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Viernes, 19 de Mayo de 2006 18:10 |
Oilwatch To the
PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES
Fifth Session
New York, 15-26 of May 2006
INVITATION TO JOIN CAMPAIGNS FOR A NEW NON-OIL
CIVILIZATION
Over the past
10 years, OILWATCH have been building a strong and active resistance network to
the negative impacts of fossil fuels activities on peoples and their
environment. OILWATCH is dedicated to develop global strategies and supporting local
communities’ struggles against those activities. We make an effort to raise, at
the global level, the environmental conscience, exposing the oil and gas operations
impacts in tropical forests and fragile areas, indigenous territories, and in
local populations, also establishing the relationship between this activity and
the destruction of water sources, lost of biodiversity, the climate change and
the unpunished violation of human rights.
We see more clearly
than ever before, looking at struggles of different social movements, that we
have a profound connection among each other. The struggle for staying healthy
and eating well, the struggle for work with respect and dignity, the fight for
clean sources of energy, for a sustainable and sovereign agriculture, the fight
for decontamination and against global warming, the resistance against
transnational companies that exploit our work and expropriate our natural
resources, the defense of human rights, the great effort to see the financial
debts annulated, and the fight for national sovereignty and world peace.......
depends to a great extent on our ability to jointly resist the oil industry and
the civilization it sustains.
Never before
have the limits of the current development model based of hydrocarbons been
seen so clearly. Never, until now, has the relationship between oil and the
networks of power that control the world, been so clearly understood, nor have
the relationships between oil and the principal causes of misery which affect
humanity been so evident.
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Behind the worst wars of the last
century and the current,
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Behind the wastage of industrial,
economic and financial resources,
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Behind the instability and
impoverishment of many nations,
·
Behind innumerable State coups,
dictatorships and manipulations of democracy,
·
Behind the profane subordination
of the most productive workers,
·
Behind the international foreign
debt of the last 30 years,
·
Behind the most dangerous chemical
industries,
·
Behind the systematic and
uncountable extinction of indigenous peoples,
·
Behind the contamination of the
world's fresh water, water of the seven seas, and air of our cities,
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Behind the destruction of numerous
forests,
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Behind the accumulation of
enormous amounts of chemical and plastic wastes,
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Behind climate change that
includes cyclones, floods and hurricanes which are ever more extreme,
·
Behind the appearance and
expansion of numerous degenerative illnesses and therefore,
·
Behind the disappearance of
languages and extermination of cultures,
·
Behind the extinction of life on
the planet and as a main cause of human deaths in the world,
We have oil.
During the
20th century, we have suffered the worst threats to the sovereignty of our
nations and territories causing wars and intrigues due to oil. The largest
empires define their principal forms of economic and military power in relation
to the possibilities of obtaining their own black gold, or to obtain secure
access to it in other regions. This has been highlighted as the era of supreme
power of the transnational companies, where pressure, manipulation and
corruption promote the loss of national sovereignty.
For the indigenous
peoples in the world, for the southern countries, for the most vulnerable
communities, the oil model has meant the perpetuation of an inequitable
exchange, a technological dependence, indebtedness, and impoverishment. Also
the existence of the social and ecological debt owe by the North to the south,
which began during the colonial years. Fossil fuels as a source of energy,
capitalism, and the cult of market have not only failed in achieving the
Millennium Development Goals, for Indigenous Peoples, but also threatens their
existence. In fact, the indigenous territories, are the last frontiers of this
collapsed model, and are the most vulnerable and threaten.
SUSTAINABILITY IN AN OIL AND GAS ADDICT CIVILIZATION CANNOT EXISTS
The crisis of
the oil civilization has reached its climax. At an international level almost nothing
is being done to end it. But, at the local level, the fight of peasant, fishing
and indigenous communities that face a frontal battle against globalization and
neo liberalism, by defending their right to live on their lands, with autonomy,
without physical, cultural or environmental aggressions, independent even of
those that are considered "symbols of progress", shows us a clear
path.
Indigenous peoples,
who propose production and consumption models different than the globalized
models, should be recognized as contributors to this path and we should
highlight their proposals and learn to start building the true foundations of
sustainability. This implies to recognize their rights for territory, for their
culture and knowledge, and implies the elimination of obstacles that obstruct
full application of these rights, as it is the oil companies’ presence. The
indigenous peoples should have the right to decide what happens in their
territories, about the type of life they want to live. Can not be object
of pressure, impositions or harassment by the States or the companies to accept
the oil industry in their territories.
If we want to talk seriously about a commitment with
sustainability, and with the respect for the human rights, the countries should
invest their efforts in the protection of the indigenous people’s rights, in
the sovereign development of new energy sources, and in fortifying the territorial
and patrimonial sovereignty of the countries.
The
international community has to recognize:
- The legitimate resistance of the peoples that are
oppose to oil projects and fight for the self determination to decide
which type of development want.
- The brave work of the people that was able to
close operations, to recover their land and to re-appropriate their
resources.
- The work of indigenous people, peasants,
traditional populations in laying the foundations for food sovereignty.
- The work of the environmental rights advocates
for strengthening the protected areas and fragile territories legislation.
- The work of the indigenous peoples and their
organizations for broaden and strengthening the exercise of collective and
peoples’ rights.
' )
Now we need to
listen to each other, and share our struggles.
OILWATCH is
inviting Indigenous Organizations and Networks to initiate a joint dialogue and
to share opinions, comments, suggestions, and ideas in order to think and dream
together in a new post oil world.
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