Conservation International can no longer operate in Ecuador

27/09/2011
  • Español
  • English
  • Français
  • Deutsch
  • Português
  • Opinión
-A +A
The U.S.-based NGO Conservation International [CI] can no longer operate in Ecuador, according to recent orders of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and the Secretariat of International Technical Cooperation of that country.
 
Two reasons informed the decision to terminate the work of this NGO financed by transnational corporations and related to programs of the World Bank and USAID. The first is that the contract signed between CI and the Ecuadorian state on April 6, 2001 was valid for five years and became defunct in 2006. Not having been renewed, CI no longer has legal authorization to continue carrying out activities in Ecuadorian territory.
 
The second reason has to do with CI’s non-compliance with a resolution by the Public Defender of Ecuador, Dr. Fernando Gutierrez, who imposed a measure obligating CI to pay for an insurance policy for the Ecuadoran biologist Alfredo Luna, who was seriously injured in an airplane crash on August 3, 1993.
 
Image Cleansing
 
Conservation International, born in 1987, is headquartered in Washington D.C. and operates in 25 countries on four continents. Among its donors are the largest US transnational corporations, including Chevron, Monsanto, Coca Cola, Walmart, Walt Disney, McDonalds, and Rio Tinto.
 
CI states on its website that one of the objectives of its work is to establish alliances with diverse actors and facilitate the “participation and collaboration of individuals and businesses committed to the conservation of nature and human well-being” (1).
 
Its purposes seem laudable, but a growing number of people are questioning Conservation International’s credentials as an environmentalist organization, says Aziz Choudry, a New Zealand activist, researcher and writer. For Choudry, transnational corporations are facing global resistance and opposition to their activities, so they look to project a “green image” of themselves (2). In short, they are interested in “greenwashing.”
 
Consider the paradox that the oil company Chevron (formerly Texaco), which donates to Conservation International, caused one of the worst environmental disasters in the Amazon when it operated in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990, dumping waste water into rivers and streams causing contamination and serious health problems among people living in those areas. For this reason, Chevron has been sued by a group of Ecuadorian indigenous and campesino people to demand cleanup, restoration, and reparation for damages. For its part, Chevron has demanded millions of dollars from the Ecuadorian government and has pressured the U.S. government to discontinue preferential tariffs for Ecuadorian imports.
 
But there is another interesting situation involving Conservation International. The Center for Political Analysis and Economic and Social Research in Mexico completed an investigation of CI’s presence in Chiapas State, describing it as a “Trojan Horse” (3). This research center concluded that CI’s strategy aimed to generate conflicts among Zapatista towns or between the EZLN and the Caribe or Lacondone peoples; to remove communities from the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve; to weaken the EZLN politically and militarily; and to dismantle autonomous Zapatista municipalities.
 
Another conclusion of this research was that “Conservation International, besides being financed, administered and advised by large transnational companies, many with economic interests in biodiversity, reports and submits all available information to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It gives this information to the US government who sees biodiversity in Chiapas as a strategic issue.
 
Conservation International promotes what is called environmental services, which is to say the commercialization of nature. This includes: “the protection and regulation of water sources, climate regulation, soil protection, natural disaster prevention, scenic beauty and the provision of other natural and cultural attractions, and spaces for religious and spiritual expression” (4). It also promotes the development of “models of green commerce” and the “carbon offsets” market: businesses and other entities, mainly from industrialized countries, which contaminate, can “compensate for their carbon emissions” by way of donations targeted at conservation or reforestation in countries of the global south. In this way, the rich countries maintain their unsustainable forms of consumption and, in exchange for a few coins, transfer to us [the global south] the responsibility to conserve our biodiversity.
 
The Ecuadorian NGO Acción Ecológica maintains that “the experiences of cases developed in Ecuador and in other parts of the world show that the environmental services market is not a conservation strategy, not for detaining climate change, and not even for improving the conditions of local populations. On the contrary, it is a mechanism to appropriate the territories of indigenous peoples and local communities, who are deprived “legally” of their right to use, administer and control those territories. Even worse, they are subject to penalties -- including jail time -- which puts their lives, as individuals and peoples, at serious risk” (5).
 
