Gas pipeline in Brazil seen as a model
As more firms look to drill in the Amazon, observers say one project properly balances the needs of the people and the environment.
from the July 23, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
That sentiment was expressed by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva when he approved the pipeline in 2004. "If people want development that preserves the environment, we have to have energy," he was quoted as saying. "It's no good people saying the Amazon has to be the sanctuary of humanity and forget there are 20 million people living there."
For residents of Manacapuru, where simple homes are built on stilts and 75 percent of residents drink untreated water, the pipeline's greatest benefit has been the 4,000 local jobs created. Petrobras agreed to hire three-quarters of its workforce from the local community.
But during the construction of megaprojects, often the immediate benefits give way to long-term damage. One of the biggest threats when such pipelines are built is the permanent access roads that parallel them: Roads not only contribute to deforestation but lead to population influxes that strain social services. But for this project Petrobras has built hardly any permanent roads, depending instead on boats and helicopters to bring in supplies and the workforce. "That is a highlight," says Virgilio Mauricio Viana, the environmental secretary of the state of Amazonas, in an interview in Manaus.
The 260,000 residents who live along the pipeline's path were invited to local meetings in each of seven affected municipalities. Stuart Pimm, a conservation ecologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C. who studies oil exploration in the Amazon, says that environmental assessments should always be done by independent authorities, but too often are contracted by the oil firms.
Mr. Viana says the state pushed Petrobras to carry out an independent environmental study with the local university, and then simplified the language into a document copied 5,000 times and distributed to locals.
As compensation, Petrobras agreed to build seven secondary branch pipelines, adding over $30 million to the $1.3 billion price of the project, so that local communities can also use cleaner gas, instead of diesel fuel, for electricity. They also awarded the state government a $21 million grant for social services, such as jobs training, potable water, and free healthcare services.
Viana says that the company was willing to take on additional costs, in part, to overcome years of opposition that had delayed the pipeline's construction. But in an age when local residents are presenting class-action lawsuits over oil spills – such as in Ecuador – and demanding greater compensation for natural resources, big oil companies have no choice but to respond.
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