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The Beyond Oil Campaign works to move society out of our devastating dependence on fossil fuels and into renewable energy options as a necessary step in saving the world's last rainforests. The expanse of oil and gas projects in rainforest areas opens up million of new acres each year to roads, colonization and pollution. What is more, rapid climate change, primarily from the excessive burning of fossil fuels, spells doom for forests as they cannot adapt to the weather changes and subsequently burn, deteriorate with changes in animal populations, or decay from excessive moisture. Through shutting down rainforest oil projects and galvanizing public concern over climate change's threat to forests, the Beyond Oil Campaign offers the public, policy makers and industry a clear path towards a sustainable energy future.
Currently, the Beyond Oil Campaign is focusing primarily on Occidental Petroleum's project on the ancestral land of the U'wa people, an indigenous people of 5,000 in the cloudforests of eastern Colombia.
Fidelity Investments is the world's largest mutual fund company. It is also one of the top shareholders of Occidental Petroleum stock, controlling over thirty million shares valued at approximately 700 million dollars. As a major institutional investor and industry leader, Fidelity has unrivaled power to sway Occidental by calling for an end to the project. So far, Fidelity has remained silent—a silence which could have devastating repercussions for the U'wa and their homeland.
Fidelity Investments controls over one trillion dollars in customer assets and has offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Although its stake in Occidental varies from quarter to quarter, Fidelity is often the single largest shareholder of Occidental stock and is always among Occidental's top three shareholders.
Ironically, Fidelity's slogan declares: "We Help You Invest Responsibly." Fidelity's investment in Occidental is clearly not responsible, from either a human rights and environmental viewpoint or from a financial viewpoint. According to the Oil and Gas Journal (11/29/99), if Occidental goes forward with the project and the U'wa commit collective suicide, "the result would certainly garner the kind of worldwide shock and approbation that the Exxon Valdez oil spill did in 1989—with comparable repercussions lingering for years. . . ."
In order to make good on its pledge to "Invest Responsibly," Fidelity must do everything in its power to stop this needless human and environmental tragedy before it is too late. If Fidelity talks, Occidental will listen. In December, several human rights and environmental organizations, including Rainforest Action Network, wrote to Fidelity and urged the company to "make demonstrable and exhaustive efforts to persuade Occidental to withdraw from this project." So far, Fidelity remains silent on the fate of the U'wa people and their cloudforest homeland.
What You Can Do
Send the following letter to Mr. Johnson - CEO Fidelity
Dear Mr. Johnson,I recently learned that Occidental
Petroleum is moving forward
with the Samore Block oil project on the traditional territory of
the U'wa in
Colombia. As you probably know, the U'wa are adamantly opposed to
the
project and have vowed to commit collective suicide if it goes
forward against
their will. Fidelity is one of the largest shareholders of
Occidental stock, and
as such has unrivaled power to influence Occidental's decisions.
I urge you to do
everything in your power to stop this human and ecological
travesty before it
takes place.If the Samore Block project goes forward, it will
jeopardize the lives
of five thousand people and the health of a fragile forest
ecosystem. The project
will also have repercussions that extend far beyond Colombia, as
the U'wa have
overwhelming international support. As one of Occidental's
primary shareholders,
Fidelity has a responsibility to take a stand on this highly
controversial and
potentially deadly project. Please let me know what steps you
plan to take to
resolve this issue.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
UPDATE 1-Colombia court lifts ban on Occidental drilling
BOGOTA, May 15 (Reuters) - A Colombian high court revoked Monday an injunction, served by a lower tribunal six weeks ago, that banned Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY - news) from drilling for oil in a northeast region claimed as ancestral lands by U'wa Indians, a lawyer for the community said.
The hotly disputed Samore block is tipped to harbour some 2.5 billion barrels of crude and, if drilling is successful, could stave off the prospect of this Andean nation becoming a net oil importer again from 2004.
After a seven-year legal wrangle, Occidental was granted a license late last year to sink a $40 million test well just outside the limits of the U'was' legally recognised reservation. But the U'was launched a campaign of road blockades, protests and legal action saying the proposed drill site was still part of more extensive ancestral lands. U.S. multinational Occidental began building a road to the proposed well-head at the start of the year with the aim of starting to drill in the first half of 2000.
But those targets were blown off course in late March when a lower court granted a temporary injunction in favour of the U'was arguing the project violated the Indians' fundamental rights.
``Bogota's Superior Court decided the basic rights of the U'was were not affected and for that reason revoked the decision of the lower court,' ' Tito Gaitan, lawyer for the U'was, told reporters after Monday's ruling.
Neither court officials nor Occidental representatives were not immediately available for comment.
Gaitan said the semi-nomadic 5,000-member U'wa Indian community, which has a 543,000 acres (220,000 hectare) reservation that spreads from central Colombia to the border with Venezuela, was considering fresh grassroots and legal protests.
In comments after the March injunction, Alberto Calderon, head of state-run oil firm Ecopetrol, described Samore as the ``most important oil prospect this country has''.
Last year, Colombia produced an average of about 815,000 barrels per day of crude, its top export. Colombia exported $1.15 billion of crude in the first quarter of this year, up 81 percent compared to the same period last year and well ahead of the $239 million in revenues from the second main export, coal.
But production is set to dwindle to around 775,000 bpd this year as output from the country's largest field naturally diminishes. Unless major new finds are made and quickly developed, Colombia is set to begin importing oil again by 2004, according to oil experts.