the vast roadless rainforest region and promote sustainable development.
Due to ConocoPhillip's recent acquisition of Burlington Resources, the company is now the owner and operator of Block 24, and holds a 50% share in Block 23 with Argentine partner CGC.
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(1) Dr. William F. Laurance. biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and president-elect of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.
(2) Myers, Norman. 'Threatened Biotas: Hotspots in Tropical Forests,' The Environmentalist, vol. 8, no. 3, 1998, pp. 1-20. Cited in Kimerling, Judith. Amazon Crude. Natural Resources Defense Council 1991.
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