Guest guest Posted July 30, 2002 Report Share Posted July 30, 2002 Rainforest Action Network - Monthly Email Newsletter August 2002 _________ Welcome! Thank you for being a partner in Rainforest Action Network's exciting campaigns. Read on to get the latest news and learn how you can help save the world's rainforests. In this post: 1. Protect Patagonia! 2. Ecuadorian Protesters Fight Citigroup's OCP Pipeline! 3. Tell Washington Mutual To Stop Buying From Boise Cascade! 4. Recent Rainforest News _________ PROTECT PATAGONIA FROM TOXIC AND DESTRUCTIVE DEVELOPMENT The survival of one of the American continents' last extensive temperate coastal rainforests is at stake. Canadian mining giant Noranda, Inc. is currently seeking permission from the Chilean government to proceed with Alumysa, an industrial plan that would gravely affect the pristine Aisen region in Chilean Patagonia. Alumysa calls for the construction of a massive aluminum smelter that would pollute the ancient forests and human communities surrounding it and a hydroelectric project that would dam three area rivers and drown thousands of acres of primary forests. At $2.75 billion, this investment would be the biggest private venture in the history of Chile. Physically, Alumysa would be the largest development ever initiated in Patagonia. The Chilean government is still considering Noranda's proposal, so now is the time to bring national and international attention to Alumysa to prevent the government from allowing Noranda to move forward with this unsustainable project. One of the largest diversified natural resource companies in the world, Noranda has a history of supporting Chile's military dictatorship and a track record of environmental and social criminality. Its environmental violations in the United States alone have cost the company almost $2 million in fines. From the mid-1980s until the early 1990s, Noranda was the parent company of MacMillan-Bloedel, a wood products company that ravaged the ancient forests of British Columbia. Undoubtedly, Noranda is attracted to Chile by the country's cheap labor and lax environmental enforcement. Noranda has worked with the Chilean government to minimize public participation in the project's review process. On August 31, 2001, the corporation submitted its Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the project, a mammoth document that fills 24 books. A week later, it published a summary of the EIS, leaving only 60 days for the public to comment on the megaproject and its indecipherable EIS. Noranda's Alumysa promises to have an enormous environmental and social impact on Chilean Patagonia. The project includes the construction of hydroelectric centers in three different watersheds close to Puerto Aisen, which would drown thousands of acres of temperate evergreen rainforest and increase road building and consequent habitat fragmentation. The area at stake is part of Chile's temperate rainforest, a biome that contains a dazzling diversity of life including the alerce, a giant tree that has been known to live over 3,600 years. An explosive growth in population would also accompany Alumysa, overwhelming social services and damaging the fragile local environment. It is estimated that only about $30 million of the billions spent on the unsustainable project will remain in the local economy. Aisen is a biological and cultural gem worth protecting. Settled a mere 80 years ago, the remoteness of the region has kept the human population under 100,000. Its inhabitants espouse an ethic of conservation, referring to their forested region as a " Reserve of Life. " As a result of light human impact, Aisen boasts intact ancient forests and exceptionally clean air and water-water is drinkable directly from almost any stream in the region. Alumysa would severely disrupt the social and environmental harmony of the region. Act now to ensure that Chile does not allow this environmentally and socially disastrous project to move forward! Write the Chilean President to ask that he refuse to approve the environmental impact statement for the Alumysa project and make a statement that Alumysa represents the wrong direction for Patagonia's future. You can write to: Presidente Ricardo Lagos, Palacio de la Moneda, Santiago, Chile. A standard letter to Chile from the U.S. requires eighty cents postage. If you read and write Spanish, you may send an email from the Chilean Presidential website. Go to http://www.presidencia.cl/ and click on " Cartas al Presidente " to send a letter. LINKS: Native Forest Network http://www.nativeforest.org/home.html Ancient Forest International http://www.ancientforests.org/chile.htm _________ ECUADOR'S FIRST TREE-SITTERS JAILED AS OCP PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES On January 2, 2002, seventeen activists began Ecuador's first ever tree-sit to protest the construction of the Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP). Funded by German bank West LB and provided a line of credit by leading global forest destroyer Citigroup, the OCP is a 298-mile heavy crude oil pipeline that will run through the biologically invaluable Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest Reserve. Two and a half months after the protesters began their action against the pipeline, the Ecuadorian military illegally stormed the tree-sitters' camp and arrested the protesters. The 12 participating non-Ecuadorian activists were immediately deported, and the five activists from Ecuador were falsely charged with sabotage and invasion of private property and now face 8-12 years in prison for their nonviolent act of civil disobedience. The controversial OCP pipeline that prompted the tree-sit would snake along a narrow mountain ridge high in the geologically unstable Andes range, making it vulnerable to major oil spills that would affect three watersheds and major rivers in the pristine Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest Reserve. The Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world and exhibits a high degree of endemism in plants, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, and birds. Birdlife International designated Mindo Nambillo as the first " Important Bird Area " in South America. The OCP pipeline would double Ecuador's oil production, causing an explosion of oil exploration and drilling activities that would lead to a familiar pattern of environmental and cultural devastation that