Archive for the ‘Environmental Sustainability’ Category
January 19th, 2012 | 
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The world media are reporting that the government secured a $117 Million downpayment (well over the 100 million needed) before December 31st 2011 to protect Yasuni National Park from being drilled for oil.
Firstly this is fantastic news that this important issue is still in the international spotlight.
It means more scrutiny for reports on corrupt dealings like Chevron Texaco using “blood money” to bribe the Ecuadorian government with $500 Million for the Yasuni ITT protection in exchange for forgetting its $18 Billion in damages it needs to pay for creating a “Chenobyl in the Amazon” 30 years ago.
“Given Chevron’s toxic legacy and the debt it owes the people and rainforests of Ecuador, the fact that this ‘bribe’ is even on the table is an aberration of justice. “This is a multi-billion dollar bait and switch, it’s illegal, and can’t be allowed.” said the Ecuador program coordinator for Kevin Koenig for Amazon Watch.
Why then are my friends who work at the Ministry of Environment and the Provincial Council for Coca in Orellana Province which controls Yasuni National Park not convinced?
Reaching the 100 million dollars may have saved Yasuni National Park for another year but my friends say the prospecting continues as usual. Its encouraging however to see that Rafael Correa donated the proceeds of the $40million lawsuit against the newspaper El Universo even though it challenged Freedom of Expression in Ecuador.
Lets hope that what the ex-president of the Yasuni ITT initiative Roque Sevilla said about President Rafael Correa in his Yasuni interview is not true.
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Frogs are like Canaries in a Coal Mine. Their extremely sensitive skin which they use to breath and absorb moisture means they are the first creatures to start croaking (ie. asphyxiating to death) due to pollutants in their habitat.
So if frogs are one of the best indicators of the overall health of an ecosystem what does it mean when mass extinctions of frogs around the planet are occurring at a rate unseen in human history?
It means the world is dying.
That is not alarmist or bleeding heart tree hugging extremist thinking – its a fact. Every eco-system on earth is in a state of decline.
Frogs in Ecuadorian Amazon and Coastal Forests
Ecuador is home to over 480 species of frogs and other amphibians with hundreds more yet to be described and discovered.
About 70% of these species are endemic to Ecuador which means you will not find them anywhere else on Earth. They live in vastly different climates and landscapes from the Coastal Forests and Galapagos Islands to the Andean Paramo and Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest and vary greatly in appearance.
The two biodiversity hotspots in Ecuador are its coastal dry forest and amazon rainforest in particular the Yasuni Biosphere. Sadly 95% of Ecuadors Coastal Dry Forest has already been deforested to make way for farmland. Considering scientists recently discovered 30 new species of frogs in whats left of this extremely special and endangered ecosystem makes you wonder how many amazing creatures in the area have already been extinguished from the planet.
Now that the Ecuadorian Government failed to raise $100million before January 1st in its Yasuni ITT Initiative we will soon find out the fate of the frog and amphibian life in Ecuadors other biodiversity hotspot – one of the last pristine regions left on the planet – Yasuni National Park.
Here is a translation of an interview with Roque Sevilla, the ex-president of the Yasuni ITT Commission who also helped draw up the borders of Yasuni National Park 32 years ago and.
The Yasuni ITT initiative is a project that aims to preserve the most biologically diverse region on the planet, the region of Ecuadors Amazon between the rivers Ishpingo, Tambococha, and Tiputini (ITT) by securing donations from developed countries in exchange for keeping the vast oil reserves beneath the national park untapped.
If the Ecuadorian government does not receive 100 million dollars by January 1st 2012 it will exploit the oil inside the national park. In this frank and critical interview Roque Sevilla claims that this was the Ecuadorians governments intention the entire time.
Please share this interview or the original transcript in Spanish.
Where you surprised by the statements of German parliamentarians who visited the country?
“Yes, I noticed that those MPs where looking at current events in a newspaper like El Universo. That means that a local issue like Freedom of the in Ecuador is certainly important and is being projected internationally. This shows that the national management influences the confidence that creates a doors to the outside world.”
The statements of the minister of the German cooperation are clear. Do you rule out the governments support for the Yasuni-ITT project?
“I will rule it out while this actual government is in power. Ecuador has constantly sent ambigious and contradictory messages with respect to the Yassuni ITT. It remains in force, for example, the Pacific Refinery which will process 100,000 barrels inside the ITT. The president in his remarks on saturday explained in detail the techniques that will apply to the development of plan B. So clearly, it sends the message that Plan B is the real plan A. This creates distrust.”
How do you explain then that the chancellor Patiño did a tour of Europe to supposedly achieve more support for the Yasuní?
“Ill get back to that answer. Alberto Acosta, when he was energy minister, proposed the idea of leaving the oil underground in Yasuní. That became a hot potato for the government which always wanted to get out of that truck.”
He did not do it? How do you explain it?
