Contrary to what those within the Ecuadorian government, WestLB, and the OCP Consortium claim, the pipeline project’s schedule, funding, route, and the very notion of its inevitability have met with new challenges and steadfast resistance this week, which have thrown the project into unprecedented crisis and an uncertain future. The pipeline controversy has escalated both within Ecuador and internationally in recent days, and OCP finds itself under fire from all sides.

On the ground in Ecuador, the Sucumbios province is on strike over OCP salaries and the Ministry of the Environment is calling for new environmental studies to examine the geological stability of the Guarumos region, where the Mindo tree sit is celebrating its 50th day.  This comes on the heels of a recent worker strike in Esmeraldas over salaries and benefits.  And the World Bank, in addition to an earlier critical letter sent to the OCP Consortium and the German government last December, took the unusual step of writing an opinion piece in El Comercio—the country’s largest national newspaper-- to express their 'profound concern' over the environmental impacts of the project and to distance itself from comments by OCP that the project complies with its standards. Mindo tree sitters also appear to finally have persuaded editors at the pro-pipeline El Comercio to cover their action in an accurate, objective, and timely manner—a significant gain in the battle for Ecuadorian public opinion.

In Germany, a committee of the Parliment of NWR held another session yesterday on WestLB's loan to the OCP Consortium and the environmental impacts of the project. The European Political Commission and One World Committee, with the help of the Social Democratic, Christian Democratic, and Green Parties, decided that the NWR government should exercise its influence with WestLB to open a dialogue with critial stakeholders affected by the OCP.

Meanwhile, representatives of Greenpeace Germany have been in the country touring the entire 300 mile pipeline route, and just returned from the Mindo cloudforest region. The results an analysis of their site visit will be announced at a press conference in Quito tomorrow, and one upon their return to Germany next week. Greenpeace is leading a divestent/boycott campaign of WestLB, and is now being joined by groups in Italy, where the National Labor Bank has come under fire for its role as one of 16 banks to which WestLB has syndicated the loan.  Groups in Italy have also begun to target Agip for its participation in the OCP Consortium and reckless operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

1.Base Camp Report #1 February 15^th 2002

For over six weeks, an activist group from Mindo, Ecuador has been occupying an extremely sensitive area on the future OCP (a consortium of 7 international petroleum companies) heavy crude oil pipeline route. The tree sit began on January 2nd when members of Accion Por La Vida (Action For Life) set up camp in an area along the route called Guarumos in order to make it physically impossible for the construction crew to continue working. At that same time Techint (the Argentine-based company in charge of the construction of the project) declared the area too difficult to work in due to the heavy rains of winter. Until now, except for a false alarm three weeks ago and recent reports that OCP is fixing the service roads in the area, no direct confrontations have occurred between the activists and OCP workers. However, the activists are taking advantage of the down time by organizing their peaceful protest strategies and accommodating the camp for the many weekly visitors that arrive to support the action.

A very positive and informative newspaper article appeared Feb. 10 in El Comercio, the largest Ecuadorian newspaper. A rather large photo was shown on the front page with caption reading: "La resistencia al OCP se radicaliza." "The resistance against OCP radicalizes." Then a two-page spread on Mindo as an ecotourism destination and it’s recent move towards an environmentally activist town. Then today, Feb.15, a report on another protest against OCP was covered in the same newspaper, this time on the coastal city Esmeraldas where the pipeline meets the shipping docks. Hundreds of manual laborers have been laid off, promised false wages and treated poorly are now on strike. Before the strike these workers were getting paid $3.14 a day for 12 hours of work, six days a week and only one meal per day. Many have complained of the poor treatment from the supervisors and of the dangerous nature of the work. They are now asking for higher wages, life insurance, and injury insurance. Construction in that area has been halted while the workers meet with Techint. For more information try www.elcomercio.com.

Green Peace Germany has been in the country for the last week and is visiting various sites along the pipeline route. They are scheduled to go up to the base camp in Guarumos on Sunday, Feb. 17, and come to Mindo on Monday to speak with the concerned residents of Mindo.

