Electronic Version, All Stories Copyrighted 1995. I am slowly becoming accustomed to the idea of preparing both an electronic and paper version of this small newsletter. It fills a relatively lonely niche in the English language by providing environmental and enviro tourism information regarding Latin America.
Feel free to copy this edition or reprint articles, but please inform me if you do so. I welcome your feedback, suggestions and literary contributions. Ron Mader, Publisher. (RonMader@aol.com and ron@txinfinet.com)
EL PLANETA PLATICA:
LATIN AMERICA'S ENVIRONMENT AND THE OIL INDUSTRY
Volume 1, Number 3
Late Summer 1994
Electronic Version, All Stories Copyrighted 1995. I am slowly becoming accustomed to the idea of preparing both an electronic and paper version of this small newsletter. It fills a relatively lonely niche in the English language by providing environmental and enviro tourism information regarding Latin America.
Feel free to copy this edition or reprint articles, but please inform me if you do so. I welcome your feedback, suggestions and literary contributions. Ron Mader, Publisher. (RonMader@aol.com and ron@txinfinet.com)
El Planeta Platica (The Earth Speaks) is brought to you from those globally-minded folks at Talking Planet in Austin, Texas. This newsletter is printed quarterly, bringing environmental information to travelers heading to Latin America.
Online, the newsletter is accessible at the web site http://www.txinfinet.com/mader/ecotravel/ecotravel.html.
Please support this effort at improving our hemispheric dialogue. Annual subscriptions are just $10. Planeta supporters contribute $25. Your literary contributions are welcome and rewarded. Want to advertise your connection to Latin America? Join a select and cherished club. Please ask for our rate sheet.
Everyday brings us closer together - whether we're ready for it or not. Let's crank up the North-South dialogue here on Turtle Island.
Ron Mader, Publisher
El Planeta Platica
P.O. Box 1044
Austin, TX 78767
E-mail: ron@txinfinet.com and RonMader@aol.com
Note: Mader also moderates the Mexico/Latin America conferences on Texas InfiNet, an Austin-based BBS which can be reached via telnet at 204.96.111.157 3000.
QUOTE
El desarrollo material en armonia con la naturaleza,
propugna la utilizacion racional de los recursos del planeta.
- Byron Real
Ecologia para Lideres
ELECTRONIC INDEX:
Bridges and Borders: Editorial
Poems from Ordinary Mornings
Honduras: Oil Threatens Trujillo Bay
Details Emerge from Peruvian Oil Spill
Treaty Oak Maps Latin America
La Cocina Latinoamericana
Resources
Books of Note
Bridges and Borders: Editorial
By Ron Mader
Quito is one of my favorite cities. Last December I traveled to Ecuador to see old friends, eat good pizza and to talk about - not experience - the jungle.
The following are excerpts from an interview I had with Douglas McMeekin, an environmental consultant who works with various oil companies and the director of the Foundation for the Education and Development for Indigenous Communities (FUNDESIN).
Douglas: In the particular area where I work you have influence from oil companies exploring and/or developing oil in that region. This is having a cultural and an environmental impact on the people. My personal feeling is that whether you like oil development or not, it's going to proceed. The oil income produces over 50 percent of the income for Ecuador. Part of my work has been working with some of the oil companies in minimizing the cultural and environmental impact.
Ron: Is colonization actually being controlled in the national parks?
Douglas: With the last presidential administration, the government has deeded vast tracts of the Amazon to various Indian tribes. so that the Indians have the surface rights to millions of acres which will facilitate their control of colonization.
Ron: How far does the road go into the Yasuni?
Douglas: 135 kilometers and that road is controlled - there is no colonization. And this is a plan that was well established between the oil company and the government prior to the building of the road. In the case of Cuyabeno reserve in the Northeast part of the country - where oil development has occurred in last 20 years - this plan was not well established and a third of that park has already gone to colonization.
Ron: How would you respond to environmental groups who are saying that a national park is a national park and there should be no oil drilling?
Douglas: The Yasuni is an incredible area and I know it quite well. Personally, I would rather not see any oil exploration going on in that area. But the estimated reserves in just one oil concession - half a million acres - is over 250 million barrels of oil. Ideally, it would be best if that park could be left untouched, but realistically, the government is not going to pass over that quantity of reserves.
Contact Douglas McMeekin at FUNDESIN, Casilla 17-17-92, Quito Ecuador or call him at (5932) 541-862 or (5932) 220-362 - fax.
Poem
By Sharon Stephens
Poems from ordinary mornings
just don't happen
outside the zoo in Mexico City
where we imagine ourselves
beyond the urban grid
From the vista in Chapultapec Park
I see the lions and the birds
at peace
separated by wire mesh and concrete
We even have the whale
freed in a Hollywood movie
and imprisoned in the world's largest city
Instead, we wait in line
ever so patiently to redeem our checks
to pay the travel agent
to take our children to the Russian circus
in town this week only -
the metro placards boast -
all the while suffocating
in the Valley of Mexico
Honduras: Oil Threatens Trujillo Bay
By Brad Martin
On the north shore of Honduras, Central America, lies Trujillo Bay, a beautiful bay with high mountains reaching right down to the sea. Trujillo was settled by the Garifuna Indians noted for their dancing and food specialties. Before that it was the site for one of Christopher Columbus╒ landings. Now it is being developed as a tourist destination.
