The broadleaves shadowing the forest floor in the Amazon watershed comprises fifty percent of the world's rainforest. Home to hundreds of separate indigenous groups in eight nations. This river system begins high in the Andes mountains and drains into the Atlantic on the coast of Brazil. Deep in this lush landscape on Peru's eastern Andean slopes lies one of the world's largest natural gas reserves along with petroleum that has been under development since the seventies.

Should United States Environmental standards be met in the extraction of Peru's natural resources from such a fragile eco-system? Well a lot of American tax dollars have been at work financing these projects through loans from the US government's Import-Export Bank and the InterAmerican Development Bank. Though the country, such as Peru, should certainly have a say the American people are obligated to see that at the very least their environmental standards are met.

The controversial Camisea projects jump to the forefront of this discussion as it becomes more and more evident that engineering flaws in the first pipeline have caused more than one environmental disaster along the pipeline. The indigenous groups whose homelands sit above the gas reserves being tapped have developed clean water problems, declining fish stocks, soil erosion and contamination issues. They have not seen much if any improvement in the quality of life. In many ways their culture is being destroyed with no benefit in return.

From a legal standpoint the American people may not be able to force companies to comply to world or American environmental standards. The Inter-American Development Bank has rigorous environmental standards tied to their loans. The American people have the right to insist that those standards be met since they are the primary source of funds for this bank. In the case of the Camisea project in Peru it has become evident that these standards were not met. This has resulted in delays with the funding for Camisea II.

Evidence about how interconnected our world environment is should prompt everyone in the world to be concerned about environmental standards everywhere. The Amazon watershed is one of the largest watersheds in the world. The rainforests of this watershed act as a giant filter for much of the pollution our modern world generates. The indigenous people who populate the Amazon watershed represent a number of the few remaining groups who have learned to live in harmony with the earth. These people can provide the rest of the world a wealth of information on sustainable living practices.

Americans are the most voracious consumers of the world's resources. It is certainly time for America to become the world's most voracious environmental protector by cleaning up our own doorstep before we set out to destroy someone else's.

Learn more about this author, Betsy Young.
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