Information in: Español - Français - Deutsch - Português - Russian - Japanese - Svenska - Italiano - Suomi

InterPress Service : Dec 22, 1999

Environment: Bolivian Pipeline is Destroying Tropical Forests

WASHINGTON, (Dec. 22) IPS - Environmentalists want the US government to end financial aid for the construction of a natural gas pipeline in Bolivia which, they charge, is destroying pristine forests and harming local communities.

The 630 km pipeline project is owned by Gas Oriente Boliviano, a consortium made up of Texas-based Enron International, Shell International, and the Bolivian company Transredes.

The US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) provided a $200 million loan agreement for the project in June, when Enron declared the pipeline would be of "world class" environmental and social standards and include various safeguards to protect the forest and local indigenous communities.

But Atossa Soltani, executive director of California-based Amazon Watch, says that since construction began, she and others had witnessed a "world class disaster."

"Enron continuously has demonstrated a clear lack of commitment to protect the fragile ecosystem and address the concerns of locally-affected people," she said.

OPIC's funding for the project went through in the face of demands from environmentalists and local communities to have the route altered to avoid this forested area.

The pipeline traverses one of the largest dry tropical forest areas in the world -- the Chiquitano Tropical Forests listed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as one of the 200 most important ecosystems throughout the globe.

Nearly 100 mammal, bird and reptile species, including hyacinth macaw and the ocelot in the Chiquitano are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), say environmentalists.

WWF, Amazon Watch and Friends of the Earth have accused Enron - which heads the construction consortium -- of failing to control erosion, water and air pollution, illegal hunting and unauthorized access to the route that runs alongside the pipeline.

After visits to the construction site, Soltani and a geology professor at the University of California said that Enron had violated several OPIC guidelines as well as Bolivian law.

Their report said that, without authorization from Bolivian authorities, Enron built a new air strip, widened several access roads, and installed new workers camps close to small towns and in pristine forest areas.

"Of great concern, is Enron's plans to build new access roads through pristine tropical forests," Soltani said, adding that such roads would be a violation of the company's loan agreement with OPIC.

The report said the ongoing construction had an adverse social impact on surrounding communities. Funds were never dispersed for land titling for indigenous communities and an Indigenous Development Plan.

"The company is also failing to adequately enforce the workers code of conduct," the report said. Between 700 to 1000 workers poured into small surrounding indigenous and farming towns at weekends, bringing with them a host of violent crimes, trash, and prostitution.

"OPIC has been caught red-handed in violations and broken promises," says Jonathan Sohn, an analyst with Friends of the Earth.

"It is time that OPIC's Board of Directors, the General Accounting Office and the US Congress did an investigation of how OPIC is using tax-dollars to finance tropical forest destruction," he says.

OPIC has denied violating environmental and social guidelines. In a seven-page written response, the agency argued that, based on the challenges of operating in a tropical ecosystem, the project was making "good progress" with its environmental and social objectives.

OPIC insisted that "No new access roads have been build and none are planned."

The agency said the claims of erosion and other negative environmental impacts had been based on limited observations that took place right after the land was cleared and before controls were put in place.

It admitted that a "few incidences" were reported in local communities regarding misconduct by local workers, but they had no lasting impact.

"Our monitors have spent a considerable amount of time in camps and local communities and report an atmosphere of mutual respect and good community relations," OPIC said in its statement.

The pipeline project forms part of a $2.1 billion, 3,150 km scheme to transport natural gas from Bolivia to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Starting in Ipias, Bolivia, the new project would branch off the existing Bolivia-Brazil pipeline.

It would then run northeast through San Matias to Cuiaba, a small city in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, where Enron is constructing a 480-megawatt, combined-cycle natural gas power plant.

Home | What are ECAs? | The Problems | Goals | Take Action! | Press Room | About Us

For Questions or Comments, email info_at_eca-watch.org
To report broken links and/or technical difficulties, email webmaster_at_eca-watch.org
View our Privacy Statement