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17 December 2001 | Intag | By Carlos Zorrilla
Andean Biodiversity has not fared well in the presence
of man. It has fared even worse in recent history, as the
onslaught of so called "progress" of modern society and its
multifaceted aspects of development, reached ever deeper into
the pockets of diversity. The Andean tropical montane forests
found on the outer flanks of the Andes, has, by in large,
retained important areas of its forests intact. Now, industrial
mining, backed by such players as the World Bank and other
international "development" organizations, are threatening
to push into these remaining jewels of biodiversity.
Ecuador's biological diversity, among the world's richest,
and encompassing two of the worldÕs 25 biological hotspots,
has suffered much the same fate as the rest of its neighbors
in the Andes . Expansion of agriculture and ranching, both
small scale and large, industrial and small-scale logging,
poor land use and aggressive and destructive government land
reform policies, coupled with a growing population, poverty,
and export oriented economy, pushed by international financing
institutions, have contributed to wiping out a significant
portion of it. However, in a recent investigation(1), it was
found that 49% of the western and 75% of the eastern slopes
of the Andes, are still covered in cloud forests- though many
of these in fragmented form. Crops and human dwellings, however,
have all but been displaced the interandean forests.
A petroleum based economy, which, ironically, in 3 decades
of existence has increased levels of poverty, crime and corruption,
and left the typical Ecuadorian more indebted than ever to
international lending institutions, has also played an important
role in the impoverishing the country of its biological resources.
Roads into the Amazon to exploit oil have opened the doors
to all the evils associated with uncontrolled colonization,
including: illegal logging, conflicts over land, and severe
erosion. Problems that undoubtedly will be repeated when mining
companies go into now inaccessible montane territory.
Even as Ecuador faces daily the failure of this economic
pursuit, it is preparing yet again to expand oil extraction
through the construction of another oil pipleline. The OCP
(heavy petroleum pipeline) project will impact one of the
most biological diverse montane forest regions in the Andes-
the Mindo area, as well as millions of hectares in the countryÕs
Amazon region due to the opening of new extraction areas needed
to fill the pipeline. The road infrastructure associated with
this project is also expected to impact additional montane
forests on both slopes of the Andes.
The impacts of oil in the Amazon has, in addition, devastated
cultures, contaminated rivers and streams, and driven species
ever closer to extinction. All in the name of progress. This
is especially true in the past 5 decades, as natural resource
extraction has been driven to new levels of unsustainability
by irrational and unethical worldwide over- consumption, and
destructive economic models of development based on exporting
raw, non renewable resources. To put in few words: biological
diversity has been devastated, and is being devastated, by
outmoded economic and social models that focus on the well
being of a select number of one particular species over the
well being of ecosystems and other species. The outcome could
not, and cannot be, any different that what we are experiencing.
A large part of Ecuador's biodiversity has managed to hold
on the eastern side of the eastern Andes and the western slopes
of the Western Andes. The principal reason for this is that
road access into these areas have been relatively limited,
and the generally unfavourable climatic and topographic conditions
for large-scale farming. In short, it's very mountainous,
very rainy, and the soils are easily eroded and lacking in
essential nutrients for good crop production. The generally
small stature of the trees and the difficult access, makes
them, fortunately, unattractive for most industrial logging
operations. Most of the land on the Andean slopes, in fact,
easily fits into the category of forestry land- a fragile
land that should be protected, and used very carefully, if
at all.
However, even though large scale logging has not made a
stronghold in the flanks of the Andes, the logging industry,
backed by some very favorable industry-friendly legislation
is dangerously creeping higher up the slopes from their preferred
extractive regions: the lowlands tropics. It is here, in the
lowland tropical rainforest of northwest Ecuador, that industrial
logging, together with an aggressive African Oil Palm industry,
has, and is, devastating tens of thousands of some of the
most biodiverse forests in the world. These forests belong
to one of earthÕs most important biotic regions: the Choco-Darien-Western
Ecuadorian Biological Hotspot. But that's another story. Nevertheless,
it is troubling to see that logging companies are moving up
the Andes in search of new areas rich in native forests.
MiningÕs Threat to the remaining Biological Diversity The
new threat EcuadorÕs Andean biodiversity is facing, and I'm
referring specifically to Andean diversity, between a broad
belt of approximately 1300 and 3500 meters above sea level
(lower Montane and Pre-Montane humid to very humid forests),
is mining. This is area also belongs to one of the hottest
of the Biological Hotspots, the Tropical Andean Hotspot. Here,
the number of plants easily outnumber, per land area, the
number found in the tropical lowland humid forest of the Amazon
(2), and are much more threatened.
