• The exploration and exploitation of these resources are a grave threat to the health and safety as well as to the culture and social well-being of indigenous peoples and other nationalities living in the area;

• An increasing amount of non-renewable fuels originates from areas that are ecologically vulnerable and/or inhabited by indigenous peoples;

• The uses of hydroelectric and nuclear power often have these same negative effects on the environment and on the nationalities and indigenous peoples as fossil fuels.

We, the undersigned condemn in the strongest terms possible the activities of the oil companies, such as Shell, Lukoil and Texaco, that violate the Human Rights of the indigenous peoples' and endanger the environment;

We, the undersigned call upon:

• The governments of the world and the oil companies

• To give up bringing into use any new oil and gas deposits so that humankind would be given a chance to rethink the perspectives of the production and consumption of energy

• The Finnish government and other governments to

• work actively towards reducing the consumption of non-renewable fuels,

• take into account the detrimental consequences of oil and gas exploration and production on the local population and the local environment in its policies, especially when developing the Northern Dimension of the European Union,

• increase their support for endangered peoples such as the U'wa (Colombia), indigenous peoples of Ecuador (Amazonian area) and Nicaragua, the Ogoni and Ijaw (Nigeria), Khanty, Mansi and Nenets(Russia),

• exert pressure on oil and gas companies, such as the partially Finnish state-owned energy consortium Fortum, to actively reduce the negative effects of their actions,

• use their political influence in international organisations such as the European Union, EBRD, World Bank and the United Nations to further the goal of protecting the environment and endangered cultures;

• The Finnish and other oil and gas companies to

• refrain from exploring for oil and gas from ecologically sensitive regions and/or areas where culture and life of indigenous peoples would be threatened by such activities,

• refrain from supporting financially oil and gas projects which threaten the local cultures and environment,

• strive seriously to reduce the use of non-renewable fuels,

• critically evaluate their current projects with regard to their impact on the environment and local population,

• make all information on their projects readily available in the local languages of the people affected,

• press for an industry-wide Code of Conduct which would take into account the needs of the environment and of the local peoples;

• The Finnish public and public of other countries to

• reduce the consumption of non-renewable fuels,

• use their power as active citizens and consumers to reduce the exploitation for oil and gas production of areas that are environmentally sensitive and/or inhabited by endangered cultures;

• distance themselves from patronising the products of oil and gas companies known to have violated human and environmental rights.

Lidia Okotètto, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area in Western Siberia, Russia

Grigorii Anagurichi, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area in Western Siberia, Russia

Yuri Aivaseda (Vella), Khanty-Mans

Communique of the participants in the seminar "Indigenous Peoples and Oil"

Helsinki, February 5-7, 1999

Contents

Ulla Lehtinen: "Indigenous peoples and oil" events in Finland 1999

Olli Tammilehto: A civilised world or a bloodsucker of the earth?

Background information on oil

Russia's oil production

Florian Stammler: Where does our oil come from?

Yeremei Aipin: Russia's oil industry and the development of rights of indigenous people

Agrafena Sopochina: "We Live on what the earth carries on itself"

Yuri Vella: Kogalym-Lor - the lake where a man died

Bruce Forbes: Industrial development in the Yamal-Nenets Area

Lidia Okotetto: I no longer understand the tundra that has loved me

Grigorii Anagurichi: A clash of civilisations at the ends of the world

Charity Nenebari Ebeh: The Ogoni experience

Magda Lanuza: Oil production in Central America

Ecuador and oil

Arturo Yumbai Iligama: The war against the poor

Colombia, the U'wa and oil

Roberto Afanador Cobaria: Oil is blood of the earth

Workshop 1: The strategies of oil industry and the responses of indigenous peoples' movements

Workshop 2: Networking of indigenous peoples threatened by oil and gas exploration

Workshop 3: Northern Dimension

Communique of the participants in the seminar "Indigenous Peoples and Oil"

Internet links

Bearing in mind that: