This project would also fuel the search for additional oil reserves covering 2.4 million hectares of frontier forest, the majority of which falls on the ancestral territories of Achuar, Shuar, Huaorani, Quichua, Shiwiar, and Zapara indigenous communities. Many of these communities have vowed to never permit oil development on their land. Prominent Ecuadorian and international environmental and human rights organizations are calling for the cancellation of the OCP project and a moratorium on all new oil exploration in the country's Amazon region. The Ecuadorian government, the OCP consortium, and the financiers have failed to fully assess or disclose the long-term impacts of the new OCP pipeline on ecologically and culturally sensitive areas in the Amazon region or the coast. The government is attempting to silence all public debate on these concerns by closing the public review process a mere three weeks after the release of the 1,500-page Environmental Impact Assessment and pushing ahead with the licensing of the project by early June.
Construction is set to begin in six weeks.
Ecuador's oil exports are primarily destined for consumption in the United States, particularly in California. Not only does this pipeline threaten fragile areas and local communities, it further increases our reliance on oil - the main fossil fuel responsible for climate change. Contact information for all three main funders is listed below this sample letter. We also recommend CC-ing the President of Ecuador and the involved oil companies in your home country. This pipeline project places fragile ecosystems, countless endangered and threatened species, and hundreds of communities in jeopardy and could lead to irreversible destruction of Ecuador's national parks and frontier forests.