FRIENDS OF THE EARTH - AMAZON WATCH
Hollywood Stars Rally for the
Rainforest
Bianca Jagger, Sting, Ruben Blades, Kevin
Bacon, Susan Sarandon, Chevy Chase and More
Urge Presidents Bush and Toledo: "Don't
Finance the Destruction of Peru's Amazon
Rainforest"
September 4, 2003, Washington (US) - Human
rights advocate Bianca Jagger spent the past
week writing and calling President Bush,
President Toledo, and Mr. Enrique Iglesias,
the president of the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) to urge them to
withhold public funds to the controversial
Camisea fossil fuel project in the Peruvian
Amazon. Similarly, a group of 14 celebrities
including Sting, Ruben Blades, Esai Morales,
Kevin Bacon, Susan Sarandon, Chevy Chase,
Cary Elwes sent a letter this week to
President Bush calling on the Administration
to "ensure that our tax dollars not
contribute to the wholesale destruction of
one of the planet's most biodiverse and
remote rainforests."
The letters add to the momentum created by
last week's decision by the board of
directors of the Export-Import Bank of the
United States, to reject $214 million in
financing for the controversial $1.6 billion
Camisea Gas Project in the Peruvian Amazon.
The Inter-American Development Bank-where the
U.S. Government controls 30 percent-will
consider $135 million in loans to the project
at its board meeting next Wednesday,
September 10.
Bianca Jagger, stated in her letters to
decision makers: "I am concerned that the
Camisea Gas Project as currently planned
violates many international environmental
standards and runs contrary to global
commitments to protect biodiversity and
indigenous peoples' rights."
In the letter to President Bush, Hollywood
celebrities expressed major concerns: "We
understand that much of the gas extracted
from Camisea is destined for electricity
markets in California. We feel sure that if
the consumers in California knew about the
high social and ecological costs of natural
gas from the Peruvian Amazon they would be
highly opposed to it."
Bianca Jagger called on the IDB's board of
directors to refuse loans to the project
unless the project sponsors abandon plans to
drill inside an Indigenous Reserve set up to
protect isolated indigenous populations and
plans to build an industrial plants near the
Paracas Marine Reserve.
In her letter to President Toledo, Ms.
Jagger wrote: "As you know, I was in Peru as
an observer to the last Presidential
elections and have supported your efforts to
advance the process of democratization in
your country. However, I must caution against
the rapid and dangerous direction that the
Camisea project has taken... Mr. President,
if this project goes ahead as planned, it
will have a catastrophic impacts on
indigenous populations and the primary
rainforests."
For more information please contact in
Washington:
Jon Sohn, Friends of the Earth,
+1-202-412-2467 or +1-202-783-7400 ext
231
Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch,
+1-202-256-9795 or +1-310-456-9158
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