The World Bank is playing a significant role in opening
these repository of biological diversity in Ecuador to the
mining industry, by producing and making available to mining
companies geochemical information useful to the mining companies
from 3.6 million hectares of Western Ecuador.
The creation of this mineralogical information database
formed an essential part of the Prodeminca World Bank project,
a 24 million dollar project, funded in part by the Bank though
a 14 million dollar loan to Ecuador. The main objective was
to create information that would lead to an increase in mining
activities in Ecuador, and introduce major changes in the
nationÕs mining legislation (referred to as "modernization"
of the legislation). The mineralogical information gathered
included mineral samples taken from 7 protected areas in Western
Ecuador, incident which led the grass-roots environmental
ngo which I head, DECOIN (Defensa y Conservaci—n Ecol—gica
de Intag), to file the first ever claim from Ecuador against
a World Bank project (3).
It is important to note that the authorization allowing
members of the Prodeminca project to go into and collect mineral
samples for the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, one
of the 7 protected areas affected, and arguably one of the
planetÕs most diverse, was given by the Ministry of the Environment
of Ecuador, presided at the time by Ms. Yolanda Kakabadse.
Ms. Kakabadse is current president of the IUCN. The information
produced, by the way, included information on the likely location
of mainly precious and semi precious metals, and did not include
one single biotic element, thereby discrediting the argument
by government and bank officials that the information was
neutral in character. The information is now in the hands
of at least 7 mining companies, including the worldÕs biggest:
Rio Tinto Zinc, and Newmont- the only entities that have so
far purchased the information.
The other interesting aspects of this 14 million debt Ecuadorian
taxpayers are now saddled with, included the reformation of
national mining legislation, aimed, at principally, removing
environmental and fiscal "obstacles" for the transnational
mining companies. It also called for totally doing away with
the public sector from exploiting and trading in minerals,
thereby paving the way for full privatization of the mining
sector. These changes are not a hidden agenda for the World
Bank, and they are unabashedly express in their policies.
However, it is very troubling when a project of this magnitude
calls for major changes in a nationÕs mining legislation,
and such changes lead to de-regulation and severe weakening
of the nationÕs environmental protection regarding mining
activities.
These changes might be part of what the mining companies
are insisting on in order to risk investing in the Andes,
but they also represents a major threat to the remaining Andean
biological diversity and local communities, and represents,
what I see, as major economic hardship to these countries,
as regards the capacity to enforce environmental regulations
to protect the environment and their human populations, and
rehabilitate abandoned mining sites. The world is too full
of major ecological and social disasters produced by the mining
industry not to take fully into account the impact of this
aspect of mining. The modified legislation being touted by
the Bank, industry, and other multilateral lending institutions,
will undoubtedly lead to an increase environmental, economic
and social hardship in the Andean countries, and major human
rights conflicts.
The most notorious way this increase in mining activity
in the Andes is being carried out, is illustrated right now
in Ecuador. During the past 12 to 18 months months, a series
of major changes in Ecuador's mining and environmental legislation
have provided clear evidence that, at least, this Andean country,
wants to tell the mining world that their mineral resources
are available free of charge, and come with little, or no
fiscal and environmental responsibilities. The legislative
changes include:
Doing away totally with royalties;
Removing prohibitions by the state to promote mining in
protected areas;
Requiring only one authorization good for 30 years to carry
out ALL PHASES OF MINING (renewable),;
Giving the authorization to control, and judge environmental
violations by the mining industries to the same Ministry of
Mining in charge of promoting mining; doing away with the
possibility of most government agencies, including the Ministry
of the Environment, to close down mines in case of environmental
disasters or proven cases of major environmental degradation
and contamination.
These modifications are accompanied by major economic
incentives, aimed at reducing taxable bases, and cutting
import duties for equipment and eliminating export tariffs.
What more could a mining company as for? These changes in
legislation moved a Canadian mining journal to declare Ecuador
a prime investment site recently (Northern Miner, 15 Nov.
2001)
The threat that these World Bank induced modifications
imply, however, will not only be limited to Ecuador, but
I believe will soon spread to other Andean countries as
the governments compete with each other to de-regulate and
make their nation more and more attractive to the global
mining companies, thereby, putting their communities, ecosystems,
and biological and cultural diversity more and more at risk.
