Ecuador To Sell A Third Of Its Amazon Rainforest To Chinese Oil Companies

[Camilo]

It seems like some South American countries have no other means to pay back their debt to China but by giving up their natural resources to it. This is becoming very dangerous to the region at large.

Ecuador To Sell A Third Of Its Amazon Rainforest To Chinese Oil Companies

Sunday, March 31, 2013 17:44

Ecuador is planning to auction off three million of the country's 8.1 million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, Jonathan Kaiman of The Guardian reports.
The report comes as oil pollution forced neighboring Peru to declare an environmental state of emergency in its northern Amazon rainforest.

Ecuador owed China more than $7 billion — more than a tenth of its GDP — as of last summer.

What the hell happened to Earth's Rights?!?!?! I find this totally phuckin' appauling. Mobilize the earthites! somehow, we gotta stop this from happening. VERY disappointing Ecuador.

[Sidney]

I really wish I had not just seen this. This is just terrible. Bill is a resident of that beautiful country, I am sure he is pissed off as well, or maybe he has more info on this. This is just horrible. Makes me cry.

[Cidersomerset]

It makes sence according to Bob Nevritt & Ion China owns a lot of US National parks in lieu of debts, collateral !!

No idea how they are supposed to collect if the US reneges on deal ??

I think its above national government levels they are just pawns,
the global corporate elites are moving the pieces around the global
chestboard. Which explains all the techno & industrial transfers to
cheaper labour markets over the last 50 years.It does not matter
to the global elites where products are sourced and manufactured
as long as they control them and take the profits, thus controlling
the world.

[donk]

I'm surprised after reading John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hitman that there was anything left for China to get after the IMF/World Bank took theirs...or does CHina own the World Bank these days?

[Rich]

http://beforeitsnews.com/environment/2013/03/ecuador-to-sell-a-third-of-its-amazon-rainforest-to-chinese-oil-companies-2465476.html
:cry:

my parents live there

[MorningSong]

I think this is just awful!

Here's a more-in-depth article...


Ecuador auctions off Amazon to Chinese oil firms

Indigenous groups claim they have not consented to oil projects, as politicians visit Beijing to publicise bidding process

Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing
The Guardian, Tuesday 26 March 2013 17.16 GMT

Ecuadorean Amazon Indigenous groups in Ecuador say the planned oil projects would devastate the environment and threaten their traditional way of life.

Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China's insatiable thirst for energy.

On Monday morning a group of Ecuadorean politicians pitched bidding contracts to representatives of Chinese oil companies at a Hilton hotel in central Beijing, on the fourth leg of a roadshow to publicise the bidding process. Previous meetings in Ecuador's capital, Quito, and in Houston and Paris were each confronted with protests by indigenous groups.

Attending the roadshow were black-suited representatives from oil companies including China Petrochemical and China National Offshore Oil. "Ecuador is willing to establish a relationship of mutual benefit – a win-win relationship," said Ecuador's ambassador to China in opening remarks.

According to the California-based NGO Amazon Watch, seven indigenous groups who inhabit the land claim that they have not consented to oil projects, which would devastate the area's environment and threaten their traditional way of life.

"We demand that public and private oil companies across the world not participate in the bidding process that systematically violates the rights of seven indigenous nationalities by imposing oil projects in their ancestral territories," a group of Ecuadorean organised indigenous associations wrote in an open letter last autumn.

In an interview, Ecuador's secretary of hydrocarbons, Andrés Donoso Fabara, accused indigenous leaders of misrepresenting their communities to achieve political goals. "These guys with a political agenda, they are not thinking about development or about fighting against poverty," he said.

Fabara said the government had decided not to open certain blocks of land to bidding because it lacked support from local communities. "We are entitled by law, if we wanted, to go in by force and do some activities even if they are against them," he said. "But that's not our policy."

Amazon Watch said the deal would violate China's own new investment guidelines, issued jointly by the ministries of commerce and environmental protection last month. The third clause of the guidelines says Chinese enterprises should "promote harmonious development of local economy, environment and community" while operating abroad.

Fabara said he was not aware of the guidelines. "We're looking for global investors, not just investors from China," he said. "But of course Chinese companies are really aggressive. In a bidding process, they might present the winning bids."

Critics say national debt may be a large part of the Ecuadorean government's calculations. Ecuador owed China more than £4.6bn ($7bn) as of last summer, more than a tenth of its GDP. China began loaning billions of dollars to Ecuador in 2009 in exchange for oil shipments. More recently China helped fund two of its biggest hydroelectric infrastructure projects. Ecuador may soon build a $12.5bn oil refinery with Chinese financing.

"My understanding is that this is more of a debt issue – it's because the Ecuadoreans are so dependent on the Chinese to finance their development that they're willing to compromise in other areas such as social and environmental regulations," said Adam Zuckerman, environmental and human rights campaigner at Amazon Watch. "The message that they're trying to send to international investors is not in line with reality."

Last July the inter-American court on human rights ruled to prohibit oil developments in the Sarayaku, a tropical rainforest territory in southern Ecuador that is accessible only by plane and canoe, in order to preserve its rich cultural heritage and biodiversity. The court also mandated that governments obtain "free, prior and informed consent" from native groups before approving oil activities on their indigenous land.

