Chapter 1: Key Players and Conflict Goals in the Development Trajectory In the first chapter of Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions, Tammy Lewis briefly discusses why Ecuador is one of the most interesting countries to study environmental issues. In this chapter, Lewis provides her readers a quick insight of life in Ecuador. As you continue to read on, however, you are given insight into the life as an Ecuadorian as if you are one. Lewis describes in detail the life of an Ecuadorian and the conflicts they have faced over the past 40 years. Roughly a third of this country’s population lies beneath the poverty despite being a country that was rich with petroleum and had the potential to bring in profit through export. Due to many environmental movements, extracting petroleum for revenue was forbidden and the country remained to hold a large portion oil filled soil that had been left unexploited.
According to Lewis, in the 1980s and 1990s the Ecuadorian government had created plans to protect the environment. This plan created and managed national parks that were designed to protect the flora and fauna in the area, in exchange for a reduction of debt. “Dept-for-nature swaps” were often approved by conservationists due to two issues being resolved at once. In 2007, President Rafael Correa proposed the Yasuní-ITT Initiative . This plan would not only address climate change but would help to protect the large area of soil and let it remain untouched. In order for Correa initiative to take off, he needed a fifty percent contribution from the international community. These contributions being placed in an Ecuadorian trust fund. Unfortunately, President Correa did not gain enough support from the international community and the proposal failed. (Lewis, 2016) If I were an Ecuadorian, I would have supported Correa’s initiative if it meant that Ecuador’s beautiful environment remained untouched and unharmed and the poverty rates were reduced.
In Ecuador, “sustainable development” helps to protect the environment as well as help Ecuador become economically developed. According to Tammy Lewis, “sustainable development protects the environment, facilitates economic well-being and enables people to have the capacity to make their own choices about resource use.” Sustainable development involves three pillars that focuses on environmental protection, economic development and social justice. Since the failure of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, Ecuador proposed the Plan Nacional para el Buen Vivir, or the National Plan for Good Living. This plan rejected the unsuccessful standard of traditional development and it gives the future of the country hope of achieving Buen Vivir and Sumak Kawsay, a future of “good living”. Sumak Kawsay and the triple bottom line relate in the aspect that the quality of life and economic growth are the most important in achieving sustainable development.
The treadmill of production theory is the logical idea of understanding why major social actors favor economic growth and production. It was designed to provide reasons for acceleration in resource withdrawals and the increase of pollution in the world. The theory allows for the argument that political and economic elites benefit from the increase of economic growth, regardless if it leads to the increase of environmental issues such as degradation and social dislocation. The three main stakeholders involved in the treadmill of production theory are corporations, the state and citizen workers.
The main objectives of corporations are to make money. The desire of gaining profits leads corporations to favor the increase of economic growth. The desire of gaining profit requires labor to replace production in energy thus increases ecological harm and decreases social benefits. If for any reason profit increase is limited, they will remove themselves from that limitation. For example, environmental regulations will decrease the opportunity for an increase of profit. The main objectives of the state are to also benefit from economical growth. As tax revenue begins to accumulate, economic growth increases. The state relies on economic growth to provide employment opportunities to its citizens that were otherwise displaced by corporation investment. The state is involved in accumulation and legislation which protects its citizens and provides safe drinking water and safer working environments. The main objectives of citizens are to obtain jobs that are provided from economic growth. In order to keep their jobs, they need to be provided with safe drinking water and working conditions. Schnaiberg describes the relationship with the TOP model production expansion and ecological limits as “socioenvironmental dialect”. He outlines three syntheses that would help resolve the issues between the two: economic synthesis, managed scarcity and ecological synthesis which focused on ecosystem protection, ecosystem biodiversity, and allowing the state to hold substantial control over the ecosystems.
NGOs are considered to be nongovernmental organizations. They are otherwise known as private organizations that are officially recognized by the state to act on behalf of a sector, or the environment. They are also known as non-profit organizations. NGOs have been the most effective in advancing sustainable development and have focused on the environmental issues at hand. SMAs are individuals or groups that work together achieve a common end result in environmental protection. They are mission driven and critical for the system. They have been known to concern themselves with the concerns and desires of Ecuadorians. I enjoyed learning about the political background and past environmental actions that took place in Ecuador. It is very interesting learning that Ecuador had the opportunity to combat their high poverty rates with the large amount of untapped natural resources that lies underneath but they chose to protect the environment. Instead of becoming greedy and immediately tapping into the resources, they chose to propose plans that protected their environment first. I applaud Ecuador for their efforts of slowing climate change, preserving biodiversity and protecting their people.