Burlington Investors to Raise Concern at Corporation’s Annual Meeting about Growing Tension around the Rainforest Projects
10-Minute Video Exposé on the Threats from Burlington’s Ecuador Oil Projects to Premiere
– Recent footage of growing conflict, the indigenous communities, rainforest, and oil drilling available—
EVENT SCHEDULE
Tuesday, April 20
10 AM Press Briefing with Indigenous Leaders, Investor Representative and Amazon Watch, Upper Kirby District Building, downstairs conference room, 3015 Richmond Ave. Houston, TX
7 PM Community Teach-In with Indigenous Leaders and Premier of Video Exposé on Burlington, University of St. Thomas, International Studies House, Tiller Hall
Wednesday, April 21
9 AM Indigenous Leaders Attend Burlington Shareholder Meeting, Ambassador Room, The St. Regis Hotel, 1919 Briar Oaks Lane, Houston
5:30PM Refinery Tour with Indigenous Leaders, led by Texas Southern University, TBA
AMAZONIAN INDIGENOUS LEADERS
– Pablo Tsere, President of Shuar people’s federation FICSH and representative of Shuar and Achuar Defense Committee
– Marlon Santi, President of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku
CONCERNED INVESTORS SPOKESPERSON
– Steven Heim, Director of Social Research, Boston Common Asset Management, LLC. Mr. Heim will speak about shareholder concern over Burlington’s investments in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
BACKGROUND
Delegation of Kichwa, Shuar, and Achuar Indigenous leaders from the rainforest of Ecuador arrive in Houston on Sunday for five days to call on Burlington Resources to abandon plans to drill for oil on their traditional homelands. The delegation will coincide with the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Paralyzed for years due to local opposition, the controversial projects are now set to move forward by force, turning the projects into a major flashpoint. Preparations by the Ecuadorian armed forces to militarize the region and begin oil activities are under way.
The tens of thousands of indigenous peoples in the still pristine forests of southern Ecuador have declared their roadless rainforest homelands off limits to oil extraction. Their efforts to date have successfully kept oil, logging, and mining companies out to date. The Kichwa, Shuar, and Achuar vow to continue their opposition to oil extraction and are instead calling for a plan to permanently protect their rainforest region and a plan to promote sustainable development.
Concerned Burlington investors including Boston Common Asset Management, Brethren Benefit Trust, Citizens Advisers, Ethical Funds, and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are urging investor support for the company to strengthen its human rights policies and prevent militarization of the areas in which Burlington operates or is invested. Boston Common Asset Management filed a shareholder resolution on behalf of its client, the Brethren Benefit Trust, Inc. in response to the growing controversy around Burlington’s oil operations in the Amazon basin.
In response to their involvement in this ongoing controversy, Burlington adopted an “Indigenous Communities Rights Policy.” While Brethren Benefit Trust (BBT) withdrew its shareholder proposal to Burlington on this topic, shareholders continue to voice concern about the policy’s shortcomings. On April 5, 2004, shareholders representing more than 36,000 shares sent a letter to the company stating, “We believe that BR’s [Burlington Resources] new indigenous people’s policy fails to adequately address the serious concerns for indigenous peoples affected by BR’s operations that prompted the creation of the policy in the first place.”
The shareholders question whether the policy requires the company to go beyond compliance with existing Ecuadorian laws to which they are already legally bound. Indigenous leaders will express concern that recent events in Ecuador, including the unannounced arrival on March 31, 2004, of a senior military General and several heavily armed military officials in Sarayaku who warned that indigenous opposition to oil extraction would be met by force, indicate that the policy has failed to safeguard local communities against an atmosphere of increasing violence surrounding the project.
