sustainability irvine fv word

7/31/2019 Sustainability IRVINE Fv WORD

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Good morning everyone. It is a real pleasure and honor being here- not too far away, in fact, from where I

spent a few years of my lifethough It seems a lifetime ago. Like my colleagues before me, I would like to

thank the University of Irvine and organizers of this event and the University of Irvine for making it possible

for us to be here today, and also for having the vision of trying to bring to the publics attention the critical

issue of sustainability. I think there are very few more critical issues facing humanity than this one, and we

have to get the answers right.

It seems everyone is talking about sustainability these days: I recently did a google check on it, and I got

almost 96 million hits, and nearly 30 million for sustainable development. It's clear that this is a reflection of

the growing concern the social, environmental and economic impacts that the dominant and unsustainable

model of development is having on our planet and our lives.

Books are being published by the carloads on sustainability,, governments are writing sustainability principles

into their laws, and the more recent Constitutions are incorporating sustainable development as national

priority. The World Bank, long a promoter of unsustainability and neoliberalist economic policies that has

wreaked havoc across the planet, is now, apparently supporting sustainable development wholeheartedly.

In fact, as oxymoronic as it sounds, industries- especially extractive industries- are making sustainability their

number one priority. And, even though many of these sustainable policies amount to little more than

corporate green-washing created by public relations firms, yet these steps are necessary towards

constructing the sustainable world we urgently need.

However important these steps are, the world is also in need of positive examples of development. The

world is suffocating in negative examples of development- it is of primordial importance that we help set up,

identify and or support the few positive examples of sustainable development.

One of those examples lies in the Intag area of Ecuador, where, during the past SIXTEEN years, communities,

local governments, organizations and individuals have been working hard during trying to make sustainability


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more than just another word. Though the idea itself may not yet be fully grasped by many of Intags

residents, I sincerely feel that there is a urgent desire by many of Intag's people to attain it; and I would

venture to say, perhaps more so than in many other parts of the world.

This has to do with several factors- not least of which is having to confront a large-scale mining project that

threatened our communities, our rivers, our forests and livelihoods. This threat forced Intag's communities

to organize and mobilize. It also made us question the dominant model of development that the

government and mining companies were trying to impose on Intag's community.

But more importantly, the threat forced us to examine closely and deeply what well-being and happiness

meant to us, the best ways to attain them, and what we were willing to sacrifice, and not sacrifice to attain

them. And frankly, unless we get the answers to these questions right, I don't think we will be ever able to

succeed in bringing about sustainability.

Out of this confrontation, questioning and introspection emerged answers to the extractive model of

development and unsustainability that has made Intag what it is today; a model of community-led

sustainable development. We still have a very long ways to go yet, but in general, I would say that this is the

silver lining to this very dark cloud- a cloud that is still very much hanging over us.

Working towards sustainability has been anything but easy in Intag, especially with transnational mining

companies, aided and abetted by government officials, violating our human rights, criminalizing our leaders,

and creating social chaos in our communities.

For protecting our livelihood, our communities and our environment from the devastation that is large-scale

mining, in other words, for standing up to a destructive version of development, we have been labeled

ecoterrorists, and some of our colleagues, including Polivio Prez who is here today, are facing terrorism and

sabotage charges. In other parts of Ecuador, hundreds of other environmental, human rights and indigenous

activists are facing similar charges for taking part in peaceful protests against illegal mining or petroleum

activities, large damns or illegal shrimp farms. And, unfortunately, more and more governments around the


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world are abusing the anti-terrorisim laws to criminalizing social protests and the activists who are opposing

these types of outrageous unsustainable development

.

1. In standing up to the economic interests behind large-scale mining in Intag we have been fortunatenot to lose any of our activists; in other parts of the world many have been killed.

To give you a glimpse of how transnational extractive companies are able to perverse the judicial system of a

country, in the dawn hours of October 17, 2006, 19 heavily armed police, some wearing ski-masks and

carrying machine guns, violently broke into my home, and ransacked my room. Besides the machine guns,

the police were carrying a search and arrest warrant for my arrest, all of it based on trumped up charges

made against me by someone hired by the mining company that we were fighting against. HAD IT NOT BEEN

for the fortuitous call of a neighbor that alerted me to the police raid minutes before they arrived, rest

assured that I would not be here today.

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But before I go too deeply into these issues , I would like to show a couple of videos to put our struggle in

favor of sustainable development more in context.

*

SHOT OF GALAPAGOS ISLAND

[Google Earth movie]

Most travel guides divide Ecuador into four distinct regions; The Galapagos Islands, the coast, the sierra- or

highlands-, and the Amazon region.