“Because surveys show that 65% of Ecuadorians support the Yasuni-ITT project. Now the government is making the effort to fix the quotes to present the force, between quotation marks, that helps the government get the contributions from developed countries. This is clear, with contradictory messages and with, sometimes, agression on the future contributors. This is to say, for example, they get the coins out of his ears.”
Are you saying that the official strategy is to boycott the project?
“If I promote an idea and then do my best so that it is not accepted, I get the result I want: the failure of the project.”
That was a very clear strategy since January 2010 because we could have advanced, in an extraordinary way, if a month before the resignation of the commission to which I belonged, we would have signed, as scheduled on December 17, 2009, the contract trust with the United Nations in Copenhagen. The previous day, the president called to say do not sign.
But the Government replaced the team and did not undo the project.
“But since then there has been a systematic policy to avoid all possible contributions and be able to justify it. Now in December, the President will announce – as I am certain he will do – that they have made every effort humanly possible to get that money. He will say that the developed countries are bad because they did not want to contribute and that the government is consequently forced to exploit the oil of Yasuni.”
In this theory, Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Ivonne Baki are parts used by the president?
“Absolutely used, because the intention has been to do everything the opposite. If its not like that then explain the Pacific Refinery. Then explain the additional concessions given to PetroChina right on the bank of the Napo River for pipefitters right in front of Tiputini. It explains the presidents remarks that Tiputini is no longer part of the ITT and all that remains is the IT.”
“He invents a new compass, a new GPS which excludes the Yasuni National Park area Tiputini. This invention allows them to exploit this oil without asking the people of Ecuador, because that goes against Article 407 of the Constitution. These plans are drawn and advanced to exploit the oil.”
But has the government ever talked of a plan C. Do you know Rafael Correa?
“I do not know it. I think there is a single plan, B, which is to exploit the oil. So much so that in the case of Armadillo, which everyone knows is the Taromenani (uncontacted tribe in the Yasuni Amazon) just made a tender to operate without complying with any of the principles of the Constitution or international treaties to protect communities that have chosen to live in voluntary isolation. So the signals are wholesale. Here’s what will happen on January 1st – they are going to exploit the Yasuni ITT oil.”
You say that this topic is popular, which will generate resistence in the peoples opinion. What is the benefit to the Government to develop antidote policies against the Yasuni ITT?
“That’s the risk you run. But with the confidence they have in their power to manipulate public opinion through television channels, and the president’s personal popularity, they believe they will win this battle. I think those who are aware of the importance of the issue of Yasuní, we have to go to battle against the decision to exploit the oil from the world’s richest area of biodiversity as dumb and stupid. The Government itself has said this to the United Nations itself, therefore, those who are in favor of the protection of the Yasuni have to prove it.
Following your logic, the Yasuní may become a political boomerang for President?
He will produce a political boomerang because Ecuadorians are not easily fooled. The Government will say that the exploitation will be a perfect surgery. But that does not exist. The oil will spill and cause damage. Look at the final research survey which has only been done in two dimensions, 2D. You have to make the third dimension and this includes the construction of trails on a grid and, at the intersection of each track, you have to put a stick of dynamite and exploit it to measure the effect of sound waves. The rebound is measured by the size of the oil fields.
That demands a brutal intervention with groups of cutters and bulldozers that knock down everything to make the trails and explode dynamite. There are helicopter flights, installing the pipes… Now the president says that everything’s going to be underground, that drilling will be 11 km horizontal to Tambococha. They already know everything. That itself has advanced to the final detail, but if we ask them how much they have advanced in the regulation of the trust agreement, or even have it.
There will be nothing left of Yasuni National Park.
There has been, however, a sustainable alternative to the Government’s argument that says, in short, that under the Yasuní is a gold mine for social work.
There are alternatives: the use of biodiversity with economic valuation through the pharmaceutical industry and the systematic investigation of organized wealth that is there.
Tourism is another alternative. Costa Rica lives with three million tourists a year and here we are barely a million, but Ecuador has twice the biodiversity of Costa Rica. What happens is that Costa Ricans understand what sustainability is and here we like the exploitation of natural resources for fast, easy and short term money.
We can also take advantage of alternative energy sources other than oil. In hydropower we use a seventh of what we have available to us. Solar power, geothermal water that is heated with volcanoes. The advantage of New Zealand, Costa Rica and Iceland.
There are options, then. And the first is to continue the Yasuní-ITT project by negotiations with the countries concerned, but showing signs of confidence and strength in the proposal. No contradictions or game fixing. Along these lines I am convinced that we can raise $ 3,600 million.
Right now when there is virtually recession in Europe and the U.S.? What signals is this based on?
“It is worthwhile to follow closely what is happening in Guyana. In 2009, two years after us, Guyana Prime Minister proposed to the world that he would raise 540 million dollars a year and give up mining and logging in their country to preserve their natural resources.
The country has already received $250 million of contributions from Norway and is in line to receive the 540 million that was set because there has been a commitment of that State, a sovereign decision and a job to do so unambiguously that builds confidence in the world”
Are you going to fight in the street to avoid exploitation of Yasuni?
I have always fought for the protection of the environment. Ill say that a few days ago a friend sent me a photograph from 1976 in which I am in a canoe in the middle of Yasuní creating the border of the national park in conjunction with two technicians of the FAO, Allain Putney and a Dutch man.
Thanks to these studies Yasuni was declared a National Park. The defense of the park for me, then, is old enough to accept that without further ado, it violates the Constitution and the government will destroy the incredible biological richness of this country.
Bamby the beloved Tapir that has enchanted our volunteers at the Animal Rescue Center for years has been killed. Medardo who has cared for Bamby for over 15 years since she was a baby tapir is devestated – she was like a child to him.
The Amazonian Tapir or Bairds Tapir is the largest land animal native to South America. It is also an endangered species especially in Ecuador due to deforestation and habitat reduction as well as its meat being considered a delicacy for many indigenous tribes.
Until this horrible news Bamby was one of the Animal Rescue Centers best success stories. The way Animal Rescue Centers work is that they are delivered animals that have been rescued off deforested land or from the black market in animal trafficking. The Animals are then “rehabilitated” which is to say they learn in a safe environment how to survive on their own before they are released back into the wild.
You need to be very careful when choosing to volunteer at an “Animal Rescue Center” in Ecuador and South America because many claim to rehabilitate and release the animals but actually work like little Zoos.
These places keep the exotic animals in cages and claim they will release them into the wild but never do because they attract the money of foreign volunteers. Here is more on the subject:
Animal Rescue & Rehabilitation Centres (ARRCs) – Are you being conned?
If you are planning to volunteer at an ARRC, go in with your eyes open; consider the following (my opinion);
o For some ARRCs the temptation to rip-off their volunteers is hard to resist.
o Working in some ARRC’s may be counter-productive if they maintain a ‘stock’ of animals to attract volunteers.
o There is a view some in western fund-raising circles that *all* South American ARRC’s are corrupt.You can read the rest on volunteersouthamerica.net in the article called Volunteer Scams and Warnings
The Animal Rescue Center we partner with works in a way that the animals are free to roam around the 75 hectares of primary rainforest on the Centers property. As the animals become more confident they stray further away from the Animal Rescue Center but they always have the option to come back to the secure base for food.
The Amazonian Tapir is a solitary and nocturnal animal that roams great distances in search for food and a mate. As I have already mentioned Bamby was one of the greatest success stories at the Animal Rescue Center because she had become increasingly independent and straying further and further away from the center and sometimes would not be seen for weeks.
I remember when two of our voulnteers Brian and Michelle from South Africa said they went looking for Bamby with Medardo because she had been missing for over 2 months – Medardo loved her so much he started crying when tey found her – she had never disappeared for so long.
The next time Bamby went missing Medardo only found her bones.
After Bamby the Tapir had been rehabilitated and released into the wild she often returned to the Animal Rescue Center for the next 20 years of her life.
In the end she would die in the wild but does that justify the other so called Rehabilitation Centers that keep their animals in cages for their own “protection”? Or did Bamby deserve the right to live free regardless of the risks?
Yasuni National Park is a very controversial topic at the moment because this stunning natural treasure of the Amazon is not only the most biodiverse region on the planet but also the location of Ecuadors largest untapped oil reserves.
Ecuador already has one of the poorest records in the world with regards to environmental safety regulations for oil drilling mostly due to environmental catastrophies caused by Chevron / Texaco during the 28 years of their unregulated drilling often called a “Chenobyl in the Amazon”
Under Rafael Correas current administration environmental protection has improved drastically but Ecuador still has the highest level of deforestation in South America. In 2007 the government endorsed a plan called the “ITT Initiative” named after the Ishpingo, Tiputini y Tambococha rivers inside Yasuni National Park where the giant oil reserves were discovered.
This plan calls on rich first world nations to pay Ecuador 50% of the prospective value of the oil reserves in exchange for leaving the 846 million barrels of oil in the ground. The ITT Initiative was met with world wide applause and a sincere effort to raise the money but after the Global Financial Crisis there is serious doubt that first world nations will be able to fund the plan.
If by the 31st of December in 2011 the ITT Fund has not raised 100million dollars from the international community the plan will be scrapped, the money already in the fund will be returned, and one of the most pristine and beautiful places on the planet will be pillaged in the name of progress.
The drilling will cause an estimated 407 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emmissions and the release of another 800 million metric tonnes from the resulting deforestation.
The future looks bleak for Yasuni.
To find out more read this translation of a very pessemistic interview of the ex-president of the Yasuni ITT Commission Roque Sevilla
