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flee re 48 Ze a ei NEw sWVrFrRoNtT Oil companies risk health of Ecuadorian natives The effect.of Petro-Canada’s operations on the lives of the Huaorani Indians has come under close scrutiny through tests by ecologists By KARL HANSEN ew revelations on petro- Jeum development in ba Ecuadorian n adding fuel to a post-Valdez fire of outrage. Environmentalists and In- dians say the oil industry is demon- strating another case of almost epic environmental arrogance. of Ecuador (CONAIE), came to Tor- ‘onto recently to alert Canadians to the threat the nation’s indigenous ee from foreign firms — nelising Canada’s own Petro- reonid and other compa- nies are being accu: to a firms are also being charged with eae a rainforest widely arded among scientists as hav- ing the Highest a diversity in faite wh geographers theorize oe ‘the sont withstood the last Ice Age, the current on- slaught of development may prove too fierce for the forest to survive. Amazon richness “The (Ecuadorian) government says it is exploiting the richness of e Amazon set oe wae -being of the country,” cas, tipping the gray felt hath Ee s a tradition of Quichua culture. “But we are ask- ing, ‘Whose country?} because the | Indians aren't seeing any of the Galo Galarza, charge Waffaires at the Ecuadorian embassy in Ot- explains his government's de- weloen policy. “The Ecuador- ian government tries to find an equilibrium with the conservation of the environment and the exploi- which serve’ to benefit part of the (10 million) Ecuadorian population,” he says. But the inh of the costs, it seems, is falling squarely on the bes of eae 's forest-dwelling ornare an n elder living in the Me Pablo and the hunting is much tougher. “We used to have animals roam- ing right up to the village,” he tells hut he built for his 10 children from the trees and vines of the jungle. “We have to walk four hours before lown the river, in Qui- chua a a mother is holding RAINFORESTS a child whose skin looks like neo- politan ice cream — swirls of pink and white in the natural base of brown. “Petroleum chemicals,” the woman says. In 1967, commercial quantities of oil were discovered in the Ecuador- ian Amazon, known locally as the Oriente. Since then, oil has while government coffers and the 6 6: The river was so full of oil it looked like chicken broth. This is happening everywhere there’s a petroleum base. 9 9 Quichua Indian Luis Macas export sector enjoy the revenues ie the motorized population en- joys subsidized gas prices, the rain- fore and its Indian inhabitants ap- to be the losers in this devel- Petia scheme. Most of the Indian land still has not even been legally Tecognized by the government. “When the cmpani enter, ane are clear-cutting the forests, exter- minating animals and contami- nating the rivers,” Macas s: Last Septe1 Mee visited a tributary to the ico river “so full of oil it Re ed like chicken broth,” he says. “First, the Indians drink it. And second, the fish and plants and ani- mals die, and there’s no food | for the Indians. And this is happen- ing everywhere there’s a petroleum The result of bathing in the Shu- shufindi river is not cleanliness, | but a strange skin rash that looks like hundreds of ee ro grazing near one stomachs that were tierally fl ating apart. Judith Kimerling, an environ- mental lawyer at the Natural Re- sources Defence Council, a Wash- ington-I non-governmental organization, has been_researching oil’s effects on the Oriente for the last year. “There’s a. myth that the only way to destroy a forest is to flood it or cut a tree down,” she says. “What people around the ond don’t realize is that industrialization in the rainforest is bad news be- cause you create contamination, yet we know very little about the rain- forest and how the ecosystem func- tions.” jays. mber, for example, , Over 6 hectares — area half one size e of England and virtually the entire Oriente — being exploited, explored or are about to be explored, she says. DIGEMA, the ral directorate of the environment, a governmental ‘sub-departnient with limited power within Ecuador’s ministry of ener- gy and mines, reports that 3.36 mnillion gallons a drilling wastes are generated each day. C mage is just to buil pit,’ Kimerling says. [Soares it collapses and spills out all at once. Other times it rains and it aie spat more slowly.” ae zone lar. ae "ates that spills from the main trans-Ecuadorian pipeline alone have exceeded 16.8 million gallons — almost one and a half times the Rape spilled by the Exxon Valdez off the coast of eae yet media attention to date been minimal. Spills are bi- wat occurrences, the agency says, and are only expected