Topic: ecuador

RELEASE: 14 Latin American and Caribbean Countries Adopt an Ambitious Plan of Action to Improve Access Rights in the Region

Lauren Zelin — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:17:15 -0400

Fourteen Latin American and Caribbean countries adopted an ambitious Plan of Action to improve access rights in the region, including access to information, public participation, and access to justice. The plan, which was approved at a meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, on April 16-17, 2013, seeks to implement the Latin American and Caribbean Declaration on Principle 10 that was signed at the Rio +20 Conference in June 2012, under which countries agreed to work towards a regional instrument to improve access rights.

The meeting began with Colombia and Honduras signing on to the LAC Declaration, a major accomplishment for all parties. The 14 countries that have now signed on include: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.

“The new Plan of Action shows political will to transform environmental justice and transparency in the region,” said Carole Excell, Senior Associate at the World Resources Institute and The Access Initiative. “It sets the pace and the agenda to tackle the challenges of negotiating a regional instrument to ensure access rights across Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Under the new 2013-2014 Plan of Action, the LAC countries have committed to:

Promote the Principle 10 Declaration and incorporate new signatories into the process;
Strengthen and highlight the progress made on rights of access to information, participation, and justice;
Promote active participation of civil society at the national level; and
Develop working groups to deliberate capacity-building and cooperation efforts, and determine the nature and scope of the regional instrument.

Ambassador Jose Balmaceda of Chile noted that the Plan of Action “is a strong political signal to the international community that we are responding in a responsible way to this commitment [to Principle 10] … It is the first time that government representatives from 14 countries and civil society sat down to debate – with transparency and trust – relevant issues for the future of the region. This is a testament to maturity in the region. We have been able to reach consensus on the Plan of Action that will allow us to move ahead on national processes and regional efforts. I am sure that this result will motivate other nations in the region to join the process.”

The Plan of Action includes a number of innovative provisions, including procedures for public participation in the regional process and its working groups. It will create opportunities for close South-to-South cooperation on rights to promote transparency, public participation, and access to justice, as well as a focus on increased support for effective implementation at the national level.

“We hope at the end of 2014 we can count on the development of an instrument on Principle 10 that establishes concrete actions to guarantee effective and informed participation to all citizens and communities of our region,” said Daniel Barragan, Ecuadorian Center for Environmental Law (Centro Ecuatoriane de Derecho Ambinental Ambiental), an environmental law NGO. “Soon we can have a voice and be a part of the decision making on the environment and natural resources.”

In addition to adopting the Plan of Action, members elected co-chairs to run the working groups. Costa Rica and Brazil were mandated to design the regional instrument on Principle 10 and Jamaica and Columbia were given the role to facilitate work on cooperation and capacity building.

MEDIA ADVISORY: CTS-Brasil, Challenge Bibendum Unite Latin American Mayors to Advance Sustainable Urban Transport

Paul Mackie — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:24:02 -0500

WHAT: The 2009 Sustainable Mobility Convention in Urban Renewal, hosted by the Center for Sustainable Transport in Brazil (CTS-Brasil), a member of the World Resources Institute’s EMBARQ Network, and Challenge Bibendum, an initiative sponsored by Michelin. The two-day event will gather mayors and transport officials from the 120 biggest cities in Latin America to discuss innovative initiatives for urban renewal and sustainable transport. For more info, go here.

WHEN: Wednesday, November 25 and Thursday, November 26, 2009

WHERE: Sofitel Rio de Janeiro Copacabana Av. Atlântica, 4240, Copacabana, 22070-002, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Phone: (+55) 21 25251232

WHO: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, will present at the Opening Ceremony, along with the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio Cabral, and the mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes. The Convention will also attract leaders like Jaime Lerner, former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, who conceived and implemented the first bus rapid transit system in the world, and Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, who greatly improved mobility and accessibility in the capital.

WHY: Participants will discuss alternatives for a more equitable and sustainable use of road space, opportunities for integrating the use of private and public transportation, and best practices of non-motorized transport in the urban context.