February 18, 2002

Summary of GreenPeace Meeting

Mindo, Pichincha, ECUADOR

Fifteen members of Mindo’s activist group Accion Por la Vida (Action For Life) awaited the arrival of GreenPeace Germany this afternoon in a small hosteria in the town of Mindo. Two GreenPeace Germany representatives arrived with their film team at 2:30 pm. As they stepped out of the van, one could see the exhaustion on their faces. They had gone up to the peaceful protest base camp yesterday (Sunday Feb. 17) in a section of primary cloud forest called Guarumos and had spent the afternoon filming and doing a series of interviews that went well into the night. Although the main spokesperson, Michaela Braun, appeared tired she greeted those who were present and told us of their week-long trip along the pipeline route. They arrived last Sunday and went from Quito to Lago Agrio, a petroleum town in the Orient where the pipeline begins at the oil fields, and will end up tomorrow in the coastal city of Esmeraldas, where the pipeline meets the refinery. Michaela’s presentation was very informative as to what their goals were for this visit and their campaign in Germany in general. With the images that they are collecting on this trip, they plan to increase and strengthen the campaign that already exists against the publicly funded WestLB bank in the province of Nordrhein-Westfalen. They will hold a press conference in Quito on Wednesday Feb. 20 to inform the Ecuadorian public of their campaign in Germany. Upon their return to Germany, they plan to hold a national press conference, informing the German public of their campaign against the WestLB bank. They will also contact private account holders and inform them of the current issue, encouraging them to withdraw their funds from this particular bank. If this strategy proves unsuccessful in pressuring the bank to withdraw their $900 million dollar loan to OCP, GreenPeace will launch a national campaign, hoping to gain the interest of the entire German public.

After Michaela described their strategy, the members of Accion Por La Vida had the opportunity to inquire about what GreenPeace Germany can do for Mindo and the cause here in Ecuador. Although the response from both representatives was not totally positive, they did emphasize that they will do whatever is in their power to help. Unfortunately, Michaela explained, GreenPeace is also an organization that works off of donations, making it almost impossible for them to directly support the Mindo action with the funding it so badly needs. Their perspective on the situation is much broader, with the hope of totally paralyzing the entire project by pressuring the WestLB Bank to withdraw their hefty loan.

The meeting was also graced by the presence of Mr. Marcelo Franco, the landowner of the space that Accion Por La Vida is occupying. Marcelo Franco is the only landowner that our group knows about that is actively and openly rejecting the pipeline project. His land being one of the many private primary cloud forests that the planned pipeline is to go through, Franco has endured threats to himself and his family from OCP representatives wanting to intimidate Franco into giving up the section of land where the tube would pass through. OCP has even given him various enticing offers for the right of way, including the most recent offer of $120,000. Marcelo Franco is an old man. He needs to worry about his well-being and the well-being of his family. He has wanted to negotiate a fair price with Acciòn Por La Vida for the sale of half of his 2000 acre lot of primary forest. His offer stands at $120,000 for 1000 acres, which is an extremely reasonable price for such a pristine area. Acciòn Ecològica, an Ecuadorian NGO that has been working closely with Acciòn Por La Vida, has received generous donations totaling up to $30,000 USD. Franco said he would accept the $30,000 as a down payment in hopes that we will find the funds to pay for the land in full. We are in a struggle for time as Franco’s patience and good-hearted intentions will only last so long. He is under so much pressure from OCP to sell out that we fear if we do not act quickly we will lose our chance to buy a large section of cloud forest, thus greatly reducing the possible victory of the two year long protest.

GreenPeace and members of an Italian group called The Italian Campaign For The World Bank Reform interviewed Mr. Franco, using him as an unfortunately typical example of the abuse of power and money that OCP uses to manipulate individuals that have expressed their opposition to the pipeline project.

