Los Angeles – Occidental Petroleum’s (Oxy) decision to withdraw from the Peruvian Amazon was given a cautious welcome today by local indigenous leaders and Amazon Watch.
The development is the second major victory for the Amazon in the last two months, following an October decision by the Argentine company that inherited one of Los Angeles-based Oxy’s concessions to modify the antiquated technology that caused the daily dumping of 800,000 barrels of toxic drilling wastes directly into the rainforest.
It also means that Oxy will no longer be involved in oil drilling in the Amazon for the first time in more than 30 years.
The news comes as leaders of indigenous Achuar communities, from the northern Peruvian Amazon, visit LA to demand that Oxy remediate the contamination and vow never to return to Achuar lands, where Oxy and other US companies still hold drilling rights.
“We welcome this news and thank Oxy for finally respecting our rights,” said Gonzalo Payma Sandi, an Achuar leader currently visiting the U.S. “And we will also continue demanding that Oxy assume responsibility for the toxic contamination it left on our territory. We very much hope that Oxy will clean up the pollution and justly compensate the affected communities.”
Oxy broke the news earlier this week to Amazon Watch, an environmental group that has been monitoring Oxy’s operations in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, for nearly a decade. Stressing that the decision would need the approval of the Peruvian government, to which Oxy is bound by contract, Lawrence Meriage, Oxy’s Vice President of Public Affairs, told Amazon Watch: “Oxy has informed the government of Peru of our intention to cease all activities in Peru and exit the country. This decision was made for a combination of business and technical considerations, and community issues.”
This decision brings Oxy’s practices in the Amazon into line with its Human Rights Policy, adopted by its board of directors in December 2004. Currently, Oxy also holds rights to new drilling concessions on other parts of Achuar territory (concession blocks 64, 101, and 103), covering 6.3 million acres of some of the largest areas of intact primary tropical rainforest anywhere in the world. Oxy’s decision means that it will attempt to relinquish its ownership in these blocks.
Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch Executive Director, said: “This welcome development offers lessons for the entire oil industry that the marginal benefits of operating in environmentally-sensitive areas, such as the Amazon, are overshadowed by the damage done to indigenous communities, their environment and to the company’s reputation.”
“Over the last decade, many oil firms – Oxy, Shell, Burlington, Arco, Chevron and ExxonMobil – have learned the hard way that they cannot duck these issues. People eventually find out and care enough to organize globally and challenge them.”
The Achuar have been fighting to protect their rainforest homeland and their rights in the face of oil “development” for more than three decades. One part of their lands, former Oxy concession 1AB, has already been devastated by oil-related contamination. Local communities now face a public health crisis with a recent government report revealing dangerous concentrations of lead and cadmium in blood samples taken from the Achuar. Another neighboring area of Achuar lands, covering pristine primary tropical rainforests, is now threatened by new drilling concessions held by Oxy, Amerada Hess, Talisman, and ConocoPhillips, issued by the Peruvian government against the Achuar’s clearly-stated wishes.
Jorge Fachin, a leader of the Achuar communities whose lands are threatened by the new concessions, said: “The government of Peru should learn from the Oxy experience and stop selling the Achuar people’s land to oil companies. We want all six oil projects slated for our land cancelled. We want to send a strong message to any company thinking about taking Oxy’s place or about entering our lands, specifically to Talisman, Amereda Hess, ConocoPhillips, Ramshorn and Petrolifera; we will not accept your projects. Please don’t even attempt to trespass on the rainforest that gives life to our communities.”
The press conference in LA marks the latest leg of the Achuar’s speaking tour of the U.S., visiting New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco and Houston, in a bid to persuade the oil industry to respect the Achuars’ wishes and stay out of their rainforest territories. It also comes just over a month after a historic victory by the Achuar against Pluspetrol, the Argentine-company that took over Oxy’s former concession. As part of that landmark agreement, the dumping, which continues to this day, is due to be phased out over the next 18 months.
The deal was struck with Pluspetrol and the Peruvian government after 800 Achuar peacefully blockaded a Pluspetrol facility for two weeks in October, bringing oil production to a standstill. A dozen Achuar leaders and their legal team, including Mr. Payma Carijano, and their lawyer, Ms. la Torre, now face criminal charges arising out of that peaceful protest in a move which human rights advocates have condemned as setting a disturbing precedent against the right to peaceful protest in Peru and which has flagged doubts about the commitment to democracy of the administration of recently-elected President Alan García.
Q’orianka Kilcher, who starred as Pocahontas opposite Colin Farrell in the Terrence Malick film “The New World”, recently visited Achuar communities in the northern Peruvian rainforest. She is of Peruvian Amazonian ancestry and was recently named Amazon Watch’s Youth Ambassador.
PRESS CONFERENCE DETAILS
WHAT: Press Conference and Photo Opportunity
WHO: Jorge Fachin, Gonzalo Payma Carijano and Marcial Huaman Sandi, leaders of the Achuar indigenous nation of the northern Peruvian Amazon
Lily la Torre, leading human rights lawyer, Racimos de Ungurahui, Peru
Q’orianka Kilcher, award-winning actress, “The New World”, Amazon Watch Youth Ambassador
Atossa Soltani, Executive Director, Amazon Watch
WHEN: 10.30am, Wednesday, December 6, 2006
WHERE: Greg Gorman Studio, 8275 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 (corner of N. Sweetzer Ave.)
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