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In its eight years of existence, DECOIN has been extremely
successful in acheiving its goals with little funding and
no government support.
BOOK PUBLISHED
DECOIN wrote and published the book on mining ES UN MONSTRUO
GRANDE Y PISA FUERTE, about our struggle against MITSUBISHI,
and about the real impacts of mining around the world emphasising
such impacts in developing countries. I think it is still
the first and only book written by a grass-roots NGO on the
social and ecological impacts of mining.
RESISTANCE TO MINING
DECOIN successfully organised resistance to a massive Mitsubishi
mining project funded in part by the Ecuadorian government,
and the Japanese International Co-operation Agency. DECOIN,
by working with communities in the area, holding seminars
and workshops on mining and the environment, gathering and
distributing information, and organising an international
letter writing campaign was able to stop the project. DECOIN
members wrote thirty articles for the local, national and
international press on the resistance and other environmental
aspects in Intag. Unfortunately, the struggle isn't over.
The fact is that the minerals Mitsubishi discovered will not
go away. However, Mitsubishi is not currently able to conclude
their explorations, after the communities of the Intag expressed
their determination to reject mining, by burning the only
mining camp down in protest May of 1997.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONGRESS
DECOIN also organised an Environmental Congress in November
of 1995, to date the only one ever done in the whole province.
Over 200 people attended including the governor of our province,
the #2 at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, representatives
from three mining companies, the Chamber of Mines, a representative
from the Congress, and representatives from 42 communities.
Even the Bishop from Ibarra came. It was the first time anyone
had publicly denounced mining as an option for the Intag area.
NATIONAL RECOGNITION
DECOIN is on the board of directors of the national umbrella
environmental organization called CEDENMA (Comite Ecuatoriano
para la Defensa de la Naturaleza y el Medio Ambiente). Cedenma
represents over 80 environmental NGO's in Ecuador. Being on
Cedenma's Mining commission, DECOIN has participated in analyzing
and proposing changes to new mining and forestry legislation,
and is recognized as being an authority in mining legislation
and the environment.
ORGANIC COFFEE
DECOIN originated and created the Organic Coffee Growers Association,
called Rio Intag, as a concrete way to present economic alternatives
to mining and help the small farmer survive. It has been hugely
successful: in little more than one year, there is more demand
for Intag coffee than there is supply. Our first order of
5 tons goes to a Japanese Fair Trade Organisation this December.
Presently there are approximately 150 members and the organization
continues to grow. The Association is now an independent organisation
(something we always strive for when working with groups),
but recognition for our work is presented in the fact that
the Association will give DECOIN 5% of the income for the
shipment to Japan. The contact with Japan, by the way, came
about because of our struggle against Mitsubishi.
WOMENS GROUPS
DECOIN has helped women's groups in the area get organised
and receive technical assistance and environmental education.
We have also helped them finance the building of a small kiosk
store to sell their products and helped pay for them to go
to handicraft fairs. The sisal bag the coffee is sold in is
made by Women's groups - another one of our projects.
ECOLOGICAL COUNTY - Probably DECOIN's finest hour
DECOIN successfully got a popular Countywide Assembly to declare
our county, an Ecological Municipality - the first in Ecuador.
The area includes Cotacachi and all of Intag - about half
a million hectares. We are currently working with the Mayor,
at his request, to come up with a series of guidelines describing
just what it is we created. Since this would be the first
one in Ecuador, and probably South America, we are treading
new ground.
The main idea is to have strong measures to protect the
environment from degradation, and make it a healthy place
to live which effectively, means free of mining. Certain activities
will be promoted and supported such as reforestation, organic
agriculture, and Ecotourism and others prohibited or severely
restricted: mining, industrial logging, toxic agriculture.
DECOIN is also pressuring to have the Municipal government
enact a series of ordinances to protect all watersheds in
the whole County, the largest in Imbabura. Currently, as of
December, 1999, we are working with other organisations and
the Municipal government enact the ordinances necessary to
legalise the popular Eco Municipality declaration.
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