SHOT OF GALAPAGOS, AND WILDLIFE ((six seconds in between))

The Galapagos is the most famous of the four regions, made famous not only for its spectacular wildlife, but

also because the Islands helped Darwin become aware of evolution and the mechanisms that make it

happen. Galapagos continues to be a hotbed of investigation into evolutions mechanisms, and is no less

spectacular than when Darwin visited it in 1835.

The coast of Ecuador


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characterized by rich productive soils, plains, where most of Ecuador's exportable crops are grown,such as bananas, cacao, coffee, and shrimps. And, unfortunately, more and more African palm oil. There are

also vast cattle ranches. The coast, as the other regions are scenes of clash of visions of development--- on

the mangrove sections there are hard-core confrontations between tradicional sea-shell gatherers and large-

scale shrimp farms. In addition, there are several conflicts surrounding large-scale damns active at the

present, as well as some serious contamination issues from small-scale gold mining. Logging also is affecting

the northern coast of Ecuador, in some of the most biological forests on the planet.

The Coast is also site of Ecuador's biggest city, Guayaquil, with over 3 million inhabitants. Traditionaland industrial fishing is a major economic player in this area, as is tourism.

The Sierra, or highlands

This is an area lying, mostly, between the two main Andean Cordilleras, with an average elevation of 2400

meters above sea level.

IT is where most of the indigenous population is located, and also where the nation's capital, Quito,at 2,800 meters above sea level is situated.

The economic base is mostly small-scale farming, cattle raising, though there are some very largeflower plantations. Tourism is an important industry in the Sierra.

The clash of visions manifests here in several sites, having to do with small-scale and large-scalemining, clashes over water use, and inequitable land distribution. Mining, however, is the number one issue

right now facing many sites in the highlands- and specifically copper and gold mining.

THE AMAZON, OR ORIENTE

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES / % of Ecuadors land mass,, yasuni,

PETROLEUM exploration and exploitation TEXACO-CHEVRON CASE small-scale gold mine large-scale gold and copper mine by chinese and canadian mining companies large damns illegal logging SARAYACU

IN GENERAL, Ecuador is a very special place.

IT is one of the worlds 17 megadiverse countries, yet is only the size of the state of Colorado, or 3% the area

of the U.S., and yet harbors many more species.

SHOT OF BIOLOGICAL HOTSPOTS


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Two of the worlds 34 biological Hotspots are within Ecuador. These are areas characterized by having

exceptional biodiversity, high rates of endemic species and have lost at least 70% of their natural habitat.

The Intag region is within the most diverse of these 34 regions- the Tropical Andes Biological Hotspot SHOT

OF TROPICAL ANDES BIOLOGICAL HOTSPOT

. This is far and away the most biologically diverse area in the world.

SLIDES OF INTAG// CLOUD FORESTS *5,

Intag, as these images attempt to show, is an area rich in native cloud forests, clear rivers and healthy

communities. Composing less than 2.5% of the world's tropical forests, cloud forests are one of the least

known of the world's tropical ecosystems, and one of the most threatened. Because they are found in

mountains, mostly between 1500 and 3500 meters above sea level, cloud forests in particular play a

oversized role in protecting watersheds and regulating stream flows, thereby preventing silting of rivers and

streams. In addition, water emanating in these forests provide clean drinking water to millions of people

around the world.

WILDLIFE SHOTS, WATER, COMMUNITIES

The Intag region is approximately 1500 square kilometers and is populated by only 17,000 people of mix

races and backgrounds. The difference in elevation of roughly three thousand meters, makes it a especially

biologically diverse, and its fertile soils produce a mind-boggling diversity of products. The economic base is

small-scale agriculture and ranching, with ecological tourism gaining ground the past decade or so.

Intags forests and communities are threatened by similar forces threatening many other tropical regions

around the world: expansion of agriculture and ranching, and illegal logging. Or better put, by unsustainable

land use. What lies behind the unsustainable land use is material for in-depth debates which I am very glad

to see the University of Irvine is delving into.

As is the case of many other tropical countries around the world, Intag is facing the threat of large-scale

metallic mining. The threat is a direct result of external factors, such as increased in the price of mineral

commodities like gold and copper. In our case, it happens to be copper. Players like the World Bank and

foreign governments are also involved, but well get to these external forces later

Mining threatens much more than our clean rivers, primary cloud forests, endangered species and

communities; it threatens a positive example of community-led sustainable development that we have

evolved as a response to the mining threat. You will hear about some of the examples from Marcia and

Polivio.

What all these initiatives have in common are:


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They strengthen local communities and community well-being Contribute to the conservation of the areas water resources, soil, forests and biodiversity Distribute income more fairly Promote economic activities that use natural resources more sustainably

SHJOTS OF MINING CHUQUICAMATA TOUR

Mining, and especially large scale mining, creates the complete opposite effect.

