Ex-Im Support For Camisea Project Would Violate Bank's Own Environmental Guidelines

(10 June 2003 — Washington, DC)  A new analysis prepared by Environmental Defense shows that the Camisea gas project in Peru clearly violates the letter and spirit of the federal Export-Import Bank’s environmental objectives and guidelines.  The Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is expected to decide in July whether or not to approve a guarantee for more than $150 million worth of commercial bank loans for the gas project — one of the world’s most controversial and high-risk projects.  Information about the Camisea project and its impacts can be found at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/eca

“Camisea will be an important test for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which has long touted its environmental policies.  Approving Camisea would violate the institution’s own environmental rules and deeply undermine the credibility of these policies,” said Environmental Defense social scientist Aaron Goldzimer.

The newly released analysis shows that the project would violate Ex-Im’s sector guideline on oil and gas development, as well as two of Ex-Im’s seven environmental objectives.  It also demonstrates that the project’s Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) do not provide enough information to fulfill Ex-Im’s own requirements. 

Accompanying the analysis is a newly released cover memo and background appendix commissioned from a group of independent professional engineers.  These independent evaluations are sharply critical of the Camisea EIAs disclosed by the Export-Import Bank.  Among other things, the engineers’ analysis concludes, “The EIA reports do not present a full and complete assessment of all the findings of environmental concern that the reports themselves have identified.”

The $1.6 billion Camisea project is one of the world’s most controversial and environmentally high-risk projects.  It extends from one of the most pristine forest regions of the Peruvian Amazon (partially in a reserve for the protection of nomadic indigenous peoples), across the Andes, to a terminus adjacent to one of the most important marine reserves in all of Latin America and the Caribbean.  This week, 60 pipeline workers were kidnapped in Peru, further highlighting the dangers associated with the Camisea project.