Watch part two

Severe pollution from oil production in Ecuador's remote rain forest has contributed to years of misery and sickness for the people who live there.

They say that cancer deaths and skin diseases have risen significantly since Texaco and PetroEcuador jointly began pumping and drilling there in the early sixties - although the oil companies strongly dispute this claim.

Local residents filed a lawsuit in 1993 to claim damages for their contaminated lands.  Chevron inherited the lawsuit when it acquired Texaco in 2001 - but the oil giant claims a previous agreement between the Ecuadorean government and Texaco now clears Chevron of any further responsibility.

On Thursday's Riz Khan we ask, what will it take to end the international wrangling and provide the local Ecuadoreans with the help they desperately need? 

Joining Riz to discuss the issues is Luis Yanza, a local community activist from the polluted region of Ecuador, founder of the Amazon Defence Coalition and winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, Joe Berlinger, a documentary filmmaker who examined the problems in Ecuador in his latest feature, Crude, and Don Campbell, Chevron's manager for external communications.

This episode of the Riz Khan Show aired from Thursday, October 29, 2009.