ARCO in the Rainforest
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Oil Exploration in the Ecuadorian Amazon
Violates Indigenous Peoples' Rights
S.C.A.R.C.E., the Bruin Rainforest Action Group, is planning
a demonstration at 4:00 p.m. on May 3, 1991 at the ARCO
plaza, 515 South Flower Street, Los Angeles, to protest the
destruction of rainforests and indigenous cultures by oil
exploration projects in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The demonstration is in accordance with an international
movement by environmental and indigenous rights organiza-
tions calling for a stop to the development of the
Ecuadorian Amazon by petrochemical corporations.
The Ecuadorian government has made oil development the top
national priority, encouraging corporations such as Texaco,
CONOCO (DuPont), British Petroleum, Occidental, and
PetroEcuador to explore and drill in the Ecuadorian Amazon,
or Oriente. Even Indian reserves and national parks are not
protected from development. Under a 1988 law, all such
"protected" areas may be subject to exploration for mineral
resources. The same year, ARCO contracted to develop nearly
half a million acres of pristine rainforest in the region
and has already cleared over two thousand acres for helicop-
ter land sites.
Local indigenous groups have opposed ARCO's presence from
the start. A government investigation of early reports of
water pollution, degradation of forest and agriculture land,
and destruction of sacred sites resulted in the Sarayacu
Treaty, which called for compensation for damage caused by
ARCO, a solution to land-title conflicts, and a cessation of
operations until environmental measures were enacted. The
treaty was subsequently brushed aside by ARCO, and the
Ecuadorian military was brought in to "pacify" indigenous
protest.
In the last 18 years, Texaco has spilled 17 million gallons
of oil in the region and has no intention of cleaning it up.
Moreover, water pollution caused by inadequate waste treat-
ment at oil camps has led to skin and stomach disease among
the indigenous peoples. In addition to this, fish and game
have become scarce, forcing natives to abandon traditional
ways, often for minimum-wage work in oil projects.
Oil exploration is currently destroying the Oriente region,
which is home to and estimated 10% of the world's species,
and threatening to wipe an entire people, the Huaorani, from
the face of the earth within a decade.
As Alfredo Veteri, A Quichua leader, said, "In Amazonia
there will be another oil war, and the victims will be the
indigenous people."
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