RSVP: Rejane Fernandes, CTS-Brasil communications and institutional relations coordinator +55 (51) 3312-6324, rfernandes@ctsbrasil.org

Darwin's Lessons for the Extractive Industry

Kirk Herbertson — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:04:31 -0400

Environmental and social performance is shaping a new breed of oil, gas, and mining companies.

This week, shareholders at Chevron’s annual meeting in California will vote on a resolution urging management to assess the company’s compliance with the environmental laws of every country in which it operates. The vote has been triggered by pension fund investors anxious over the oil giant’s liabilities in an environmental disaster dubbed the “Amazon Chernobyl.” (Update: Shareholders rejected the resolution on Wednesday, May 27. Read more here.)

Chevron inherited a lawsuit for ecological damages and human health impacts caused by massive oil spills in the species-rich rainforests of eastern Ecuador when it bought the company responsible, Texaco, in 2001. An Ecuadorean court judgment is due later this year, with Chevron facing damages that may dwarf the $3.9 billion paid by ExxonMobil for the infamous 1989 Alaskan oil spill.

The lesson in all this is one that is being learned not only by Chevron, but by the broader extractive industry: in our modern world of instant communications, Darwin’s theory of evolution applies not only to animals and plants, but also to companies.

A Survival Road Map for Extractive Industries

WRI’s 2009 report, Breaking Ground: Engaging Communities in Extractive and Infrastructure Projects recommends 7 principles to help companies adapt to the changing rules of natural resource extraction by more effectively involving communities in project decision-making:

Prepare communities before engaging.
Determine what level of engagement is needed.
Integrate community engagement into each phase of the project cycle.
Include traditionally excluded stakeholders.
Gain free, prior and informed consent.
Resolve community grievances through dialogue.
Promote participatory monitoring by local communities.

Read the full publication here.

Survival depends on being able to adapt to a changing environment. Oil, gas, and mineral reserves have been depleted, and the extractive industry increasingly competes for access to resources in remote corners of developing countries. In these new environments, companies face challenges that go well beyond engineering, including fragile ecosystems, impoverished communities, and weak local governance.

In earlier times, they might have been able to ignore such issues. But today, business-as-usual approaches will no longer suffice.

The world has become a global fish bowl. Modern information and communication technologies, combined with increasingly sophisticated and networked NGOs and local activists, subject companies to a level of scrutiny and accountability unimaginable even a decade ago. The voices of communities in the remotest corners of the globe can reach the ears of politicians and journalists worldwide in just a few hours. Campaigns have also grown in sophistication. Some NGOs directly support communities impacted on the ground. Others, like the BankTrack network in the Netherlands, focus on extractive companies’ financiers, campaigning against banks to remove harmful project financing lifelines.

Banks, in turn, are requiring their clients to demonstrate stronger environmental and social commitments. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private financing arm of the World Bank, has developed a set of “Performance Standards” that clients must meet before receiving financing. Other banks, such as the private financial institutions who have signed up to the Equator Principles, voluntarily commit to apply the IFC’s Performance Standards to their investments. John Ruggie, the UN Special Rapporteur on business and human rights, has explicitly recognized this new playing field, emphasizing the importance of the “court of public opinion“— regardless of what a developing country’s laws require.

On the frontline of extractive development, communities are increasingly intolerant of mining companies that sacrifice the environment for short-term economic benefits. In addition to the Chevron case, communities from the Peruvian Amazon have brought a lawsuit in California against Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), alleging that the company discharged oil wastewater into communities’ water sources, and Shell is facing a lawsuit in New York for its alleged human rights abuses in Nigeria in the 1990s. Both Ecuador and Peru have also seen massive social protests in the past year against controversial mining policies.

While a company like Chevron or Shell may survive a multi-billion dollar judgment, the reputational damage of legal settlements is increasingly likely to result in governments, banks, and communities hesitating to do business with such companies in the future. President Correa of Ecuador, for example, took a public stance against Chevron, and the company will almost certainly not be able to operate in the country for several decades.

In true Darwinian fashion, the most successful extractive companies are adapting to these forces of change, investing in improvements to their environmental and social management systems. Thriving in this new competitive environment, however, is not simply about corporate charity or token consultations with communities. It entails making environmental and social management, and respect for human rights, central to companies’ business model. Communities must be engaged at all stages of operations, from exploration through to restoration, and must have the opportunity to participate in key decisions.

Community consent, and the reputational benefits in the wider world that it brings, will likely be the prize of those companies that manage to ground their operations in a longer-term development process that is sustainable beyond the life of a project. Skills in effective community development may soon be an extractive company’s most competitive trait.

It may even make the difference between extinction and survival.

Ecuador Proposes Leaving Oil Untapped to Protect Forests and People

Remi Moncel — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:45:42 -0500

The Government of Ecuador recently announced that it is pursuing efforts to leave the oil under Yasuni National Park untapped to protect the rainforest, its species and its inhabitants.

President Rafael Correa proposed the Yasuni-ITT Initiative in the summer of 2007, and was set to decide this month whether to move forward with the project, or to begin the process of selling licenses to extract the oil. “The project will move forward for another 6 months,” said Fander Falconí, Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, extending the decision deadline through June 2009.

If Ecuador ultimately succeeds in convincing the international community to compensate it for the revenues forgone from the exploitation of oil, the funds raised will support the preservation of nearly 5 million hectares of biodiverse rainforests, protect 180,000 members of indigenous and Afro Ecuadorian communities, and help put Ecuador on a more sustainable energy path.

The Yasuni National Park is located in the easternmost corner of Ecuador’s Amazon region. Yasuni was named a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1989 and scientists including Jane Goodall and E.O. Wilson have called it “one of the most biodiverse places on earth.” At least two indigenous tribes, the Tagaeri and Taromenane, maintain their traditional lifestyles in voluntary isolation in Yasuni.

The innovative proposal aims to leave 20% of Ecuador’s oil unexploited forever. To make the proposal economically viable, Ecuador aims to generate funding to offset a portion of the foregone revenue and use these funds to pursue sustainable development projects in line with the country’s National Sustainable Development Agenda.

The plan would create a new financial instrument to support Ecuador’s long term sustainability goals and would place an economic value on biodiversity.

WRI’s Jake Werksman said the “innovative” proposal “challenges all to think differently about sustainable development.” “It’s homegrown,” he added. “It’s holistic in the sense that it seeks to achieve multiple objectives, and it is solutions oriented.”

How the Yasuni-ITT Initiative Would Work

View the Ecuadorian Government’s Yasuni-ITT presentation:

According to recent studies funded by the Government, the proposal would leave 20% of Ecuador’s proven oil reserves—or around 840 million barrels of oil—untouched. If this oil were drilled, processed and burned as fuel, 407 million metric tons of carbon dioxide would be emitted into the atmosphere.

Roque Sevilla, who leads the Ecuadorian Commission on the Yasuni-ITT initiative, presented the proposal as an attempt to link “two big issues”. “One is global warming and the other one is the loss of biodiversity. And we wanted to link them both.”

Over a ten-year period, Ecuador would issue Yasuni Guarantee Certificates (or CGYs according to their Spanish acronym) equal to the 407 million tons of CO2. The objective is for the CGYs to be recognized as equivalent to the carbon offsets now traded under the European Trading System (ETS), EU Member States and companies operating under the EU ETS would purchase and trade the CGY credits as they do other GHG allowance credits. Income from the sale of CGYs would go to the government, with the total amount of income received dependent on the prevailing market price of carbon.

The money raised would go into a Trust Fund managed and overseen by members of the Ecuadorian Government, non-governmental organizations and financial contributors.

