Ecuador

The expansion of oil palm and logging in Wimbí is a fact. And in both cases, the protagonist is the same: the land trafficker who allowed the palm company, Energy & Palma, to enter. This new cycle of dispossession threatens the culture and survival of the community.

A team of journalists from five Latin American countries investigated how groups of timber traffickers manage to steal and process timber from the Amazon. An article from the newsportal Mongabay exposes how illegally-sourced timber from Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia are incorporated into the international market with falsified official documents that are almost never verified.

Certification schemes for tree plantations initially generated many expectations, promising a true transformation. Yet after all these years, we can definitely conclude that what the RSPO and FSC also have in common is that they will not meet those expectations.

In Ecuador, the expansion of industrial oil palm plantations is the main cause of deforestation. A meeting to exchange knowledge, the first of its kind in Ecuador, brought together leaders from oil palm-affected provinces from the three regions of the country.

Forest peoples’ knowledge and practices of the use and management of controlled fire in forests have been identified within climate change policies as the cause of forest fires. Nevertheless, fire is critical for ensuring the food and cultural sovereignty of forest peoples.

Fires in the Amazon are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity. But who is really burning the forests?

Since the native vegetation that surrounded Quito was destroyed to make way for eucalyptus and pine plantations, the forest fires that the city faces year after year have been intensifying.

Is it really possible to shift the dominant, colonial, Western paradigm—which sees nature and spaces as resources to be exploited, dominated and controlled—using a tool from a legal or judicial system that is intrinsically linked to thinking from the same paradigm?

Teak plantations in Ecuador are not intended for domestic consumption. All of the teak is exported. There are very few economic benefits for the areas where teak is produced, due to the small amount of labour it requires, producers' non-existent social investment, and the loss of food sovereignty and water scarcity that this industry causes.

How to make the sustainability of life the center of debate

Foto: Esteffany Bravo S.

We share below the letter sent by Acción Ecológica thanking all the support received from the international level. We emphasize that, even though Acción Ecológica is still open, the legislation that allowed two Ministries to ask for its closure it is still valid.