A new film on tar sands extraction going global premiered at European Parliament in Strasbourg, France last week.

The documentary 'Tar Sands – Ends of the Earth' is by Friends of the Earth Europe and features Holly Rakotondralambo, an environmentalist from Madagascar as she journeys to northern Alberta to see the environmental devastation caused by the tar sands industry. Madagascar is home to the fourth largest tar sands bitumen deposit in the world.

“It was very sad to see the tar sands (in Canada) and I'm worried that something like this could happen in Madagascar. Canada is a developed country. In Madagascar we don't have the capacity to regulate the extractive industries,” says Rakotondralambo.

Rakotondralambo learns about the tar sands from First Nations leaders and activists in Alberta and European politicians in Brussels before returning to the region of Bemolanga in Madagascar. French oil company Total Oil owns the majority of the tar sands projects in the region.

Bemolanga is a drought region of Madagascar. Communities are dependent on one river for all their water needs. The locals are either cow herders or subsistence farmers. The large volumes of water necessary to process bitumen could threaten the communities of Bemolanga's existence.

At community meetings in Bemolanga, Rakotondralambo presents pictures of tar sands operations in Alberta. Community members look on with disbelief at images of moon-like landscapes left by tar sands open pit mines and tailings ponds the size of large lakes.

Rakotondralambo explains in the film it is important for the communities of Bemolanga to know the facts about the tar sands because it will be like “going to war” with the Madagascar government supported by international oil companies to stop the tar sands projects. She will also translate the film into Malagasy for local communities to view.

“They have no voice or education to oppose or understand. They are so poor that if you give them just a little money they will accept anything without any idea about what the impacts will be,” Rakotondralambo said about Bemolanga's communities in a 2011 interview with The Ecologist.

Following the screening in Strasbourg, Members of European Parliament (MEP) vowed to ensure the EU Fuel Quality Directive will discourage the selling of bitumen in the EU. Liberal democrat MEP Fiona Hall said the film showed “why action now is so important” and pledged to keep fighting for a higher greenhouse gas (GHG) value of oil derived from bitumen in the FQD.

The Canadian government has lobbied intensely against the EU setting a GHG value for oil from tar sands bitumen that is higher than the value set for conventional oil in the FQD. Canada fears this would set a precedent that bitumen is 'dirty oil' and other countries will follow suit.

"We as MEPs have been fighting to have the tar sands properly labelled. We label other things as they are, such as food. They should be labelled just as they are," says social democrat MEP Linda McAvan.

Total Oil temporarily shelved its Bemolanga tar sands projects in 2010 following political and economic instability in the aftermath of Madagascar's 2009 coup. Madagascar Oil's tar sands projects in the neighbouring Tsimiroro region are underway.

There is also speculation Total Oil is waiting on the outcome of the FQD before it proceeds with further tar sands extraction in Madagascar.

“The final result of the Fuel Quality Directive may be a stop or a go ahead for the tar sands,” says director of Friends of the Earth Europe Magda Stoczkiewicz in the film.

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Yesterday, members of First Nations and environmental organizations from both Canada and the United States attended Royal Dutch Shell’s Annual General Meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, to speak out against the company’s high-risk energy projects.

Eriel Deranger, communications coordinator for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), attended the meeting on behalf of the nation and spoke directly to Shell’s board of directors, focusing on the duty consult on the Jackpine Mine expansion project.

Deranger addressed the chair of the board to ask why a company that purports to put so much emphasis on stakeholder relationships has failed to address the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation’s concerns regarding tar sands development. The chair responded that the company felt the hearings for the Jackpine project were successful, but that it would open discussion on the issue with the president of Shell Canada, Lorraine Mitchelmore.

Other organizations, including Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), UK Tar Sands Network and members of the Inupiat community of Alaska attended to question Shell on plans such as offshore drilling in the Arctic.

Deranger said she's pleased with the response from the chair of the board, but will continue to demand accountability. “We have a longstanding relationship with Shell that ties to business ventures and programs and projects Shell has run over the last ten years,” she said, adding that concern over the impact of tar sands has been growing over the last decade, causing the relationship to deteriorate.

She said the ACFN believes the only way the relationship can continue in a positive way is for Shell to make the nation a partner in all future development. She added that the nation’s demand to work with Shell has nothing to do with encouraging development or with revenues. “We want to be partners in the development so we can create a baseline for environment protection and protection of our treaty rights.”

ACFN has been pushing for Shell to agree to work with their traditional knowledge holders to do a full analysis of the impact of what the nation has termed extreme energy projects, but the company has refused. Shell has argued that there was no need to collect that kind of information because the data already exists. Deranger said that’s not good enough. “The data that’s been created has been inefficient and was not created by us.”

While she doesn’t have much faith in Shell’s promises, she’s heartened by the change in tone she saw between last year’s meeting and today’s.

“Last year they just really tried to brush me off, and this year they seem legitimately sympathetic.” Last year, Deranger asked similar questions about projects and the company’s failure to adequately consult First Nations. The board told her that her nation was an anomaly and that they should take up their issues with their government.

Deranger said the next step is to give Shell a chance to follow through on its promise to connect the ACFN with Shell's Canadian president.

“I think it’s a little bit of a wait-and-see, will they live up to their word,” she said. “I don’t have a ton of faith they will but if they don’t, they’ve just given us a bit of an upper hand by basically lying to us in front of their shareholders.” The AFCN have shown on more than one occasion that they aren’t afraid to take action if Shell doesn’t hold up its end of a deal.

“They’ve made promises in the past to our community that haven’t lived up to that resulted in us suing them.”

Any shareholder is permitted to attend the AGM and ask questions. Shareholders can also act as proxies to allow other groups to come. Friends of the Earth Netherlands acted as a proxy for the ACFN.

Deranger said it’s common in Europe to see activist organizations buying shares in companies who goals are otherwise at odds with their own as a means of accessing meetings like this one. Shareholder questions ran the gamut from environmental concerns to issues with remuneration, boom-and-bust scenarios and the fracking industry.

Deranger said attending the AGMs of corporations has long been a part of the nation’s strategy. “It’s always been a part of indigenous delegations at Shell to bring awareness to Shell’s bad reputation within indigenous communities,” she said. “We’re just one of many different indigenous communities globally that have been facing issues and damages from Shell’s projects.”

Image credit: Creative Commons L.C. Nottaasen, 2009

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