Amazonian Indigenous Chief Addresses Burlington Resources Shareholders on Controversial Oil Projects “Immediately Withdraw from our Territory.” Investors Voice Concerns at Company Meeting --Recent footage of growing conflict, the indigenous commun | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

Amazonian Indigenous Chief Addresses Burlington Resources Shareholders on Controversial Oil Projects “Immediately Withdraw from our Territory.” Investors Voice Concerns at Company Meeting –Recent footage of growing conflict, the indigenous commun

April 21, 2004 | For Immediate Release


Amazon Watch

For more information, contact:

presslist@amazonwatch.org or +1.510.281.9020

Houston — Today at Burlington Resources’ annual meeting, shareholders were addressed directly by the chief of the Shuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon who had traveled thousands of miles and several days to voice the adamant opposition of the region’s indigenous peoples to Burlington’s planned oil projects on their territories.

Donning his traditional headdress and beads, Pablo Tsere spoke to the room of some 50 Burlington investors, management and board members and explained his people’s position and concerns. Mr. Tsere also spoke on behalf of the neighboring indigenous peoples the Achuar and the Quichua of Sarayaku who also hold the lands where Burlington wants to drill.

“We Shuar are an ancient people who continue to live in our territory according to our customs. We have our rainforest that holds our cultural patrimony…The oil companies want to destroy this richness,” stated Mr. Tsere. “For this reason I appeal to the sensibility and compassion of Burlington and its investors to immediately withdraw from the territories of the Shuar, Achuar and Quichua of Sarayacu.” His full statement is available at http://www.amazonwatch.org/view_news.php?id=772

Paralyzed for years due to local opposition, Burlington’s controversial oil projects are now set to move forward by force in Block 23, 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. 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 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.

In response to investor pressure, Burlington adopted an “Indigenous Communities Rights Policy.” However, 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.”
Since the adoption of this policy, conflict has continued to escalate on the ground in Ecuador. As recently as March 31, a senior military General and several heavily armed military officials arrived unannounced by helicopter to Sarayaku and warned that indigenous opposition to oil extraction would be met by force.

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