The contamination of The Amazon is not a new thing or a surprising fact, we the humans are the ones who should been taking care of it, we are the ones contaminating and doing damage.
Reports supplied by the Terra-i satellite let us know the grade of loss of vegetation coverage in some countries of South America ( Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana). Deforestation is one of the current problems that should be avoid because the forests and species are being damaged by human activities. The causes of deforestation are several, the most important and the ones that have more relevance are: the illegal logging, mining, illicit crops seed, and the expansion of the agricultural boundaries causing the grazing area and selective logging. As a result of these issues, the governments have to implement programs to conserve the environment and to prevent more possible negative effects.
In this year 2015, our country Colombia started a big project called “ forest conservation and sustainability at the heart of the amazon” (GEF: Global Environmental Facility) integrated by 5 Entities (MADS, PNN, IDEAM, SINCHI and FPN) to be developed during the next five years in two Colombian Departments: Caquetá and Guaviare. The main objective is to improve the governance and promote the sustainable management of nature landscapes to reduce the deforestation and to conserve the biodiversity in the forest at the Colombian Amazon.
There are four points or components that make a complete project as follows: protected areas, management and monitoring of forests, sectoral programs for sustainable landscape management and coordination, monitoring and evaluation. Those components include the responsibilities of each of the Entities and the towns including the indigenous population in order to create the best practices, uses and management of the earth and other natural resources to be carried out by the entities in terms of national, regional and local levels.
A big and interesting issue was the Chevron/Texaco Case, this begin in 1964 when the Texaco company found an oil reserve in the northern of Ecuador, while drilling for oil in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest the company deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic wastewater into rivers and streams, spilled millions of gallons of crude oil, and abandoned hazardous waste in hundreds of unlined open-air pits littered throughout the region, affecting the health of the people due to the use of cheap technology and obsolete during the oil exploitation (Amazon Watch, s.f.).
The result is widespread devastation of the rainforest ecosystem and local indigenous communities, and one of the worst environmental disasters in history. The indigenous people and the communities nearby were angry; the company was operating without the concern of them and its activities affected them, among other reasons because the water is not good for the human health, the forest was destroyed and the biodiversity was eliminated. The indigenous presented to the United States government a complaint against the Texaco Petroleum Company for environment pollution and health attack of the people (Galerna Estudio, s.f.).
The Ecuador government incurred in two mistakes with the Texaco Petroleum Company because first they accepted they had received from that company a clean area where they worked the petroleum exploitation. These issue was called “End Act” so, Ecuador accepted that the Texas Petroleum Company left a clean field without responsibilities of any consequences of environmental destruction. The second mistake occurred when the Chevron Company addressed to Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and
Ecuador accepted the assignment of one of its judges and the correct way was to reject that court. The Ecuador government is looking for the rights of the indigenous population affected by the pollution generated by that petroleum company (Galerna Estudio, s.f.).
In 1993 five communities of indigenous people including the Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Kichwa and Huaorani got together and decide to demand Texaco, complaints alleged that between 1964 and 1992 Texaco’s oil operations polluted the rainforests and rivers in Ecuador, resulting in environmental damage and damage to the health of those who live in the region (Bussiness & Human Rights Resource Center, 2014).
The case last for over 20 years in court, and finally on 14 February 2011, the President of the Provincial Court of Sucumbíos, issued the first judgment against Chevron Texaco. The final verdict was sentenced to the oil company to the payment of 9.5 million dollars to be used in the repair of environmental damage, which includes cleaning the floors, installing water systems and implementation of health systems in the area (Bussiness & Human Rights Resource Center, 2014).
The Texaco company did many atrocities, most of them environmental and health related, the construction of more than 900 open-air, unlined toxic waste pits that leach toxins into soil and groundwater and the release of contaminants through spills, spreading oil on roads and burning of crude, 18 billion gallons of wastewater called “produced water,” dumped into rivers and streams water that they used for drinking, cooking, bathing and fishing and it provokes that those who bathe in contaminated rivers report skin rashes and who drink the water report diarrhea (Amazon Watch, s.f.).
Bibliography
Galerna Estudio. (s.f.). Texaco Toxico.org. Recuperado el 27 de Abril de 2015, de Contaminacióm por petroleo en Amazonía Ecuador: texacotoxico.org
Bussiness & Human Rights Resource Center. (octubre de 2014). Business & Human Rights Resource Center. Recuperado el 14 de Abril de 2015, de Texaco/ Chevron lawsuits (re Ecuador) : business-humanrights.org/en/texacochevron-lawsuits-re-ecuador
Amazon Watch. (s.f.). Amazon Watch. Recuperado el 30 de Abril de 2015, de Chevron´s Chernobyl in the Amazon: amazonwatch.org/work/chevron
International Environmental Issues 