Ecuador

Mining in Ecuador: Investment or Exploitation?

Despite ongoing protests by environmental and indigenous rights groups, Ecuadorean lawmakers approved a mining bill earlier this week to permit large-scale projects tapping the country’s gold, silver and copper deposits. The point of contention: Will the new law promote responsible investment or careless exploitation?

President Rafael Correa revoked nearly 80 percent of mining concessions in April 2008, which mainly affected big Canadian companies. The popular Correa, who is seeking reelection this spring, promises that the revised law will bring about better environmental controls, protection from land speculators and 300,000 new jobs.

But indigenous community organizers aren't satisfied. They say large-scale mining hurts the environment and keeps power in the hands of multinational corporations. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) has continued to organize nationwide demonstrations and block roads. Last week, 9,000 indigenous people shut down transportation along the Panamerican Highway south of capital city Quito.

Indigenous-rights groups argue that the mining law contradicts the new Ecuadorean constitution, which introduced a Bill of Rights for nature that grants protection for ecosystems.

Correa criticized opponents of the law as "fundamentalists" who would "condemn us to forever be beggars sitting on a sack of gold." Others disagree. As reported in Upside Down World:

President of the CONAIE Marlon Santi pointed out that the "majority of mining concessions are on indigenous and campesino lands." He also challenged President Correa’s program of "change," saying that "the people who grow potatoes, who grow maize, who live in the Amazon and the mangroves, we are where change is coming from."

The Wheel World

Ciclovía Documentary shot by Streetfilms

Bogotá, Colombia is holding a 70-mile long block party. And everyone’s invited.

Ciclovía — "bike path" in Spanish — is an event that closes down major roads for pedestrian use every Sunday and holiday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Created in 1976, it rapidly grew from eight miles and 140,000 bicyclists to 70 miles and an average of 1.5 million weekly riders. Ciclovía is championed as a community building event that attracts people from all backgrounds for a day of biking, walking, skating and dancing in the streets.

In the above video, Bogota’s former park commissioner Guillermo (Gil) Penalosa discusses Ciclovía’s main appeal: social integration.

You will see people in $5,000 bikes and others in $50 bikes, and all having the same fun! Rich and poor, young and old, men and woman, tall or short... ALL!

Cited for “endless benefits” such as the improvement of personal and public health, Ciclovía has inspired other cities to develop similar programs, including Guadalajara, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; Santiago, Chile; and Paris, where an expressway along the Seine is transformed into a pedestrian refuge one month out of the summer.

Cities in the U.S. are also developing similar programs, starting with El Paso, Texas. This Sunday Portland, Ore., is clearing 6 miles of roadway for six hours in its inaugural "Sunday Parkways." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his city's plans for Ciclovía-like event this August that would stretch from 72nd to the Brooklyn Bridge along Park Avenue.

Events such as Ciclovía are not only free, but they also bring all sorts of people together to get healthy and build a happy community. It seems like a no-brainer that every city should have a Ciclovía!

Stop Drilling in Ecuador

Topics: Energy and Oil
Countries: Ecuador

This weekend an uncommon request was made when it comes to oil: Ecuador’s government wants to stop drilling. This negotiation with oil firms is being made in order to protect an area of the Amazon that is inhabited by indigenous peoples who have secluded themselves from the rest of the world.

"The attorney general's office considers urgent the exit of oil companies from the protected areas, via a negotiation," the office of Attorney General Xavier Garaicoa said in a statement.

President Rafael Correa, a former college professor who taught environmental economics, has vowed to protect the tribes from development after reports of deadly clashes between Indians wielding spears and illegal loggers armed with guns.

From the Archives

Building the Village Education Project

Countries: Ecuador
Previously filed under: South America, Success Stories
In Ecuador, public education costs money, and many families do not have the resources to send their children to school.

From the Archives

Ecuador's Energy-Fuelled Politics

Countries: Ecuador
Previously filed under: South America, General Globalization
Ecuador is a key arena of Latin America's new wave of argument over energy resources and political models.

From the Archives

Faces of Globalization- Organic Shrimp

Countries: Ecuador
Previously filed under: South America, Environment
Organic shrimp farming helps revitalize Ecuadorian ecosystem.

From the Archives

It Takes a Global Village to Save a Rainforest

Countries: Ecuador
Previously filed under: South America, Success Stories
Helping indigenous people sell handmade products to a global clientele.

Stories We're Watching

'Quiet Corruption' Hurting Africa's Poor

San Francisco Chronicle - Mon, 03/15/2010 - 09:22
A World Bank report says teachers and other public servants who don't show up for work are fueling "quiet corruption" throughout Africa that is disproportionately hurting the continent's poor.

Industrial Output Up; Hopes For Factories Grow

NPR - Mon, 03/15/2010 - 08:45
Industrial production edged up 0.1 percent in February, beating expectations and marking the eighth straight monthly increase.

Cash For Work and Planning for the Future

Mercy Corps Blog - Sun, 03/14/2010 - 23:23
Two Mercy Corps workers talk with 62-year-old Rosemarie Joseph in her makeshift tent at the Lycée Jean-Marie Vincent displacement camp in Port-au-Prince.

Price Gap Spices Sugar Fight

Wall Street Journal - Tue, 03/16/2010 - 21:09
The battle over U.S. sugar quotas is flaring once more as the gap between domestic and much-lower global prices reaches its widest level in at least a decade.

Ushahidi - Africa’s Gift to Silicon Valley

International Herald Tribune - Sun, 03/14/2010 - 12:08
A small Kenyan-born Web site is bringing crowdsourcing to disaster relief and other humanitarian causes.

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