NGO Letter to IDB on Camisea Project Town Hall Meeting | Amazon Watch
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NGO Letter to IDB on Camisea Project Town Hall Meeting

March 11, 2005 | Campaign Update

March 11, 2005

Mr. Dennis Flannery
Executive Vice President
Inter American Development Bank
1300 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20577

RE: February 8, 2005 Camisea Project Town Hall Meeting

Dear Vice President Flannery:

Thank you for your invitation and welcome at the beginning of the February 8, 2005 Town Hall Meeting on the Camisea Project in Washington, DC. As representatives of civil society, we appreciate being given a space in which to voice our concerns about the environmental, social and health impacts of the Camisea project. However, what followed your introductory comments at the meeting did not in any way represent an honest or meaningful attempt on the part of the IDB to hear our major concerns or recommendations regarding the project. The meeting left virtually no room for civil society to offer well-founded criticisms and viable modifications that could ensure the protection of people’s lives and the region’s fragile environment.

We strongly object to the format of the meeting, more than half of which was reserved for presentations by the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines, TGP and the IDB to promote the project. No similar presentations from civil society organizations were allowed. Prior to the meeting, Amazon Watch asked for the time to present recent video footage from affected communities but was denied this request. Repeated requests during the meeting for even 15 minutes of presentation time were also refused.

We are concerned that your departure from the meeting shortly after the formal presentations signaled that civil society input is not a priority for the Bank’s senior management. In fact, no member of the executive office of the Bank was present to receive the evidence of the public health and safety hazards of the project. Issues relating to risk of pipeline failure, the problems that led to the December spill, the recent verdict of unconstitutionality of the Supreme decree “protecting” the Nahua-Kugapakori Reserve, the growing health crisis facing the isolated peoples in the reserve and the possibility of using directional drilling to spare the remaining area of the Reserve are just some of the issues we and independent experts present raised that did not receive adequate responses from IDB.

We strongly believe that the unresolved issues with loan conditions and, more importantly, indigenous peoples’ continued dissatisfaction with the project’s environmental, health and social management are not being addressed in good faith by the IDB’s Camisea project team. IDB staff have too often denied, disputed or simply ignored information presented by civil society and community members on project impacts. The unproductive and unresponsive attitude exhibited by the Project Team has characterized our experience with the IDB Private Sector’s Social and Environmental unit since the early days of the Camisea project. It has become necessary for civil society organizations to examine wastewater data, gather video footage, and research more environmentally friendly project alternatives. This work should be the role of the independent monitoring system that you committed to creating last March. We understand that IDB is still consulting with our Peruvian counterparts on the design of such a system and we ask for greater effort on the part of the IDB to ensure that a satisfactory independent monitoring system be established as soon as possible.

The IDB claims it has learned a great deal from the Camisea project. However, in our view the IDB still has not learned the fundamental principles of promoting on-going, fair and open dialogue. Based on our experience so far on this project, we do not see the value of participating in future public meetings of this type unless there is a significant change in their structure and in the receptiveness of IDB staff to hear and make good faith effort to address the legitimate concerns of civil society groups.

Sincerely,

Peter Kostishack, Amazon Alliance, peter@amazonalliance.org
Maria Ramos, Amazon Watch, maria@amazonwatch.org
Keith Slack, Oxfam America, kslack@oxfamamerica.org
Maria Elena Foronda, Sociedad Nacional Ambiental, sna@amauta.rcp.net.pe
Nadia Martinez, Sustainable Energy and Environment Network, nmartinez@seen.org

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