Texaco in Ecuador
OIL IN ECUADOR
Most of the country's crude oil comes from the Amazon rainforest, where biodiversity and traditional peoples face constant threats from the impacts of oil operations.
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| Oil infrastructure under construction in Ecuador's Amazon. By: Thea Gelbspan/Oxfam |
One of the reasons the Texaco case is so significant is that it could have far-reaching implications for the entire country of Ecuador, which is heavily dependent on its oil reserves to service a staggering, $15 billion foreign debt. Oil revenues constitute close to 40 percent of the national budget and 70 to 80 percent of debt repayment resources. Oil operations have brought about a heavy human and environmental cost, damaging natural resources on which indigenous communities and other settlers (known as "colonists") depend for their subsistence. Most of the country's crude oil comes from the Amazon rainforest, where biodiversity and traditional peoples face constant threats of the impacts of oil operations. Despite intense activity by oil companies in Ecuador's rainforest areas over the past three decades, including previously remote areas Ecuador is still mired in debt. Half the country lives on less than two dollars a day.
Given Ecuador's weak environmental regulations and even weaker enforcement capabilities, the environmental impacts of oil activities go largely unchecked, and oil spills and other contamination affecting rivers, homes and forests continue to be a common threat. To defend their lands, resources and livelihoods, local people have few advantages given international trade and investment practices that award greater political and legal advantage to private sector investors than they do to the communities located near oil wells.