OCP ISSUE AND CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

The Rainforest Information Centre has been working for more than 15 years to protect rainforests in Ecuador and a huge threat is now looming in the form of the OCP crude oil pipeline being built from the Amazon, over the Andes to the coast.

If completed it will double the amount of oil that can be extracted from the Amazon headwaters and oil companies from Canada, US, Argentina, Brasil, Spain, Italy, France and the UK are preparing to open new oil wells in many rainforest national parks and indigenous reserves. An international campaign is underway to persuade these companies, the International Monetary Fund and the German bank WestLB to spare these national parks and to follow World Bank project guidelines regarding the conservation of nature and protection of the rights of indigenous communities.

Last year, local activists did the first tree sit blockade in S America and held up the pipeline for months. There have also been international protests outside offices of WestLB. A most important tool in the campaign to prevent the impending devastation is a new film produced by Juan Pablo Barragan, a brilliant film-maker/activist: "Amazon Oil Pipeline - Pollution, Corruption and Poverty".

This 35 minute video has been produced in Spanish, German, English and Italian (with French and Portuguese underway) in order to
confront the oil companies in their home countries and in Ecuador as well as to increase pressure on WestLB. Copies of the video are available free or by donation to any group or individual who will organise one or more screenings for their organisation, friends or for the public. Please contact johnseed1@ozemail.com.au for a copy of the video. Please see www.rainforestinfo.org.au for more about this issue.