Photo Opportunity with Strong Visuals at Annual General Meeting.
Video footage from the Amazon available on request.
Houston, May 9 – ConocoPhillips’ human rights and environmental policies will be in the spotlight at its 2006 annual general meeting tomorrow as native Amazonian leaders warn the Houston-based oil giant: “No Trespassing on Our Ancestral Lands!”
The shareholder meeting, in Houston on May 10, will be the first since ConocoPhillips bought Burlington Resources last March. Burlington had spent years attempting to gain entry to three oil concessions in Ecuador and Peru against the clearly stated wishes of local indigenous communities. Together, these pristine rainforest concessions are larger than the state of Connecticut and place Conoco at the heart of serious conflicts with the region’s indigenous peoples. The company’s Amazon rainforest holdings are now greater than any other U.S. oil company, and put Conoco’s stated commitment to environmental sustainability and human rights to the test.
Three native Amazonians, Domingo Ankuash, a Shuar indigenous leader from Ecuador, Andres Sandi, an Achuar from Peru, and Jose Gualinga, a Kichwa from Ecuador, have spent several days traveling by foot, canoe, bus and plane from their remote, rainforest homes to represent their communities at the ConocoPhillips meeting. Their message for ConocoPhillips shareholders and executives is categorical: Under no circumstances do their communities want any oil operations on their ancestral lands.
“Our people have been living in harmony with the rainforest since the beginning of time. It gives us everything we need and want, and we would die without it,” states Domingo Ankuash. “We’ve seen the oil contamination in other parts of the Amazon, which is leading to the disappearance of indigenous peoples. Therefore we won’t allow any oil company get a single drop.”
Adding to the controversy, a precedent setting case is now before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States for rights violations suffered by the Kichwa community of Sarayaku at the hands of the Ecuadorian military and one of Conoco’s partners in Ecuador, Argentine company CGC.
This isn’t the first time Conoco has faced opposition to oil drilling plans in the Ecuadorian rainforest. After six years of international outcry and resistance from Huaorani indigenous people, Conoco abandoned plans to drill inside the Yasuni National Park in 1991.
The annual general meeting is the perfect opportunity for ConocoPhillips’ management, which has been silent on this issue since the Burlington takeover, to publicly signal its acceptance of the indigenous communities’ land rights and their demands to be left in peace.
“Conoco is at a crossroads. Their Ecuadorian and Peruvian concessions represent political, moral and financial liabilities that pose serious risk to the company’s reputational capital and bottom line. The price of gas is already high enough without ConocoPhillips having a protracted confrontation with these indigenous peoples, who only wish to protect their ancestral lands and communities from the inevitable impacts of oil drilling in such a environmentally and culturally sensitive area,” said Amazon Watch Program Coordinator Kevin Koenig.
Timetable of Media Events
Tue, May 9: Amazon Watch media briefing at 11am, at Upper Kirby District Foundation Building, 3015 Richmond Ave @ Eastside. Native Amazonian leaders in traditional dress, campaigners from Amazon Watch, a human rights and environmental organization, and concerned shareholders will be available to brief journalists about ConocoPhillips’ attempts to trespass on their ancestral homelands in the pristine Amazon rainforest.
Wed, May 10: ConocoPhillips annual general meeting, begins at 10.30am, at the Omni Houston Hotel, 13210 Katy Freeway. Journalists, please arrive at 9.45am for 10am photo opportunity with native Amazonians in traditional dress, before they enter the shareholder meeting. The Amazonian leaders will be carrying a “No Trespassing!” sign. Amazon Watch and the Amazon leaders will be available for interviews and photos immediately after the annual general meeting at 12:30pm.
For background on the battle of the Shuar, Achuar and Kichwa communities to protect their rainforest homeland from destructive oil operations, see: www.amazonwatch.org
