First ECA-OECD Guidelines complaint submitted on Suape, Pernambuco, Brazil

At the beginning of June an OECD Guidelines complaint was filed with the NCPs of Brazil and the Netherlands against the Dutch dredging company Van Oord and the Dutch ECA Atradius Dutch State Business on the adverse social and environmental impacts caused by ECA supported dredging projects in Suape, Pernambuco, Brazil. This first ever OECD Guidelines complaint against an ECA has been filed by the Associação Fórum Suape Espaço Socioambiental, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Colônia de Pescadores do Município do Cabo de Santo Agostinho (Z08) from Brasil and Both ENDS from the Netherlands.

Communities of fishermen and shellfish collectors in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, along with Brazilian and Dutch NGOs, allege that the Dutch dredging company Van Oord and the Dutch export credit agency Atradius DSB have failed to comply with the OECD Guidelines related to a dredging project in north-eastern Brazil. Van Oord has been active in the Port of Suape since 1995. Its most recent projects include dredging for the Promar Shipyard and the dredging of an ocean access channel to the Port of Suape. In November, 2011, the official export credit agency of the Dutch government, Atradius DSB, provided Van Oord with an export credit insurance for its operations in Suape. The complaint is the first under the revised OECD Guidelines to be directed against an export credit agency. 

According to the complainants, Van Oord’s dredging operations have caused numerous adverse human rights and environmental impacts. Extended sections of rocky ocean bottom have been blown up with explosives as part of the dredging process. Coral reefs, and mangrove forests have been destroyed seriously affecting local fish populations. Local water management systems are affected in such a way that people living in the port area increasingly suffer from floods. Traditional fishermen and small-scale farmers lost their homes and livelihoods, for which they have received insufficient compensation. The complaint further alleges that Van Oord and Atradius DSB, in collusion with the Suape port authority,  failed to conduct appropriate human rights due diligence in order to prevent and mitigate human rights impacts, failed to provide local stakeholders with timely information about the projects’ adverse impacts, and failed to meaningfully engage stakeholders on business decisions that directly impacted them.

The complainants request that the Brazilian and Dutch NCPs jointly handle the case and that they facilitate a dialogue with Van Oord and Atradius aimed at bringing the activities of both companies into line with the OECD Guidelines. Specifically, the complainants request that Van Oord remediate the damage it has caused by rehabilitating damaged areas and ensure protection for other areas endangered by the dredging operations. The complainants also request that the loss of local livelihoods be remediated by establishing protected fish reserves. Finally, the complainants demand that both Van Oord and Atradius DSB undertake and communicate publicly about a process of due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate and remedy impacts that they cause, or to which they contribute or are linked.