to get worse as pipelines and equipment age in one of the most active earth- quake zones on the planet. “There's no recuperation, no treatment, no nothit i says. “They just let the area evacu- ate. You can have oil flowing for days before they fix it” ‘Texaco’s old equipment and slop- py waste management have earned it the worst reputation — among environmentalists and the other companies. Kimerling says Texaco is being sued for environmental and health damages by some of its workers. Complaints include head- aches, liver disease, hearing dam- ‘age, gastro-intestinal and skin dis- orders, respiratory difficulties and stomach cancer, she says. Bob Harper is in charge of public relations for Texaco’s Latin Ameri- can operations, but he says he oe know for certain what Tex- corporate policies are towards inlbenbes cultures or the environ- ment. Two weeks’ rep phone | calls requesting more information were not returned. Other companies, like Conoco, P and Petro-Canada, are more sensitive to the charges of environ- mental devastation and cultural dis- Tuption. “We don’t believe there’s any en- vironmental destruction — our Wish of Pe Petro. Candy: “To dispo: a of the drilling muds, they are put into a-sump oh and carefully si si- phoned off.” tool down to its Ecuadorian operations Oil interests insist rainforest exploitation benefits Ecuador, but In- dian activist Luis Macas says the huge costs — river contamination and animal — are paid by the indigenous peoples. last November, i is asking for test re- sults proving that the wastes Petro-Canada is chucking at its site are not cadena the Huaorani way of life. Ina February 2 23 letter of reply, Peter Kaye, Pet ‘anada’s senior vice-president of GP eotaaton apol- ogizes, “Quite apart the fact that the formation water analysis constitutes confidential information respecting the hydrocarbon poten- tial of prospective zones, as a mat- ter of course we do not release in- formation of the nature you have requested to parties not directly as- sociated with our drilling pro- grams.” ve Canada’s a leaves Hallwar ea Caius is pasically & aati "We are not accountable to the shi Istill have no idea whether they even did ue feating: It's ee pe us,” a ast Say- ing, “We will cxpain fonselvon ee Big bucks Conoco is funding species re- search, park patrols and the expan- sion of the national park, Yasuni, which harbours the company’ ’s Dar cel. Con 10CO says it is ‘ing pollution Oy using only the most modern technology. It says it is re- ducing the amount of rainforest cleared by a factor of 10-by Cea in clusters, rather than ran and by baring its pipeline, "a 6 circumvent chemical ina- tion, Conoco will pump oaks chemi- cal drilling wastes back into the same formation it came from, 8,000 feet below the surface, says Alex Chapman, manager of Cono- co-] Ecuador's environmental pro- tection pi “There’s no palion out ee that’s ee oS Neat of public relations fort the Conoco project, in a telephone interview from Quito. “Our object is to have a model, en- vironmentally penne project in the rainforest Still, eae says the compa- nies are glossing over indigenous concerns for the sake of big bucks. While Springer says Conoco has permission from the 125 Huaorani who live on its parcel, Kimerling points out that this interpretation was drawn only from an informal scattering ‘of the Huaorani with whom a Conoco anthropologist communicated. Petro-Canada’s_case S. ani. While Petro-Canada cerned” about the ise aad has “advised them of the scope of our operations and our intent,” Wish says, “Td don’t know if we’ve jot their consent. What do you consider as consent from a noma- dic tribe? We are operating with the government.” But Kimerling says, “The Huao- rani are not united like the other in- really getting the consent of the Pop who have been there for Dee ‘ite rumours that Huao1 territoriality could become official as early as this spring, CONAIE’s Mazcas sees the Ecuadorian govern- ment’s awarding of petroleum de- velopment tenders as a setback to native land settlements. The danger is Amazonian development that Ee tens to native voices only as thoughts, he says. Says Rodrigio Contreras, coordi- nator of the Ottawa-based World le, which helped organize Luis Ma- cas’ Toronto trip, “The consulta- tion we've had so far has been ut- terly Sneaninel in the planning, execution and implementation of any ae, concerning us.” e APRIL INVENTORY SALE SAVE UP TO 65% OF I IGRAFIX DISCOUNT GRAPHIC & FINE ART SUPPLIES te S.L.) DOWNTOWN UPTOWN 344 ee ST. W. 2436 alr ST 368 Senior ST Ne (519)434-2166 By 2 6044 MON-FRI 3 i SAT 9-6 MON-: ‘SAT 9-6 PRICES GOOD. /OT ALL ITEMS AVAILABLE AT ALL LOCATIONS. B NOW MARCH 22-28, 1990 NOLVdd ANNVG