PRESS BRIEFING AND PHOTO OP. OUTSIDE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ON MAY 9 AT THE OMNI HOUSTON HOTEL. B-ROLL, PHOTOS, AND INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE BY ARRANGEMENT.
Houston — Indigenous leaders from the Amazon arrive here today to warn ConocoPhillips shareholders that the company will meet steadfast local opposition and provoke an international outcry if it proceeds with plans to drill on their tropical rainforest homelands.
The leaders will attend the company’s annual meeting on Wednesday to persuade the oil giant to abandon drilling plans for its vast holdings in the Amazon rainforest. ConocoPhillips owns the rights to seven oil concessions on the ancestral territories of various indigenous groups – an area 3 times the size of New Jersey – in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon, the heart of one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet.
The plans threaten to destabilize the fragile rainforest ecosystem, which scientists say is a major force in stabilizing global climate. Oil drilling opens up these intact forests to a range of impacts including colonization and logging in addition to possible oil contamination. In one of the areas Conoco’s operations would threaten vulnerable isolated indigenous peoples who have no immunity to outside diseases.
Patricia Gualinga, a leader of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in southern Ecuador, said: “ConocoPhillips’ oil concessions in Ecuador and Peru threaten the survival of our tribes and the future of the rainforest. ConocoPhillips needs to join our efforts to protect the Amazon and prevent climate change that threatens not just rainforest peoples but communities around the globe.”
Deforestation currently accounts for approximately 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and there is a growing recognition of the role the Amazon plays in climatic conditions around the globe, including driving atmospheric circulation and generating rainfall from Iowa to Argentina. Scientists warn that climate change is already affecting the Amazon, raising temperatures, causing droughts and disrupting the rainfall patterns necessary for the survival of the world’s most diverse biome.
“ConocoPhillips now controls more acres in the Amazon than any other U.S. multinational. Their plans for the Amazon will have global consequences,” said Gualinga.
Andres Sandi, President of the Peruvian regional indigenous federation FECONACO, added: “For the future of the planet that we all share, the Amazon rainforest must remain intact and off-limits to oil drilling.” Both Gualinga and Sandi will be speaking inside Wednesday’s shareholder meeting.
Also during the meeting, shareholders will be voting on a resolution urging the company to respect indigenous rights and asking company management to provide a report detailing how ConocoPhillips obtains consent from indigenous communities affected by its operations. The resolution was filed by a coalition of socially responsible investors led by the Brethren Benefit Trust.
The delegation of indigenous leaders will be accompanied by human rights and environmental organization Amazon Watch, which has urged ConocoPhillips to withdraw
its plans to drill for oil in the Amazon.
Houston event itinerary and photo ops with indigenous leaders:
Wednesday May 9:
9am press briefing and photo op outside ConocoPhillips Shareholder Meeting
OMNI Houston Hotel
13210 Katy Freeway Houston, Texas
Indigenous leaders will be wearing traditional dress. Leaders include:
Andrés Sandi Mucushua: Achuar leader from the Peruvian Amazon and president of the indigenous federation FECONACO.
Tomas Maynas Carijano: Elder and spiritual leader of the Achuar people who led the 2006 peaceful protest that paralyzed 40 percent of Peru’s oil production and led to an historic agreement among the Peruvian government, indigenous peoples and the Pluspetrol oil company.
Petronila Nakaim Chumpi Rosales: Secretary of FECONACO, and chair of the federation’s work on women’s affairs.
Patricia Gualinga: From the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in Ecuador’s southern Amazon rainforest.