At the beginning of this year a group of Honduran businessmen (Honduran Petrochemical Corporation, S.A.) petitioned the Honduran government to build a $2 billion refinery in this developing area. Tentative approval was given, and just as word got out to the press, the people of Trujillo and surrounding communities immediately expressed their shock. They feel it could lead to pollution of the bay as well as allowing ocean currents to pollute other areas as far away as Belize and even the Yucatan peninsula.
Those who support the refinery say it will provide much needed economic growth. The refinery owners promised to subsidize local gasoline consumption and provide all the asphalt needed for road construction. They also said the refinery would provide massive employment.
The Honduran government has stated that an ╥environmental impact evaluation╙ must be submitted and that construction will not be permitted until a study is approved. As yet the report has not been filed.
Those who oppose an oil refinery in the Trujillo area say that it poses a variety of environmental threats. Not only would an oil spill be catastrophic to the growing regional tourism, but the nearby Capiro and Guaimoreto refuges are home to a wide variety of native species and well as families dependent upon the fishing industry.
╥When oil is refined, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide are emitted into the air, where they heat up and pollute the atmosphere. Other gases can cause acid rain and ecological imbalances. But a refinery would affect more than the air. Marine life would be at risk from the tank washes oil ships perform at sea and the greatest danger of all, an oil spill, would be a long lasting tragedy that would harm not only the people, the economy and the wildlife of Trujillo, but the Honduran people as well, both directly for several years and indirectly for a lifetime.╙ (Honduras This Week, April 30, 1994, page 4).
Architect Arturo Suarez, a private development consultant says ╥tourism could generate $18 million annually and would offer other benefits like jobs, agricultural growth and increased fiscal revenues.╙ He also said that Trujillo Bay has more tourism potential than other more popular sites like Belize, Cancun and Costa Rica╒s Culebra Bay.
Residents feared that economically speaking this refinery would provide few jobs for the local inhabitants.
Instead, the people of Trujillo wish to protect their natural resources for what they see as a more sustainable investment - tourism. They feel a refinery would frighten away tourists and potential tourism investors.
╥We╒re not against economic growth in Trujillo,╙ said Chirinos, who is a former Trujillo mayor and president of the Trujillo Ecological Committee. ╥But we want to protect the beauty and ecology of the bay.╙
Brad Martin is publisher and editor of ╥Honduras Travel Tips,╙ a unique customer-oriented guidebook. He can be reached via e-mail at Honduras1@aol.com or at
Honduras Travel Tips
P.O. Box 531
Mountain View, CA 94042
Details Emerge from Peruvian Oil Spill
Excerpted From Peru Oil News
Finally more official details have emerged about the March 30 pipeline rupture along the Maroon River in the northeastern jungle; however there has been no independent expert evaluation made of spill damage. Temporary repairs have been made to the pipeline while Petroperu technicians wait for floodwaters to recede and the arrival of an outside contractor to make permanent repairs.
The break was caused when rising floodwaters (an annual occurrence that has been unusually strong this year) undermined the pipeline at a point just above (east of) a major pumping station where smaller lines from Occidental and Petroperu fields converge.
This is an area principally inhabited by the Aguaruna and Huambisa peoples. Fortunately, the rupture only effected Petroperu's production from Lot 8 and did not involve what likely would have been a larger spill from the mammoth combined pipeline above the pumping station.
However, official figures on the spill are suspiciously low and there has been no apparent reaction by Petroperu to demands from environmentalists and native organizations for an independent evaluation of environmental damage. Petroperu puts the crude loss at approximately 20,000 barrels, while unofficial estimates range considerably higher.
Petroperu Budgets for Modest Amazon Cleanup
The soon to be defunct, state-owned Petroperu has budgeted $30 million for rectifying environmental damage it has caused in the past. Reportedly, the bulk of this money is to go toward cleanup operations in the southern portion of Amazon Lot 8. Other funds will be directed toward the multi-million dollar cleanup of the recent pipeline rupture.
Lot 8 is especially important to Petroperu for a number of reasons. Bordering on the Pacaya-Samiria National Park, it is adjacent to the jungle block that Texas Crude Inc. briefly operated before being driven out by protests from the environmental community following the release of aerial photography of the devastation the company's operations were causing. Lot 8 currently is Petroperu's biggest producer (33,000 b/d) and is perhaps the most attractive component of the company to outside investors.
While it is encouraging that Petroperu is showing signs of any environmental stewardship, the cleanup appears to be more appropriately considered to be inspired by liability reduction rather than concern for local inhabitants and the environment.
Selling it All From Underneath the Region's Native People
The firesale of exploration and development rights has been accelerated by the considerable economic incentives offered in Peru's new hydrocarbons law. Representatives of Peruvian environmental organizations that participated in the drafting of the legislation characterize it's environmental regulations as not "going as far as we wish." The region's native peoples have been left out of the process altogether.