Interest from the Trust Fund would only be used to fulfill the following five initiatives included in Ecuador’s National Sustainable Development Agenda: forest protection and recovery, changes to the country’s energy supply and demand, and domestic sustainable development initiatives (see presentation above for more detail).

Ultimately, the Ecuadorian government wants the Yasuni-ITT Initiative to become a “pilot project” for other countries such as Papua New Guinea, Peru and Brazil to follow.

Keys to Success and Remaining Questions

Since the international launch of the proposal in the summer of 2007, WRI has hosted several technical workshops with international development and finance experts, members of the Ecuadorian Government and civil society partners to assess and improve the viability of the proposal.

Roque Sevilla and Yolanda Kakabadse, members of the Commission leading the Yasuni-ITT initiative, came to WRI in December 2008 to solicit reactions and advice from the environmental NGO community based in Washington D.C. They aimed to refine and garner support for President Correa’s bold proposal. NGOs and academics from the U.S. and Quito joined the meeting via web-based conference call.

“If we can manage to move Ecuador’s government for the next 100 years into eliminating the thought of oil exploration in protected areas,” Kakabadse said, “that would be an enormous achievement–because this link between biodiversity and climate change would be really proven to be effective.”

At these meetings, a number of questions were raised about the proposal, with many participants identifying areas where the proposal can be strengthened:

Will the project’s scope and ambition extend beyond the ITT oil block? The proposal gains in value and credibility if it can demonstrate Ecuador’s broad commitment to the Park beyond the ITT oil block. A moratorium on that particular oil field would hold little environmental value if neighboring oil blocks, also located in the Park were drilled. In addition, the Certificates of Guarantee Yasuni (CGYs) should stand for more than their value in offsetting carbon emissions. An emphasis should be put on the multiple benefits of the Yasuni Park’s protection: biodiversity conservation, protection of indigenous livelihoods and support for sustainable development projects in Ecuador.
Will local communities be engaged? Engagement of local groups in the early stages of the development of the proposal carries several benefits. Engaging civil society in Ecuador, while also presenting the proposal to international audiences, demonstrates the Government’s commitment to ensure that the Yasuni-ITT initiative meets the needs of local communities and is being developed in partnership with them. In addition, local groups can help refine the concept by, for example, fully understanding and communicating the value of the untouched forest, identifying opportunities for the investment of the funds generated, and proposing ideas for a politically viable and inclusive governance structure to manage those funds.
What about possible leakage from the carbon offsets? A carbon offset is environmentally sound only with the guarantee that the avoided emissions will not be displaced to another location – that leakage will not occur. It must be articulated clearly how a reduction of oil production in Ecuador would lead to a marginal decrease in world oil consumption. It can be argued that oil demand would shift to other suppliers thereby resulting in no change in global greenhouse emissions. Another valid perspective might be that, Ecuador’s action, by putting a portion of world oil reserves off-limits is marginally reducing world oil supply stocks and accelerating the global transition toward alternate sources of energy.
Will this proposal reduce greenhouse gas emissions? In absolute terms, avoiding the extraction and burning of oil can reduce the total amount of world emissions of greenhouse gases (assuming that the leakage issue presented above is addressed). However, linking the CGYs to carbon markets such as the one in the European Union weakens this claim. In fact, such a move would simply allow European emitters to comply with their regional standard in a more cost effective way. Emissions there would still be capped at the level established by the European Commission – not lower – with or without the partnership with Ecuador on Yasuni-ITT. What such a partnership would bring however is the protection of other valuable biological and human assets provided by the Park: its incredible biodiversity, its indigenous livelihoods and the support of sustainable development projects in Ecuador through the funding generated by the carbon offsets.
What will prevent Ecuador from abandoning the initiative? To gain the confidence of potential investors, the legal structure of the Trust Fund needs to be put in place promptly and shared widely. The Government has indicated that disincentives would prevent a future Ecuadorian administration from defaulting on its commitment. In addition, Quito has said that guarantees would be included to return invested funds with interest to the creditors if such a default were to happen. These sound principles need to be built into the Trust document and shared with the international community more publicly.
Will countries like Saudi Arabia replicate the Yasuni-ITT model? The possibility of replicating the initiative in other regions is promising, under certain conditions. Similar models in other countries would put a greater share of world oil supplies off-limits and accelerate a shift toward renewable fuels to meet global energy demands. If emissions allowances are generated in exchange for such moves, however, other countries with larger oil reserves such as Saudi Arabia might flood carbon markets. This would cause the price of offsets to drop and dampen the environmental effectiveness of existing cap-and-trade regimes. In addition, the Yasuni precedent might prompt coal producing states to claim similar compensation for halting the extraction of a heavily polluting fuel. Here again, one option may be to emphasize the non-carbon benefits of the Park’s protection. Much fewer instances and regions would pass Yasuni’s biodiversity test. Such favorable treatment could be reserved to those countries whose oil reserves lie beneath highly valuable biological, human and cultural assets.

