ARCHIVAL
The material below is also available in German, and Polish
23/11/01 letter to WestLB from groups around the world)
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEND AN EMAIL TO WESTLB (the German bank planning to fund the project)
REPORTS FROM THE OCTOBER 24 2001 WORLDWIDE ACTIONS AGAINST WESTLB
Actions took place in Quito, Prague, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York City, London, Munster, Dusseldorf, Munich, Hamburg, Dublin, Barcelona, Milan, Zurich, Warsaw, Sydney and Canberra.
WestLB claim that they can fund the OCP project because the project complies with World Bank ecological guidelines. Not so says Patricia Caffrey
Robert Goodland (who worked for the World Bank for 25 years and was responsible for creating these guidelines) denounces the project as environmentally and culturally destructive.
If the pipeline is completed, it will DOUBLE the amount of oil that can be removed from the Amazon headwaters and this will impact on numerous national parks, nature reserves and indigenous communities including our beloved Panacocha Reserve which we have been struggling to protect for more than ten years.
There's comprehensive information about the issue at www.amazonwatch.org in English and Spanish and in German at www.regenwald.org
In October 2001, Accion Ecologica and grassroots
groups started blockading the bulldozers building the pipeline in the cloudforest
at Mindo and have asked for worldwide support for their action. Here is
the press release from that action (including photos).
We co-ordinated an international action next
Wednesday October 24th against WestLB, the German Bank
who plan to fund the billion dollar pipeline. We rallied that day outside
their Sydney office and encouraged people to do the same at their offices
in many other countries.
WestLB has offices in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech, Dubai, France, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Luxemburg, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, US, Uruguay and Venezuela. Click here for address details. Please email, phone, write or fax your protest. Click here for a sample protest letter which you can copy and email to the company.
Here is part of the email we received from Accion Ecologica:
<< Dear John:
We need your help please to distribute this message far and wide to your contacts.
Ecolgical groups, local communities and students are mobilizing in Ecuador to try to stop the continuation of construction works for the OCP heavy Crude Pipeline. It is urgent that we receive more solidarity and support in demanding that West LB Bank (Germany) not finance this project given its an assault on the environment, a zone of grand bioligical divesity such as the case of Mindo Cloud Forest and an attack on the rights of the locally affected communities.
We ask that all allies to support the international initiative to organize actions in cities where there are WestLB offices to protest your opposition
with their decision to finance this project.
A warm embrace to all,
Ivonne Ramos
ACCION ECOLOGICA>>