In remarks to an oil industry journal in February, Perupetro (the government agency in charge of negotiating contracts) president Alberto Bruce said "It's all open for discussion, blocks in the jungle, on the coast, offshore - we're interested in contracting it all out." On July 8, he went on to tell the Financial Times of London "At this rate, we'll have to buy bits of Brazil and Argentina to satisfy them all" in reference to the number of oil companies interested in investing in Peru.
What is not being publicly discussed in business circles is the fact that the seventy odd blocks in Peru's Amazon contain hundreds of indigenous villages and tens of thousands of the rainforest's native people who by and large have not been consulted and have not agreed to their homelands being subjected to the ravages of the oil industry.
Absolutely no substantial legal provision has been made for indigenous people and to date companies involved have showed little inclination to cooperate with them beyond offering low-paying, hazardous jobs on survey or wildcatting crews. Claims by an Aguaruna Indian gravely injured while working for geophysical contractor Halliburton have gone unanswered. Royal Dutch Shell has recently re-initiated operations in the huge central jungle Camisea field, where several native laborers were injured and even killed as a result of accidents during exploration in the mid-1980s.
For more information, send e-mail to: perezoso@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu - or - perezoso@igc.apc.org
Treaty Oak Maps Latin America
By Ron Mader
Who makes the best map of Central America and the Caribbean?
Mark Walker, sales manager of Treaty Oak Maps, says its a Hungarian publisher.
"It's great," he said. "It just came in. This map shows the Southern U.S., Mexico, Central America and Caribbean and a chunk of Colombia and Venezuela. It really shows the relation of the islands to the mainland."
Treaty Oak Maps was started by Dan Komer, who as a bank representative travels extensively throughout Latin America. In the mid 1980s he saw the need for Mexican maps and brought back some to Texas.
Now Treaty Oak stocks a variety of maps from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego.
"As far as we know, we are the only map distributors who specialize in Latin America," Walker says, adding that the company works with 23 publishers and sells its materials in 14 countries.
With such a variety - the Canadian IGM maps which focus more on land forms than political boundaries; Mexico's Guia Roji state maps; Colombian road maps and the City Plan Map of Buenos Aires, among others - Treaty Oak has something for anyone travelling south.
And Walker said new maps come in all the time.
For a catalogue of Treaty Oak's maps of Latin America, write to P.O. Box 50295 or call 512-326-4141 or 512-443-0973 (fax).
LA COCINA LATINOAMERICANA
Causa Limena (Causa, Lima style)
By Melissa Biggs
This recipe comes from Patricia Oliart. We often spent library hours comparing recipes and memories of our favorite foods when we should have been studying!
3 lbs russet potatoes
2 or 3 fresh serrano chilis, chopped fine
1-2 tsp. olive oil
1 lime
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
salt and pepper
Boil the potatoes until they are tender; drain and peel. Puree the potatoes with the remaining ingredients. The mixture should be smooth and moldeable, stiffer than regular mashed potatoes.
Limenos prepare causa in two styles, plain and filled. To make plain causa, scoop up a tablespoon of the potato mixture at a time, and roll into a ball between your palms. The potato balls can be colored for variety. Divide the mixture into as many portions as you wish to have colors. Use three or four tablespoons of raw beet juice for red, a bit of pureed bell pepper for green, or pureed Kalamata olives for a purple color. Serve the causa at room temperature as an appetizer.
For filled causa, divide the potato mix into two parts. Smooth one part into a 13x9 pan, building the edges up slightly. Spoon a filling into the center. Patricia suggests the following: shrimp, avocado, and mayonnaise
tuna, chopped onions, and cayenne
chicken salad
black olives and chopped red onion
chopped onions and chilis
Spread the remaining potatoes across the top, smoothing it with the back of a spoon. Serve as a light lunch or supper.
RESOURCES:
RADIO DRAMAS FROM PERU
Taky Ongoy
Peruvian leader Taky Ongoy revives the cult of the Huacas or the sacred figurines in first indigenous movement of religious and cultural resistance in the middle of the 16th century. Three cassettes in Spanish. $17
New Chronicles of Peru/ Nuevas Cronicas del Peru
This series presents a history of the colonization and the conquest of Peru Events proceed chronologically from the arrival of Columbus to the death of Inca T£pac Amaru I. Three tapes in Spanish. $17
For these tapes or for a free catalogue, write to Talking Planet, P.O. Box 1044, Austin, TX 78767-1044.
Total immersion Spanish in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
Locally owned and socially responsible, Chatwaligoq provides one on one instruction, field trips and room and board for $125 per week. For information, call (602) 795-6534 or write to P.O. Box 31783, Tucson, AZ 85751.
INFINET
An on-line community for progressive information. Write or call for free FirstClass (TM) communication software. 108 Royal Way, Suite 1004, Austin, X 78737, Phone: 512-288-5223
BOOKS OF NOTE
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, by Daniel Yergin, Touchstone, 1992
