RBS funding tar sands extraction in Madagascar

Since being bailed out with our money in 2008, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has poured money into companies engaged in projects that have a catastrophic impact on the world’s poor. 

One of those projects is the Canadian tar sands, which RBS has funded to the tune of $13.9 billion since 2007. The tar sands occupy 140,000 square kilometres of boreal forest - an area larger than England. The soil is strip-mined using huge amounts of fresh water and the process leaves behind giant poisonous lakes containing sand, water, silt, clay, hydrocarbons and toxic chemicals.  These lakes are large enough to be seen from space. 

Tar sands extraction in Alberta, Canada

Tar sands extraction has been disastrous for the indigenous people of Canada. Their water supplies have been poisoned, land has been destroyed and rates of some kinds of cancer have increased dramatically. This is despite that fact that Canada has a relatively strong legal framework when it comes to human rights and the environment.

Now WDM has learned that RBS has provided £303 million to French oil giant Total which is now preparing to mine tar sands deposits in Melaky, one of the poorest areas of Madagascar. There are two oil fields, Bemolanga and Tsimiroro, both approximately 70 square kilometres in size. 

The Tsimiroro oil field is close to the Tsingy de Bemaraha nature reserve, a UNESCO natural heritage site and the source of the important Manambolo River. Almost 120,000 people live within the Bemolanga field and extraction here would be as disastrous for these communities as it has been for the people living in the Alberta tar sands fields.

Local villagers examine the oil shale at Bemolanga in the area at risk from tar sands extraction

Tar sands extraction in Madagascar is a virtually unknown issue in the UK. Therefore, to raise the issue, we at WDM want to bring a Malagasy campaigner - Holly Rakotondralambo - to the UK in May to lobby politicians and meet fellow campaigners and share her experiences. 

The trip will cost £1,500 and we are hoping that we'll be able to crowd-fundraise for it. It's not a lot - all we need is 60 people to donate £25 each, or 30 people to donate £50 each.  

With your help, Holly will meet with politicians in London and Edinburgh in May to tell them why this project would be a disaster for her homeland and why they must switch RBS's investments away from polluting fossil fuels and into urgently needed low carbon energy.

Please give £25 towards Holly's trip today.