This is the main engine that will drive the next generation
of mineral extraction from Andean countries, and specifically,
right into many montane tropical forests, that have, until
now, escaped most industrial rape and pillaging, and which
are the repository of both, most minerals, and very high
rates of biodiversity. And it will require focused and organized
coordination from the part of all stakeholders so this push
does not destroy the biological resources left in the Andes,
nor impact basic rights of communities to an environment
free of contamination and to a way of life of their choosing.
That mineral extraction in developing countries has not,
and will not, deliver these countries from the plague of
underdevelopment, has been proven time and time again (4).
There is a sinister relation between nations invested in
heavy mineral development for export, and high levels of
corruption and underdevelopment. This problem is especially
relevant today because the modified legislation being pushed
through in many nations can lead to major ecological and
social disasters, for which developing countries are poorly
equipped to cope with.
We should not, therefore, buy into the industry mantra
that modern mining is now ecological and sustainable. History,
and even recent history, has shown us that mining companies,
as most companies driven by profit, have not put the interests
of the environment or people above their profitability.
Recent major cyanide spills around the world, and abandoned,
polluting mines in such places as Summitville, Colorado,
USA, tells us that nothing fundamentally has changed when
it comes to mining and the environment.
In addition, the tragic tale of places such as Choropamba
and Tambogrande in Peru, should also alert us to the human
rights dilemma posed when governments put industrial rights
and privileges above human rights and dignity (5). In Ecuador,
Mining, undoubtedly will be around for the foreseeable
future, as will pressures by the multinationals to gain
access to cheap minerals. They will be aided and abetted
by lax environmental and mining legislation, corrupt officials,
and by the required capital to pay off the unpayable and
unethical foreign debt. Another key player will be the international
financing institutions- such as the World Bank, the IMF,
and the Interamerican Development Bank, and their economic
adjustment programs and outmoded and industry biased views
of development pressuring governments to open up their markets
and making possible cheaper access to the mineral resources
in the poorer countries. They will also be aided by an outmoded
paradigm that values short term economic growth, at any
cost, over sustainability, and which grossly underestimates
the values inherent and produced by healthy ecosystems,
and biological diversity. The same paradigm that has persistently
left out the real costs of environmental degradation and
rehabilitation from their carefully crafted projects and
economic formulas.
However, many communities have taken the initiative and
are leading the way in protecting their natural resources,
as they awaken to the real, and lasting impacts, of development
schemes, such as mining, imposed from above. An example
of this emergent change recently came to light when several
indigenous nations in Ecuador's Amazon region, including
the Achuar and the Shuar, agreed to firmly oppose petroleum
activities in their territories.
It can only be hoped that the environmental, development,
social, scientific and research communities will catch up
and join these initiatives in vigorously protecting the
environment of which we all depend, and finally start genuinely
steering development towards sustainability, and in ways
that benefit communities and diversity over mere profit.
Carlos Zorrilla
DECOIN
PO Box 144
Otavalo, Imbabura
Ecuador
Phone/Fax: 5936 648 593
DECOIN Email: decoin@hoy.net
Carlos Zorrilla's Email: intagcz@uio.satnet.net
Sources:
1. La Biodiversidad del Ecuador, Informe
2000. Ecociencia, IUCN, Min of the Environment, 2001
2. A Floristic Analysis of the High Andes
of Ecuador. Peter M. Jorgensen, Carmen Ulloa Ulloa, Jens
E. Madsen, and Renato Valencia R., cited in: Biodiversity
and Conservation of the Neotropical Montane Rainforests,
edited by S. Churchill, Henrik Balsev, Enrique Forero and
James L. Luteyn
3. See: World Bank in Ecuador at:
www.decoin.org ; also at: http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/environment/2418.html
- (16k)
4. See: 'Raw Materials versus Poverty?'
A conference on the role of the World Bank in financing
fossil fuel and mining projects by Friends of the Earth
Netherlands (Milieudefensie).;also, Bolivia dependent on
mineral extraction for centuries, remains one of the continent's
most underdeloped nation. See also Harvard Economist Jeffrey
Sachs comments on the economic and social impacts of developing
countries export of natural resources.
5. Choropamba: The Price of Gold, a
Video by Guarango Film and Video Publication: info@guarango.org.
Oxfam America (kslack@oxfamamerica.org)
also has valuable information on Choropamba.
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