Chapter 4: Origins, 1978 to 1987 The formation of Fundación Natura and Accion Ecologica began in the late 1970s. They were created because of the environmental issues. The Fundación Natura was created out of the need to educate Ecuadorians about helping to conserve and protect the species and ecosystems. This movement relied on help from everyone, political and nonpolitical. The biggest support came from local businesses that shared the same objectives: making Ecuador better. To expand this movement, the foundation signed a contract with the United States Agency for International Development. This expansion would help to create an “Environmental Profile of Ecuador.” The contract helped to provide forty employment opportunities for Ecuadorians. Fundación Natura focuses on sustaining biodiversity and conservation.
The Accion Ecologica was created to help combat the social developments in Ecuador. The movement first focused on environmental issues but it soon transitioned into focusing on the social developments that create environmental issues. Members of the Accion Ecologica fight against industries and economic development, such as oil extraction and deforestation. Not only does this movement protect Ecuador’s natural resources, it helps protect the people as well. Accion Ecologica focuses on interconnections of humans and the environment. If I were living as an Ecuadorian at this time, I would be very conflicted. I 100% think that protecting and conserving species and the environment is very important. It should be a very high priority when it comes to environmental issues. With that, however, humans play a very large part in our past and current environmental. Unfortunately, humans are here to stay for the time being and we need to figure out how humans and the environmental can co-exist harmoniously. If I has to choose between the two foundations, I would more than likely choose to stand with Accion Ecologica. I feel like this is a foundation that has the best intentions for the greater good.
Two of the most well known NGOs, The Nature Conservancy an the World Wildlife Fund, have been participating in debt-for-nature swaps since the mid-1980s. These swaps were created between developing countries and non-governmental organizations which arranged debt of the developed country be traded for natural resources, such as petroleum in the case of Ecuador (Meyer, 1993). In the case of Ecuador, debt-for-nature swaps were created for a reduction of their debt. This swap would be fulfilled when national parks, promising to protect flora and fauna, are managed properly. It was a popular method used in Ecuador for several reasons. The government was indebted to the international community, the international community wanted to preserve and protect the country’s large amounts of biodiversity, and the citizens of Ecuador were concerned for the overall health of the environment. The dept-for-nature swap was done for the future of Ecuador. An issue with dept-for-nature swaps often stem from the area of nature being very large and hard to monitor in a period of time (Deacon and Murphy, 1997) The parties involved are also subject to being deceived if environmental protection is not achieved accordingly (Deacon and Murphy, 1997). The influx of funds provided by the debt-for-nature swaps helped the future growth of the environmental organizations in the country. Petroleum revenue increased and environmental and indigenous rights movements were enabled. As stated previously, petroleum was one of the main exports in Ecuador. In order to reduce the debt that had accumulated, Ecuador relied on trade with the United States. According to Tammy Lewis, 57 percent of the exports was bought by the United States and 35 percent of the U.S. imports were sent to Ecuador. The majority of the exports that the United States received contained petroleum. In 1987, Ecuador was hit by an earthquake that caused many deaths of Ecuadorians as well as a decline in the available petroleum. When the earthquake hit, the primary oil pipeline was destroyed and oil production was shut down. Ecuador lost their greatest income of revenue.