Another interesting guest at the roundtable was Enrique Joseph, visiting from Costa Rica and working with Acciòn Ecològica in Quito. He spoke of his experience in anti-petroleum campaigns. His hometown province of Limòn became the spotlight for offshore petroleum exploration in 1999 when the American petroleum company Harkin came to test sites off of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. That year the lobster harvest on the coast of the Province on Limòn, which local fishermen and communities are so dependent on for their yearly income, was non-existent. The 16 detonations that the company had set off to explore underwater petroleum platforms had inhibited the lobster reproduction necessary to harvest mature lobster for the Costa Rican market. Harkin’s only response was to compensate local fisherman with sums of money as small as $80 dollars, when a normal three-month lobster harvest yields upwards of $3000 for an individual fisherman. Enrique’s presence at the meeting was another example of a nation, state, community, and individual affected by destructive petroleum practices.

After over two hours of conversation and interviews, GreenPeace and the Italian Campaign for World Bank Reform were on their way. They needed to get on the road to make it to the coast by this evening. Although Acciòn Por La Vida did not get the concrete answers regarding funding and direct support for our camp up in Guarumos, we all agreed that the meeting was successful in the sense that the more we are connected with concerned international groups, especially those that carry such political weight as GreenPeace, the better chance we have of victory, whether it be the total closure of the project, or negotiating a micro variant in the OCP route.

Communications, Acciòn Por La Vida 

Mindo, Pichincha ECUADOR

Press release, 18 February 2002

Greenpeace says minister Steinbrueck is approving ancient forest destruction by public bank

Dusseldorf, 18 Feb. – Today unusual construction works are going on in front of the ministry of finance for the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia. 45 Greenpeace activists using loud pneumatic hammers are in a symbolic action laying an oil pipeline in front of the main entrance to the government building in Dusseldorf. Their protest is aimed against the state government's share in responsibility for a pipeline project in the heart of the Ecuadorian rainforest. A banner says ancient forest destruction is being approved by the finance minister, Peter Steinbrueck (Social Democrat), and that the loan from the Westdeutschen Landesbank public bank must be stopped. The environmentalists want to put the threat to the ancient forest in Ecuador from the construction of the oil pipeline financed by the WestLB right before Mr Steinbrueck's eyes. A state parliament committee concerned with international problems is this afternoon again discussing the loan in billions of euros being made by the WestLB, the biggest shareholder in which is the state of North-Rhine Westphalia.

"As finance minister and member of the bank's administrative council Steinbrueck can and must stop the huge loan, which is destructive to the ancient forest," says Greenpeace's ancient forests expert, Martin Kaiser. "A project which has such a disastrous impact on people and the environment cannot be simply ignored for fear of an argument with the WestLB bank. One of the last ancient forests in Ecuador cannot be threatened with sinking into lakes of oil because of obstinacy by the finance minister in North-Rhine Westphalia. In doing this he is knowingly violating public interest."

It was known in January that the construction of the pipeline even fails to meet the environmental standards of the World Bank, regarded as low by environmental organisations, and so has to be fundamentally questioned. The minister-president of North-Rhine Westphalia, Wolfgang Clement (Social Democrat), has already expressed criticism of the WestLB's pipeline project. Finance minister Peter Steinbrueck nevertheless continues to stick to the bank's loan being made.

An internal memorandum by the finance ministry made in November last year, which Greenpeace has before it, shows that Steinbrueck knows about the dubious loan requirements. He was told in this note from finance ministry staff that the environmental study by the Entrix company was "based on an environmental impact study made by the operators of the pipeline project themselves" and that "this puts the objectivity of the study into question".

Greenpeace will present the "WestLB case" as Germany's contribution to the international community of states' ancient forest destruction to the "Ancient Forest Summit" on 7-9 April 2002 in the Hague. With the participation of the German government a ten-year work programme for protecting ancient forests is supposed to be adopted at the sixth conference of states party to the Convention on Biological Diversity taking place there.

Please direct enquiries to Martin Kaiser, tel. +49 (0)171 8780817, or Carmen Ulmen, press officer, tel. +49 (0)171 8780840. Sandra Pfotenhauer, this afternoon returning from a trip to carry out research in Ecuador, will also give interviews. For Beta footage of the protest call +49 (0)201-7475344 (CNC) or Beate Schlichting, tel. +49 (0)179-5247347. For photos of the action and from Ecuador call +49 (0)40 30618376. You can obtain the internal finance ministry letter by calling +49 (0)40 30618336.