follows oil projects. Much of the heavy crude that would flow through, and spill into, Mindo Nambillo is likely to be collected through destructive extraction techniques in the still pristine Yasuni National Park and Limoncocha, Pañacocha, and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserves. Serious blows to Ecuador's economy are also likely to accompany the environmental devastation caused by the pipeline. Historically, profit-driven oil exploitation has not only destroyed Ecuadorian forests, but also drained the country of its financial resources. Since 1972, when Texaco built Ecuador's first oil pipeline, the country's foreign debt spiraled from $217 million to nearly $16 billion in 2001. Even if oil exploration's purported short-term financial benefits were to materialize, they would not be worth the price tag of long-term forest devastation and fragmentation. Indeed, the only entities for which the OCP promises profits are transnational corporations such as funder WestLB and creditor Citigroup (for more information on RAN's campaign to get Citigroup out of the business of environmental destruction, go to www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/citigroup/). Don't let the OCP pipeline destroy Ecuador's vital rainforest, devastate the country's local economy, and bully nonviolent protesters into silence. Act now by letting OCP's financiers know you are concerned about the threats posed by their pipeline and supporting the legal defense of Mindo Nambillo's forest heroes. Donations can be sent to RAN's Protect-an-Acre Fund, a program that supports the OCP protesters' actions and legal defense. Letters like the one below can be sent to the Wolfgang Clement, Prime Minister of North Rhineland Westphalia, at: Ministerpräsident des Landes NRW; Herrn Wolfgang Clement; Stadttor 1; 40213 Düsseldorf; Germany; Fax +49-211-837-1562; email: wolfgang.clement Dear Prime Minister Clement: I am writing to express my deep concern regarding North Rhineland Westphalia's intimate involvement in the Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP) pipeline project in Ecuador. This heavy crude oil pipeline poses a multitude of environmental threats to Ecuador's pristine rainforests, including oil spills along the pipeline's route and habitat devastation wrought by greatly expanded oil exploration. Intact rainforests are crucial to preserving the planet's biodiversity, serve as vital absorbers of carbon and other greenhouse gasses, and are home to over three million rainforest-dependent people worldwide. As you know, your state holds over a 40% share in West LB, the main financier of the OCP. Accordingly, you are in a position to protect our Earth's biological heritage by demanding that West LB withdraw from this environmentally devastating project. The German public is increasingly aware of and dismayed by your state's funding of the OCP. As German elections approach and the Earth's rainforests dwindle, little time remains to take action on this crucial matter. Please act today to stop the destruction promised by the OCP pipeline. LINKS: RAN Citigroup Campaign Case Study: OCP http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/citigroup/cs_ocp.html Amazon Watch http://www.amazonwatch.org/ Project Underground http://www.moles.org/ Julia Butterfly in Ecuador Jail After Oil Protest http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=559 & area=home Occidental Petroleum's Quito office shut down by protesters http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=557 & area=home U.S. activist and others arrested in Ecuador pipeline protest http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=558 & area=home Ecuador Police Detain, Deport Anti-Pipeline Activists http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=508 OCP Protesters in Amazon Attacked by Military! http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/citigroup/aa_ocp_030102.html Ecuador: Environmentalists Continue Forest Occupation in Mindo to Block Pipeline Construction http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=474 & area=home ___________________ TELL WASHINGTON MUTUAL TO STOP BUYING FROM BOISE CASCADE! CALL TODAY! Washington Mutual, one of Boise's major office products customers, will decide by July 31 whether to continue buying from Boise. Please call Washington Mutual today to let them know it is unacceptable to support Boise, a company that destroys old growth forests around the world. Tell them to switch to a supplier that embraces modern values and respects the planet's endangered forests. Call Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger at 206-461-3139 and ask him to cancel Washington Mutual's contract with Boise. Don't let his secretary derail you by referring you to their customer service line or by telling you the CEO doesn't make the decision--we know better! Tell Washington Mutual what you think about buying paper made from ancient forests! You can also help by calling Washington Mutual's main line at 800-225-5497. If you have questions about this action, please contact: Sharon Smith Old-Growth Organizer Rainforest Action Network 415.398.4404 x310 800.989.7246 ssmith LINKS: RAN Old Growth Campaign http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/old_growth/ _________ RECENT RAINFOREST NEWS Brazil Begins High-Tech Surveillance of Amazonia http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=query_displaynews & doc_id=NR20020725375\ ..9_c163000523f82254 Brazil spies on Amazon loggers http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2151222.stm Brazil Cracks Down on Dutch Primate Scholar http://news.lycos.com/news/story.asp?section=Science & storyId=473580 England Denies Greenpeace Mahogany Appeal http://news.lycos.com/news/story.asp?section=Science & storyId=474310 Outrage, Dismay as Mahathir Revives Building of Rainforest-Wrecking Sarawak Dam http://old.smh.com.au/news/0103/03/world/world13.html Illegal Log Trade Threatens Russian Tigers, Ecology http://news./news?tmpl=story2 & cid=570 & ncid=753 & e=1 & u=/nm/20020723/sc_nm\ /environment_russia_dc_1 Tasmanian Logging Yields World Record Green Vote http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & u=/oneworld/20020723/wl_oneworld/103\ 2_1027437089 New Amazon monkeys discovered and other stories http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/07/07182002/s_47697.asp. 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