Watershed Decision
 
The Ecuadoran resolution to cut off relations with Conservation International is very important. As in 2009, when Ecuador recovered its sovereignty by terminating use of the Manta Naval Base by the US military, the departure of CI signifies retrieving national sovereignty in the management of environmental programs and policies.
 
This measure also breaks the dependence of certain state institutions on the aid and financing provided by CI. Between 2007 and 2009, CI had supported Ecuador with 3 million dollars, a quantity that is not determining when compared to the resources that the government of Rafael Correa provides for environmental programs.
 
CI has links or collaborates with 10 public agencies, including the Ministries of Environment and Tourism, the Ecuadoran Navy, the National Police and the National Fishing Institute; with 22 NGOs among which are the Nature Foundation, and the Foundation for the Survival of the Cofán; with indigenous and campesino organizations such as: Chachi Centros Federation of Ecuador (FECCHE), National Federation of Campesino, Indigenous and Black Organizations (FENOCIN), Indigenous Confederation of the Cofán nationality, with four universities and with the companies Metropolitan Touring and AeroGal (6).
 
The Luna Case
 
Biologist Alfredo Luna worked on a Conservation International research team created to carry out Rapid Appraisal Projects in Ecuador, in the Cóndor Mountain Range in the Amazon, the Arenillas Reserve, and the Chongón and Colonche ranges. The small plane that Luna and the CI research team were travelling in crashed at the site known as Loma Alta, in the Chongón range, killing four people, among them the American scientists Ted Parker and Al Gentry.
 
Luna survived the accident, but suffered grave injuries that left him disabled and incapable of continuing his professional work. Although the initial medical costs were covered by a policy acquired by CI, Luna did not receive a disability insurance policy that would have allowed him to deal with the costly treatment and medication that he needs to receive for the rest of his life. CI offered life and disability insurance only to the US members of the team, excluding the Ecuadorans, according to Luna.
 
In this case, Conservation International would fail to fulfill Article 16 of the [Ecuadoran] International Cooperation Code, which declares that “the Organization will be obligated to comply with the Ecuadoran Labor and Social Security Legal Regimes, with respect to national personnel contracted by the same…”, a failure that would configure the termination of [the organization’s] operations in the country.
 
Since 18 years ago, Luna has demanded compensation from CI but has only received promises. In 1994, Russel A. Mittermeier, President of CI, informed Luna about the possibilities of compensation for disability but since then nothing has been forthcoming.
 
The Ecuadorian Public Defender in 2001 requested that Conservation International comply and compensate Luna for the accident and injuries, but the NGO rejected the request. On November 23, 2010, the Public Defender applied “Obligatory Compliance Measures” which order CI to “execute immediately and efficaciously the pertinent actions to make effective the payment of a disability policy for biologist Alfredo Luna Narváez.” If it does not do so, it mandates the application of Article 24 of the Non-Profit Legal Entities Regulations, which, in the case of legal non-compliance, terminates the activities of a foreign NGO in Ecuador.
 
On March 9, 2011 a conciliation meeting was held between the litigant parties. Alfredo Luna, in a sealed envelope, presented the kind of moral and compensatory items he asks of Conservation International, without CI making a counteroffer. In light of the latter, The Public Defender’s Office asked the Foreign Relations Ministry to proceed immediately with the implementation of Obligatory Compliance Measures for this case.
 
Conservation International, by way of its [Ecuadoran office] executive director, Luis Suárez Martinez, responded by making a legal claim against the Public Defender and the Attorney General, which was presented on April 27, 2011.
 
CI is currently lobbying profusely among government functionaries with the goal of remaining in Ecuador, but it seems that it has not gone well. The request for a temporary operations permit was denied by the Secretariat of International Technical Cooperation. “We are prevented from conducting new activities in the country, including the transfer of new donations and the provision of technical assistance, Luis Suárez wrote in a recent letter. (Translation from Spanish by Robert Andolina)
 
https://www.alainet.org/en/active/49758

Del mismo autor

Más...

Clasificado en

Clasificado en: 

Topics

Subscribe to America Latina en Movimiento - RSS