Mining highly concentrating economically (the enclave effect); it tears apart communities; it destroys soils,

forests, biodiversity and contaminates water resources: sometimes for thousands of years. And, it is based on

finite, non-renewable resources, making it completely unsustainable.

Economically, it is a well-known fact that mining impoverishes people and lands in developing countries.

Some of the poorest countries in the world, in fact, are developing countries with mining economies. The

Resource Curse is the term that economist invented to describe the effect it produces.

I dont have time to go into the many other negative economic, environmental, and social impacts of mining,

but if you are interested, theres ample information out there about it; just look up the term the natural

resource curse, or the Dutch Disease to start with. And if your interest lies in the link between violence and

natural resource read the book Natural Resources and Violent Conflict.

Just so you have an idea of the impacts that a large-scale openpit copper mining project can have in an area

like Intags, let me give you a run down on the main impacts identified by a team of Japanese scientist

involved in making an Environmental Impact Study in the 1990s for a small copper mine in this region. And

when I mean small, I mean less than 500,000 tons of pure copper. If that seems like a large amount, keep in

mind that the world consumed 17 million tons of copper in 2010, and that a half a million ton copper mine

can take 10 or more years to exploit.

The impacts include (all taken from the environmental impact study)

Massive deforestation, which would lead to Drying up of the local climate Impact to 12 endangered species of mammals and birds; including jaguars, spectacled bears and acritically endangered species of monkeys. Impacts to the Cotacachi-Cayapas Wilderness Area Contamination of rivers and streams with lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium


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Increase in crime Relocation of four communities

The authors did not include amphibians, reptiles or plants in their studies. All in all, and with a minimum of

research, we concluded that the mining project could impact as many as 28 species of mammals and birds

threatened by extinction. Considering that the area has not been properly studied, and that new orchid

species have been found nearby, the total of affected threatened species could run over 50. I dont know of

any other mining project that imperils so many threatened species. This is especially true if you take into

consideration that after the EIA was published, the Japanese found four times more copper, which would

drastically increase the project's social and environmental impacts.

Instead of going into details of the more than 15 years of our struggle, which Polivio Prez and MarciaRamrez will cover in their presentation, I would like to concentrate on the external factors which make it

possible for the outrageous violation of human rights and threats to one of Earth's biological jewels to take

place. These forces also make it difficult to substitute sustainable initiatives for the destructive ones that

have steered our planet's biome to where it is today.

IMAGE SHOWING DIAGRAM OF IFI'S 10 MINUTES

To better understand how community, indigenous, human and environmental rights are so easily violated,

its necessary to look beyond the on-the-ground confrontations and the national policies.

And once we start looking around, we find the real bulk of the iceberg.

International Development Agencies International Financing Institution

World Bank, IMF, Regional Development Banks, Export-Import Banks,

Governments (through their Embassies)

IT IS, HOWEVER, all supported by a consumist lifestyle, egocentric life-style that creates demand for the

minerals that lie underneath biological and cultural jewels all over the world like INTAG.

These are the actors that make it possible for companies to violate human rights, contaminate rivers for

centuries, destroy native forests, impact cultures, create chaos in the communities, and even impoverish

whole nations.

Closing remarks ((PHOTO OF JUNIN SIGN)))


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Intag's success is threatened today as it was by the forces and vision that threatened it years ago. The

dominant paradigm is still fueling the greed of transnational mining corporations- this time in the guise of a

Chilean copper giant, CODELCO. This time, with the open support of the government, who has said clearly

that they support large-scale mining.

Their vision of what development and well-being is comes openly in conflict with what our vision is, and what

is best for our planet. And it is a conflict that is being played all over the world, and one that holds

tremendous power to shape our future if not resolved right.

At the beginning of my talk I said that if we do not get the answers right to the critical question of what is

happiness and well-being that we shall never be able to bring about sustainability. Places like Intag, Ecuador,

are trying to get the answers right.

sustainability means different things to different people. Academics see it from a completely different

perspective than locals fighting mining companies. For people on the ground and in the trenches,

sustainability and social peace are inseparable. The concept itself is making slow headway in most rural

communities in the so-called developing world, yet the idea is grasped at a more basic level, and it has a lot

to do with a peaceful existence within the communities. It is very difficult to transmit ideas of sustainability,

much less put them into practice, in conflictive situations, such as the ones created by transnational mining

companies, and government-backed development plans.


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So, for us in Intag and I believe, in most of the world, sustainability starts with peace; peace within families,

communities. Anything that threatens that peace, threatens sustainability.

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