PONSACS, through the "New Standards" project and in collaboration with Latin American Indian organizations, has been asked to help organize workshops for indigenous peoples, government officials, and oil companies. These workshops and training projects help to provide information about the technical and economic issues of oil production in general, as well as provide specific training in skills that they perceive as essential for negotiating with oil companies and developing long-term conflict management programs in areas where oil activities are underway.

The "New Standards" project's full title is "New Environmental and Social Standards in the Amazon Basin: Paths toward Tripartite Cooperation in the Hydrocarbon Sector." The project began in August 2000 and functions in collaboration with a prominent Ecuadorian conflict-management organization, Fundación Futuro Latino Americano (FFLA) and the Coordinating Group for Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA). The 18-month training project takes place in five Latin American countries, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The overall project goals are mutual understanding among the various sectors (oil companies, indigenous peoples, and government agencies) and provision of basic skills in such areas as international human rights law, and dialogue/conflict management. What makes this training program unique is that the participants are being asked to inform each other as regards their own needs, concerns, and organizational structure. As such, the "training" becomes a de facto dialogue, which will make any future formal meetings more effective in approaching the inevitable conflicts that emerge in the region.

PONSACS also continues to be a member of a joint World Bank/OLADE (A consortium of Latin American government oil agencies and companies) "Program on Energy, Environment, and Population." The design and implement of these training programs helps enable tripartite dialogues between governments, oil companies, and indigenous peoples.

This project is supported by the German foundation, the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft in Berlin.

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