CONAIE, National and International Environmental Groups Denounce German Government Double Standards in Giving Financial Support to the OCP | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

CONAIE, National and International Environmental Groups Denounce German Government Double Standards in Giving Financial Support to the OCP

October 23, 2001 | For Immediate Release


CONAIE

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Quito, Ecuador – Leaders of CONAIE, representatives of the Vice President
of the National Congress, community organizations, and Ecuadorian and
international environmental organizations met with the German Ambassador to
Ecuador, to present their concerns over the social impacts and environmental
destruction which the construction of the new Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline
(Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados – OCP) will cause. On June 10th of this year,
OCP signed a 17 year loan agreement for $900 million with Westdeutsche
Landesbank, the largest German bank which uses public funds.

The demands of the organizations are: the complete suspension of the loan
and the participation of government and West LB delegates in a visit to the
affected areas.

They also demanded consistency with the speeches of the coalition of Social
Democrats and the Green Party currently heading the German government,
supposedly committed to the environment. For example, Germany, in signing
the Kyoto Protocol, committed to diminishing CO2 emissions. This is
completely inconsistent with the decision to commit public funds to an
activity oriented towards the extraction of more petroleum, one of the major
contributors to global warming, exacerbated by the fact that this petroleum
would come from the tropical forest of the Ecuadorian Amazon, with its
indigenous territories and extremely fragile protected areas.

West LB has been questioned worldwide for its decision to support the new
oil pipeline in Ecuador. October 24 has been declared “International Day of
Action against the OCP in 10 countries. The demonstrations will take place
in : Munich, Munster, Dusseldorf (Germany), Geneva, Zurich (Switzerland),
Milan (Italy), Warsaw (Poland), London (England), Barcelona (Spain),
Sydney, Canberra (Australia), Los Ángeles, San Francisco, Washington DC
(United States), and India. Participating groups and networks include
Rainforest Information Center, Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network,
Friends of the Earth International, Project Underground, Action Resource
Center, Pro-Regenwald y Amazonía Asamblea de Solidaridad. These actions
demonstrate the growing wave of solidarity with affected communities in
Ecuador and opposition to the OCP.

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