WHEN: October 24, Noon to 1PM
WHERE: WestLB offices, 633, West Fifth Street Los Angeles (Near Grand)
And in more than 15 WestLB offices in 10 countries
(Los Angeles, CA) – Environmental activists in Los Angeles will join their counter parts around the world in protesting the involvement of Germany’s largest publicly held bank, WestLB, in financing the new heavy crude pipeline in the Ecuadorian Amazon. WestLB is the lead arranger for nearly $900 million in financing for the billion-dollar project, which not only cuts through fragile rainforests but will also result in the doubling of oil production from Ecuador’s fragile Amazon and Andean ecosystems. The project has been plagued by lawsuits and protests.
Demonstrations and media events are also planned on October 24 in the following cities: San Francisco, Quito, Washington DC, Barcelona, London, Munster, Dusseldorf, Munich, Milan, Zurich, Warsaw, Sydney and Canberra.
“The pipeline affects 11 protected areas and is a threat to endangered species and critical rainforest ecosystems of global significance,” said Kevin Koenig, campaigner for Amazon Watch. “Dozens of communities – from indigenous groups in the Amazon to Afro-Ecuadorians who live alongside the refineries – will be adversely affected. We are holding WestLB responsible because without their financing, the pipeline could not move forward.”
Nearly half of the crude transported through this pipeline would be shipped to West Coast US markets and the project Consortium includes North American companies Occidental Petroleum, Kerr-McGee, and Alberta Energy. Groups are urging WestLB to walk away from financing this harmful project and instead invest in clean energy alternatives. In recent months, debates about WestLB’s role in the project have raged within the Bank and in the State Parliament of North Rhine Westphalia (NWR) – -42 percent stakeholder in WestLB – -leading to strong denouncements from Green Party members and officials including the State Minister of Environment, Mrs. Baerbel Hoehn.
The “day of action” is in solidarity with Ecuadorian groups who have vowed to stop pipeline construction in particular along the segment through the Mindo Nambillo Cloud Forest Reserve – home to some 450 species of birds. Last week, dozens began peaceful blockades to stop pipeline construction. More actions are planned in the near future.
Economically, the pipeline creates a mere 300 long-term jobs while 80 percent of pipeline’s revenues will go to paying Ecuador’s burgeoning debt. Yet it places Ecuador’s growing ecotourism industry in jeopardy. Critics argue that Ecuador would not be in the debt-ridden state if it were not for its reliance on oil revenues – which led to years of irresponsible borrowing by corrupt governments against its present and future oil royalties. “What we have seen over the last thirty years is that Ecuador’s oil production has brought ecological, social, and economic ruin,” said Kevin Koenig.
The pipeline is setting off an unprecedented boom in new oil investments – – over $2.5 billion over the next five years from oil exploration, drilling, feeder pipelines, refineries, and related processing facilities. Much of the crude needed to feed the pipeline lies beneath national parks and indigenous lands in pristine rainforests. Prominent Ecuadorian and international environmental and human rights organizations are calling for the cancellation of the OCP project and a moratorium on all new oil exploration in the country’s ecologically and culturally sensitive rainforests.
