Volume 3, issue #23 - 28-09-1998

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Consortium to lay pipeline through Argentine rainforest say legal hurdles cleared

July 31, 1998 A Belgian-US consortium building a natural gas pipeline in Argentina said it had cleared all "legal impediments" to cutting through a tract of Yungas rainforest, though environmental activists were stepping up their efforts to stop the project.
Tractebel and Techint, the company building the pipeline, issued a statement saying they had overcome legal objections raised by Greenpeace and Kolla Indians living in the jungle in northern Salta province, near the Bolivian border.
Tractebel, Southern Energy and Chile's Edelnor, controlled by Southern, form the NorAndino consortium. Techint has been contracted for construction work.
"Although there are still court issues to be resolved, we have made major legal progress which means there exists no legal impediment to continuing with the execution of the NorAndino project," the statement read.
The $ 490 mm, 658-mile, pipeline has been delayed by lawsuits by Greenpeace and the Kollas, who say 24 miles of pipeline will cut through the dwindling 2.47 mm acre (1 mm hectare) mountain rainforest known as Yungas.
Greenpeace say the pipeline threatens jaguars and other endangered species. The Kollas say it will cross their farms and ancient cemeteries and expose their impenetrable jungle home to poachers and loggers, threatening their way of life.
They have sued gas industry watchdog Enargas for failing to hold a public hearing on the pipeline's route. The judge in the case ordered NorAndino to suspend work pending her ruling but was been overruled by an appeals court.
"We all lost with that appeals court ruling, not just Greenpeace," biodiversity campaigner Emiliano Ezcurra said. "They can start building, but if the court rules against Enargas before they finish the pipeline, they will have to stop work." He was heading for Yungas for an on-site protest.
"They are just about to enter the jungle so we are going to be there to document how Techint destroys the last 10 % of Yungas ecosystem left in Argentina," said the Greenpeace campaigner. "We do not rule out direct action."
NorAndino, which tried to offer the Kollas $ 350,000 in cash compensation, took out advertisement in the press, complete with jaguar faces, saying its priority was "life in all forms, whether human, animal or vegetal."