What Does Environmental Democracy Look Like?

Monika Kerdeman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:45:44 -0400

Environmental democracy is about government being transparent, accountable, and involving people in decisions that affect their environment. 20 countries in The Access Initiative (TAI) network are expanding their work to promote environmental democracy. Here is a summary of what’s ahead in 2008 and beyond.<!–break–>

Local TAI partners work with their governments to reform transparency laws and train government officers to involve people in development planning. They also build the awareness among judges and in the media about the public’s ability to influence decisions that affect the environment. TAI Partners are already having crucial impacts in key countries:

In Chile, the National Commission of the Environment committed to creating a participatory process in the design of the country’s first Toxic Release Inventory. TAI partner groups helped influence the design of the system to guarantee full citizen participation.
In Uganda, the TAI coalition used the findings of a TAI assessment to convince representatives to draft a Freedom of Information Act establishing citizens’ right to government information.
TAI Ecuador partner ECOLEX and the Ministry of Environment drafted a regulation requiring public consultation in the process of decision-making on environmental matters. The president approved the regulation in October 2006.
In Indonesia, TAI assessments identified the need for and recommended the basic requirements of a Freedom of Information Act. TAI partners worfked with the Government and other civil society groups to draft such an act which was adopted in 2008.
In Mexico, a TAI assessment revealed gaps in public access to information. Together they published a series of citizen action guides which led to a measurable increase in the number of citizens requesting information and more efficient delivery of information on the part of the government.

Here is a quick summary of the work that is already underway—or planned for 2008—in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, Chile, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Hungary, Latvia, Nepal, India, Macedonia, Malawi, Mexico, Paraguay, The Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Zambia.

BANGLADESH: BANGLADESH ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.
More about BELA

BOLIVIA: PRODENA, BOLIVIAN WILDLIFE SOCIETY
Advocacy activities that engage public officials and parliament representatives to include access rights in the environmental and natural resource legislation.
More about PRODENA

CHILE: CORPORACIÓN PARTICIPA
This organization will work with local CSOs to analyze access rights and public participation mechanisms in current Chilean environmental legislation and develop proposals to strengthen the legal norms that impact local poor communities. In addition, they will evaluate tools available in the System of Evaluation of Environmental Impacts in Chile (SEIA) with a special focus on the impact on local poor communities.
More about Participa

CAMEROON: BIORESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND CONSERVATION PROGRAMME AND FOUNDATION FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Training and assistance to TAI DRC teams for a national TAI assessment. Raise awareness on access to participation; develop information materials on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legal process; initiate teams to work with government officials on EIAs; develop a simplified version of EIA guidelines. Create a link between government and local communities to enable communities to benefit though poverty alleviation strategies. Conduct TAI pilot poverty assessment.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: CONSEIL POUR LA DEFENSE ENVIRONNEMENTALE PAR LA LEGALITE ET LA TRACABILITE (CODELT)
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.

