Chapter 6: Organizational bust, 2000-2006: Opportunities for ecoresistors and Ecoalternatives In the sixth chapter, Lewis discusses the decline of transnational funding and the overthrow of ecodependent organizations by ecoregisters, independent environmental activists that support combating locally critical environmental issues. Ecoregisters are more concerned with Buen Vivar and Sumak Kawsay, living well, than they are of strictly protecting conservation. These activists were able to overthrow the influences of ecodependent organizations because of the decline of environmental funding. At the end of the 1990s two popular environmental projects, the USAID’s SUBIR project and the Programa Podocarpus, were nearing the conclusion of their purposes and would be closed permanently. Both projects provided a high amount of funding to environmental organizations and their goals of conservation. With the closure of the projects, a decrease of funding took place and it caused many of the organizations to permanently close their doors.
In the year 2000, a financial crisis struck Ecuador that weakened its political-economic system. This crisis led to a reluctance in international organizations to provide funding for the environment. In the year 2001, the United States was struck by a terrorist attack that decreased and redirected U.S. funding to the Middle East. This decrease of funding from international group caused a decrease in the amount of ecodependent organization. In the year of 2001, Ecuador began to construct the OCP pipeline. This was an issue because it was constructed in an area that protects a large portion of land and wildlife and cuts across an ecotourism friendly town, Mindo. The people of Mindo began protesting the construction of the pipeline because they feared the impacts it could have on their ecotourism revenue. Despite protests and rallies, the pipeline was still built and environmentalists experienced a heavy burden.
As I have stated previously the decline of funding led to a decline in environmental organizations. Many of the organizations had to shut down in fear of losing their control of external changes. If the organizations did not willingly shut down they were eventually forced to due to the lack of funding and failed agendas. If organizations were to survive, they had to change the direction of their agendas to ensure funding from international organizations. For example, ecodependents changed their agendas to mimic a more ecoimperialist agenda. Another shift in environmentalist agendas was called proyectismo. This allowed organizations to make proposal requests to transnational funders. These requests would fund environmental projects and allow for goals to be accomplished. The downside to proyectismo is the set timelines and guidelines that must be followed to obtain and conclude a projects objective rather than the goals. This has also led to an unequal partnership and competition between projects and organizations. Despite the strategies to combat this bust, many consequences took place. The first affected transnational funding which caused a decline in resources, public and private. The second affected the environmental sector which caused the loss of ecodependent influence, the gain of ecoregisters and the addition of social issues into the environmental agenda. The third affected the state which caused the dependence of resources to combat the country’s debt. The fourth to be affected was the environment and the policies which caused an increase of exploration and development of the natural resource, caused by a decrease in protection.
I was slightly disappointed with the information of this chapter, especially when talking about the OCP pipeline. When it comes to the protection of the land and wildlife, I am very passionate about it. I was pleased to hear of the protests that took place but I was disappointed at the lack of involvement from the environmental organizations. They claim they want to protect conservation yet they don’t fight hard enough when an issue is presented to them. If they were to join forces with the locals, I feel as though they could have had a strong opportunity to stop the construction of the pipeline.