Chapter 5
From 1987 to 2000, the way people thought about the economy was beginning to change. This time is referred to as the Neoliberal Boom. Neoliberalism in Ecuador gave the people hope for a freedom of sorts. Their economic endeavors and ways of life would not be affected by higher class individuals (Tucker 2017). Everyone would be able to exist fairly, making decisions based on what would be appropriate for their lives.
Concerns about the environment begin to grow in Ecuador throughout these years. New groups and organizations start appearing with hopeful new ways of protecting the wellbeing of the people and their homes. Ecoimperialists begin to use their foreign funding to enable Ecodependent organizations to work with them on certain projects. The problem is that when Ecoimperialists start giving money to Ecodependents, their local-focused plans are redirected into the agendas of the group providing them with money.
In 1992, when the Earth Summit came along, Ecuador was very interested in getting into the view of the world and seeing how they should proceed in their conservation efforts. The president even created several advisory boards in order to gain USAID and to receive guidance about where to go next. These groups enabled Ecuador to gain more and more transnational funding for various sustainable development projects and the protection of its biodiversity. USAID takes a lot of credit for the environmental efforts taking place in Ecuador at that time. Since Ecuador was such a weak state, there was plenty of room for international groups to come in with funding and shape the way Ecuador handled their problems.
For example, USAID sponsored a very large environmental project in Ecuador called SUBIR. The idea was to create social, environmental, and economic sustainability by giving the women alpacas to raise. As it turned out, the project actually left the women worse off than they already were. The alpaca project cost way more money than it made them. In another attempt, families received pigs to raise as food. This time, the problem occurred when the ratio of male to female pigs was off, creating not-ideal breeding conditions. While these projects had good intentions for the local people, they ended up hurting more than they helped.
While Ecodependent organizations grew during this period, their agendas may have been polluted by the wants of the organizations giving them money. Since the plans still aligned with environmental protection, Ecodependents went along with them. The problem arose when the transnational funding pushed towards sustainable development. Development equals growth and growth opposes conservation efforts.
This time allowed Ecuador to really see the potential on what they could be doing. With transnational funding, all these organizations were actually able to make their plans happen. I believe this is very important for their future conservation efforts. If this period of open-mindedness and money-flow hadn’t happened, resource extraction may have won out. The beautiful lands of Ecuador may not be here today for our enjoyment and education if things had gone differently back then.
These times also serve to educate other developing countries about conservation. When you allow foreign funding, your agendas may change in the direction of the agenda of that foreign country. But Ecuador is what it is today because of the money it received from USAID and other countries, along with the innovative debt-for-nature swap.
Works Cited:
Tucker, J. A. (2017, May). What is "Neoliberalism" Anyway?. In Foundation for Economic Education. Retrieved from https://fee.org/articles/what-is-neoliberalism-anyway/
Concerns about the environment begin to grow in Ecuador throughout these years. New groups and organizations start appearing with hopeful new ways of protecting the wellbeing of the people and their homes. Ecoimperialists begin to use their foreign funding to enable Ecodependent organizations to work with them on certain projects. The problem is that when Ecoimperialists start giving money to Ecodependents, their local-focused plans are redirected into the agendas of the group providing them with money.
In 1992, when the Earth Summit came along, Ecuador was very interested in getting into the view of the world and seeing how they should proceed in their conservation efforts. The president even created several advisory boards in order to gain USAID and to receive guidance about where to go next. These groups enabled Ecuador to gain more and more transnational funding for various sustainable development projects and the protection of its biodiversity. USAID takes a lot of credit for the environmental efforts taking place in Ecuador at that time. Since Ecuador was such a weak state, there was plenty of room for international groups to come in with funding and shape the way Ecuador handled their problems.
For example, USAID sponsored a very large environmental project in Ecuador called SUBIR. The idea was to create social, environmental, and economic sustainability by giving the women alpacas to raise. As it turned out, the project actually left the women worse off than they already were. The alpaca project cost way more money than it made them. In another attempt, families received pigs to raise as food. This time, the problem occurred when the ratio of male to female pigs was off, creating not-ideal breeding conditions. While these projects had good intentions for the local people, they ended up hurting more than they helped.
While Ecodependent organizations grew during this period, their agendas may have been polluted by the wants of the organizations giving them money. Since the plans still aligned with environmental protection, Ecodependents went along with them. The problem arose when the transnational funding pushed towards sustainable development. Development equals growth and growth opposes conservation efforts.
This time allowed Ecuador to really see the potential on what they could be doing. With transnational funding, all these organizations were actually able to make their plans happen. I believe this is very important for their future conservation efforts. If this period of open-mindedness and money-flow hadn’t happened, resource extraction may have won out. The beautiful lands of Ecuador may not be here today for our enjoyment and education if things had gone differently back then.
These times also serve to educate other developing countries about conservation. When you allow foreign funding, your agendas may change in the direction of the agenda of that foreign country. But Ecuador is what it is today because of the money it received from USAID and other countries, along with the innovative debt-for-nature swap.
Works Cited:
Tucker, J. A. (2017, May). What is "Neoliberalism" Anyway?. In Foundation for Economic Education. Retrieved from https://fee.org/articles/what-is-neoliberalism-anyway/