The following is an urgent action request on Maxus Energy Corp.'s project in
the Ecuadorian Amazon, received from Accion Ecologica in Quito. The oil
project is causing serious impacts for Huaorani and Quichua indigenous
peoples, as well as Yasuni National Park, a world biosphere reserve, and
other areas of environmental protection. The project has the potential to
destroy the Huaorani Indian culture by creating a means for farmers, lumber
cutters, and ranchers to enter the reserve, and to pollute one of the areas
of greatest biodiversity on the planet.
The request for urgent action includes an update on specific impacts of the
Maxus project to date:
Dallas-based Maxus Energy Corp. is constructing a road into Yasuni National
Park and the Huaorani Indian reserve to construct a pipeline to pump out
oil. Maxus has sought permission from Huaorani communities to allow the
road to pass through their land by offering them presents, such as outboard
motors, and flying them to meetings in the company helicopter.
The daughter of Ecuador's president, Alicia Duran Ballen, has been serving
as an intermediary for Maxus in their dealings with the Huaorani. Now, on
August 13, a meeting is scheduled for the Huaorani village of Tonampari,
where the president of Ecuador, state officials, and Maxus executives will
sign an agreement which will set the terms of the relationship between Maxus
and the Huaorani during the period of the construction of the road.
We ask you to send letters and faxes to Alicia Duran Ballen, Advisor to the
President of Ecuador, making her aware of your opposition to Maxus' project,
and asking her to reconsider her endorsement of Maxus' destructive Block 16
oil project.
Her address:
Alicia Duran Ballen
Assesoria de la Presidencia de la Republica
Garcia Morena 1043
Quito, Ecuador
Fax: 593-2-580-751
Here is an update on the impacts of the Maxus project:
- there now are 300 migrant farmers who have settled in the
Tiputini River area, despite the fact that Maxus has
guaranteed that no settlers will be allowed to enter the area;
- Maxus is dragging the Napo River and extracting rocks
from the Aguarico, producing serious erosion in both rivers;
- Other protected areas are being affected by the deforestation
promoted by Maxus, including the south of the Cuyabeno
Wildlife Reserve; Maxus is buying 70,000 boards for their
camps and drilling towers. This is affecting the Payamino
zone;
- In May, in Yasuni national park, a pool of drilling mud
contaminated the Tivacuno marshland area;
- a chemical spill took place in July at the Bogi well;
- three barges carrying drilling chemicals went aground,
spilling their contents into the Napo and Tiputini Rivers in
February and April of this year.
- Quichua Indian communities in the areas where the road is
being built have had conflicts with Maxus based on their
failure to comply with agreements signed with the
communities. In other zones, such as the Rio Jivino,
communities have opposed the passage of the road.
For more information, contact Glen Switkes at Rainforest
Action Network, 450 Sansome St., Suite 700, San Francisco
CA 94111, USA
Tel: (415) 398-4404 Fax: (415) 398-2732 e-mail: en.rainforest
or Yvonne Ramos, Accion Ecologica, Lerida 380 y
Pontevedra, Quito Ecuador
Tel: (593) 2-526-994 Fax: (593) 2-547-516