French Guiana: NGOS and citizens protesting against oil-drilling project

Brut America

Oil giant Total plans to drill off the coast of French Guiana to find oil. Concerned NGOs and citizens are protesting against this project that could have a huge impact on biodiversity.   Brut Nature went over them to meet them.

Transcript

00:00This is the first time I'm listening to a 90 minute long video of a 90 second long video on the same subject.

00:10This is the first time I'm listening to a 90 minute long video on the same subject.

00:23No to forage, offshore, off the coast of Laguyannes.

00:27We are in the midst of an extremely dangerous industry.

00:30This is not the forest, there will be no fish here.

00:32The sea will be polluted.

00:34We are committed to limiting global warming

00:37well below 2°C.

00:38To do this, we have to leave 80% of fossil fuels in the ground.

00:53Here, I'm trying to look and see if we can see anything

00:56because we don't have access to the harbour.

00:58What happens here is that they have stored material

01:01that will be used for drilling.

01:04So there are other boats that will come and get material here

01:08to take it to the Total drilling site

01:10where the sea boat is parked.

01:13This is the Ensco DS9

01:16which arrived off the coast of Guyana on 9 December

01:19and will start drilling operations on the site very quickly.

01:23It's a huge boat, 230m long and 37m wide.

01:28It is capable of drilling at 2,000m deep

01:31and then digging at 4,000m to get the oil pocket.

01:36Just the drilling phase already has a huge impact on the climate

01:40because the carbon footprint is an increase of 6%

01:43of greenhouse gas emissions globally per year for Guyana.

01:54We are in an area of high sea current, ultra-deep.

01:57These are conditions similar to the disaster of Deepwater Horizon.

02:00In the event of a black tide,

02:02Total indicates that it will take between 10 and 20 days to intervene.

02:24TOTAL DRILLING SITE

02:34We are in a rather old mangrove

02:36and as you can see, rather majestic.

02:38Mangroves like this one are found everywhere in Guyana.

02:41It covers a large majority of the coast.

02:43These are the roots in the chasms that form a structure

02:47that provide protection for small fish and juveniles

02:51that also provide them with food

02:53and make this ecosystem a nursery

02:56that will then provide coastal and habitat stocks.

02:59The mangrove is a carbon pit.

03:02It represents about 10% of the carbon stored by the oceans each year.

03:05According to studies, we consider that the mangrove

03:08would store between 3 and 5 times more carbon than tropical forests.

03:12In the event of a black tide,

03:13it is almost the entire face of Guyana that changes.

03:17If oil is deposited in the mangroves,

03:19we can take a little tour of the horizon.

03:22How can we manage to clean an ecosystem like this?

03:24How can we manage to collect oil?

03:43Whatever the coast that will be affected,

03:45whatever the place where the oil will go,

03:48everywhere in the Caribbean,

03:49whether it's here in Guyana,

03:51whether it's in Martinique,

03:52whether it's in Saint-Lucie,

03:54wherever the oil will go,

03:56it will destroy an exceptional ecosystem.

03:57In the event of a black tide,

03:59the coastal ecosystem of the mangroves

04:00would not be the only ecosystem to be affected.

04:01Marine ecosystems such as the coral reef

04:04which is in great depth

04:05would also be an impacted ecosystem.

04:07The thing is that this ecosystem is still a bit mysterious for us.

04:10It is very little studied and very little known.

04:19On the site concerned by the drilling of Total,

04:21there is an exceptional biodiversity.

04:23There are 169 species of fish,

04:2612 of which are endangered species

04:28and 4 are even endangered species.

04:31For drilling, we use chemicals

04:33injected into the soil of the mangroves.

04:35This allows us to extract the oil

04:37from the mangroves.

04:39This allows us to extract the oil

04:41from the mangroves.

04:43This allows us to extract the oil

04:45from the mangroves.

04:48A part of the waste then goes up

04:50through the pipe into the boat

04:52and is thrown into the sea.

04:57These are the information plates.

05:12Fishermen are generally against the Total project.

05:16If you do not drill,

05:18if there are no fish,

05:20the sea will be polluted.