A TV news report broadcast by the US Spanish-language network Telemundo showed members of Ecuadorean native groups – some wearing traditional facepaint and headdresses – waving protest banners and scuffling with security guards outside the Ecuadorean government's roadshow stop in Houston.

"What the government's been saying as they have been offering up our territory is not true; they have not consulted us, and we're here to tell the big investors that they don't have our permission to exploit our land," Narcisa Mashienta, a women's leader of Ecuador's Shuar people, said in the report.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/maps_and_graphs/2013/3/26/1364324021916/Ecuador-map-001.png

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/26/ecuador-chinese-oil-bids-amazon

[RMorgan]

Well, it´s not easy to manage a country nowadays, specially a developing one.

Within this economic system, the Ecuadorian leaders may have had no choice.

Anyway, they picked up the best among the worse. Leasing (not selling) this land for oil exploration is much better ecologically than leasing it for mining, livestock farming or timber.

[ghostrider]

The Amazon rainforest should belong to earth, it should remain natural and free, we need the forest, ehummmm trees make = A I R ... don't we need air to live ??? This makes me ashamed to be a human ...

[mosquito]

Truly appalling, but let's not lose sight of the fact that an oil company is an oil company, regardless of its' nationality. And both Ecuador and Peru (not to mention Canada) provided a precedent for handing over their natural resources over to a greedy exploitative nation. The cycle goes on until someone has the courage to break it.

[RMorgan]

The Amazon rainforest should belong to earth, it should remain natural and free, we need the forest, ehummmm trees make = A I R ... don't we need air to live ??? This makes me ashamed to be a human ...

Well, my friend, I guarantee that every single Brazilian will be glad to internationalize the Amazon forest and all our other riches as soon as all "developed" countries agree to internationalize their riches as well. Sounds fair, right?

So far, all this talk about the internationalization of the Amazon forest sounds very unilateral for my taste.

I´ll quote a nice text about this issue, from Brazilian politician and professor Cristovam Buarque:


During a recent discussion, in the United States, someone asked my opinion regarding the internationalization of the Amazon Region. The youngster asserted that he expected a response of a humanist and not of a Brazilian.

This was the first time anyone had established the humanist viewpoint as the starting point for my response. In fact, as a Brazilian I would have responded simply against internationalization of the Amazon Region. Even if our governments have not given the attention that this treasure deserves, it is ours. I responded that, as a humanist, realizing the risk of environmental destruction that threatens the Amazon Region, I could imagine its internationalization, just as for everything else that is important to humanity.

If the Amazon Region, from a humanist΄s point of view, has to be internationalized, then we should internationalize the oil reserves of the entire the world as well. Oil is just as important to the well being of humanity as the Amazon Region for our future. Nevertheless, the owners of oil reserves feel it is in their right to increase or decrease oil production and to raise or lower the price. The rich of the world, feel they have the right to burn this valuable possession of humanity. Similarly, the financial capital of the wealthy nations should be internationalized. If the Amazon Region is a natural reserve for every human being, then it could not be burned down by the decision of a landowner or a country. To burn down the Amazon Region is so tragic, as the unemployment provoked by the arbitrary decisions of world wide speculators. We cannot permit that the world΄s financial reserves serve to burn down entire nations according to the whims of speculation.

Before the (internationalization of the) Amazon Region, I would like to see the internationalization of all the world΄s great museums. The Louvre cannot belong only to France. Each museum in the world is a guardian for the most beautiful works produced by the human genius. It cannot be permitted that these cultural possessions, as the natural possession of the Amazon Region, can be manipulated or be destroyed according to the whims of an owner or a country. Recently, a Japanese millionaire decided to have a painting of a grand master buried with him in the grave. This painting should have been internationalized.

At the time of the meeting, in which this question came up, the United Nations convened the Forum of the Millennium and the presidents of several countries had difficulties in attending due to barriers (they faced) at the border. Therefore, I contend that New York, as the base of the United Nations, should be internationalized. At least Manhattan should belong to all of humanity. Similarly Paris, Venice, Rome, London, Rio de Janeiro, Brazilia, Recife, every city with its own beauty, its own history should belong to the whole world.

If the United States wants to internationalize the Amazon Region, due to the risk of leaving it in Brazilian hands, then we should internationalize all the nuclear stockpiles of the United States. Particularly since they have already shown that they are capable of using these weapons, causing a destruction thousands of times greater than the sad fires taken place in the Brazilian forests.

During their debates, the current U.S. presidential candidates have defended the idea of internationalizing the world forest reserves in exchange for the debt. We could begin to use this debt to guarantee the right of every child in the world to attend school. We could internationalize the children treating all of them, regardless of their birthplace, as a possession which deserves the care and attention of the entire world. Even more so than the Amazon Region. When the world leaders attend to the world΄s poor children as possessions of Humanity, they will no longer permit that these children work when they should be studying, that they die when they should be living.

As a humanist I accept to defend the internationalization of the world. So long as the world treats me as a Brazilian, I will fight so that our Amazon Region will be ours. Only ours.

Raf.

[mosquito]

Well said Raf, and well said Prof. Buarque, though he missed out the oceans !