05:22Thank you very much.

05:24We will send you the information.

05:26What we see is that

05:28the fishermen and their sellers

05:30are all worried about the consequences of drilling.

05:32Some did not know that the boat was coming,

05:34others heard about it.

05:36There was a public inquiry in August

05:38but the problem is that during the school holidays

05:40a file with several hundred pages

05:42posted online

05:45with no public meeting

05:47to really inform people

05:49and do pedagogy and answer questions

05:51was not enough

05:53to properly inform the Guyanese.

06:15We are not a community.

06:17We are an organization.

06:19We are a community.

06:29There is a Facebook page

06:31where you can find more information.

06:33It's a game to get 3 million.

06:35You don't want to get 3 million.

06:37OK, that's it, you have 3 million

06:39so you can buy yourself somewhere.

06:41Don't you have 4 million

06:43If you don't have 4 million for free, I'm going to kill you!

06:46Guiana is a developing country.

06:48At the moment, I'm not one of those who systematically,

06:52when there's a progress,

06:54who say, we have to, we don't have to.

06:57If, in fact, we put in place what are the necessary guarantees,

07:00why not?

07:01The fishing is 3,000 jobs, direct and indirect,

07:15and these jobs, they are sustainable, they are in the long term.

07:18Whereas when we exploit mining resources,

07:20necessarily they are finite resources,

07:22and this exploitation has an end.

07:31The goal of this evening is for me to exchange with you

07:42on what the project is,

07:44so that everyone has the information.

07:54Today we are in Cayenne,

07:56so there are several hundred people behind us

07:58who walk together to say no to offshore oil.

08:03No to the mega-industries that come to make money

08:07on the back of the Guianans.

08:29Guiana, due to its biodiversity,

08:32is an extremely rich territory in terms of potential.

08:37And I think it is on this basis, in any case,

08:40that we should think about the development of this territory.

08:43Indigenous populations, in general,

08:45have this particular message for the whole planet

08:49by saying that we have been able to preserve.

08:52We will have to continue to preserve.

08:54We have been able to preserve.

08:56We will have to continue to preserve,

08:58giving us the means to preserve,

09:00because it involves the survival,

09:02not only of this planet,

09:04but also of the human riches

09:06that we have on this planet in question.

09:16The government has positioned itself

09:18to no longer go, in any case,

09:20towards non-renewable resources in terms of energy.

09:24While in Guyana, this same government

09:26encourages the future exploitation of resources

09:31at the level of oil and other natural resources

09:35also throughout the territory.

09:37The countries that have had to exploit

09:40these resources in an extremely important way

09:43today find themselves overwhelmed

09:45and have to make other choices.

09:51What is your objective?

09:56Our objective is to obtain

09:58the cancellation of drilling permits.

10:00The legal recourse is based on three pillars.

10:04The denial of democracy,

10:06the fact that the investigators in charge of the public investigation

10:09did not have the technical skills

10:11to appreciate the case in its entirety,

10:14and the fact that we are in an area

10:16of exceptional biodiversity.

10:18The IBAMA in Brazil, the Environmental Agency,

10:21has definitively refused the TOTAL project,

10:24which is similar to what is proposed here in Guyana.

10:28What we support is that there is obviously no reason

10:31for a Brazilian agency to say

10:33that this project, for technical and scientific reasons,

10:35cannot take place,

10:37and that we, on the contrary, see that everything is going very well.

10:39TOTAL is going to start drilling,

10:41while the case is judged incomplete

10:44by the environmental authority.

10:48What is your objective?

10:52Our objective is to obtain

10:54the cancellation of drilling permits.

10:56The legal recourse is based on three pillars.

10:58The denial of democracy,

11:00the fact that the investigators in charge of the public investigation

11:02did not have the technical skills

11:04to appreciate the case in its entirety,

11:06and the fact that we are in an area

11:08of exceptional biodiversity.

11:10The IBAMA in Brazil, the Environmental Agency,

11:12has definitively refused the TOTAL project,

11:14which is similar to what is proposed here in Guyana.

11:16TOTAL

11:18IBAMA

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