ECUADOR: COALICIÓN ACCESO
Investigate 30 petitions for access to information; file and follow-up on 6 litigation cases where access to information has been denied. Conduct 3 training workshops for 30 public officials and 20 NGO leaders on implementing Ecuador’s Transparency and Access to Information Law.
More about Coalicion Acceso

ECUADOR: ECOLEX
Work with government officials to implement regulations related to civil participation in environmental management and build capacities for the social controllership in environmental issues through training.
More about Ecolex

HUNGARY: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND LAW ASSOCIATION
Training and assistance to TAI-Macedonia team for national TAI assessment. Provide assistance to TAI-Ukraine to implement activities in the Ukraine.
More about EMLA

INDIA: ENVIRONICS TRUST
Prioritize reforms by conducting regional TAI assessment.
More about Environics

LATVIA: REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER – LATVIA
Conduct access to justice seminar for 35 judges who will be trained on practical implementation of access to justice principles in Latvian law and how it relates to obligations under the Aarhus Convention.
More about REC - Latvia

MACEDONIA: FLOROZON-ASSOCIATION FOR PROTECTION OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.

MALAWI: CENTRE FOR POLICY AND ADVOCACY
Activities aimed to use the media as a tool to reach out to new stakeholders. CEPA will also develop a series of training workshops that will include government officials and civil society members to raise the profile of—and generate public demand for—access in Malawi.
More about CEPA

MEXICO: CENTRO MEXICANO DE DERECHO AMBIENTAL
On behalf of The Access Initiative-Mexico. Training and assistance to TAI-Panama*. Work with members of the Government to implement recommendations from two TAI state assessments. Develop and begin to implement an Action Plan for the Federal District in Mexico. Translation of Code Green program into indigenous languages.
More about CEMDA

NEPAL: PRO PUBLIC
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.
More about Pro Public.

PARAGUAY: INSTITUTO DE DERECHO Y ECONOMÍA AMBIENTAL
Conduct TAI pilot poverty assessment.
More about IDEA

THE PHILIPPINES: ATENEO DE MANILA
Conduct TAI pilot poverty assessment.
More about Ateneo

SRI LANKA: PUBLIC INTEREST LAW FOUNDATION
Establish agenda for joint activities with government through PP10 commitments. Draft recommendations to National Environmental Act to include access to information and access to public participation. Conduct TAI pilot poverty assessment.
More about PILF

TANZANIA: TANZANIA LAWYERS ENVIRONMENT ACTION TEAM (TANZANIA) Implementation of TAI report recommendations including conducing community training on access rights; establishing a media campaign on access rights.
More about LEAT

THAILAND: THAILAND ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE
Conduct regional workshop that will include training on poverty guidelines. Produce 2000 copies of the Asia regional report. Investigate options for developing a rapid assessment toolkit that could be used by local communities, with a focus on the poor and/or disadvantaged groups, to address access issues at the local level.
More about TEI

UKRAINE: ECOPRAVO
Form a national coalition of CSOs and other stakeholders active in environmental rights and access issues and develop a national advocacy strategy for decision makers. Present international complaint mechanisms to Ukraine government officials and establish a program to monitor the implementation of joint activities stemming from the national TAI report.
More about EcoPravo

ZAMBIA: INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RIGHTS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DEVELOPMENT TRUST (HURID)
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.

Support

This expansion of TAI is made possible through a generous grant from the Development Grants Facility of the World Bank.

Brief History of TAI

Since TAI began in 1999, more than 150 civil society organizations around the world have become TAI Partners. Assessments and advocacy have engaged governments in 45 countries to improve access to information, public participation and access to justice in decisions affecting the environment.

TAI bases its advocacy on original and independent research at the national level using an internationally recognized assessment tool.

TAI Partners use national assessments to examine the ability of the public to access information about government decisions, participate in those decisions, and seek justice when their rights are violated.

TAI Partners use assessment results to raise public awareness, set priorities for improvements in policy and practice, and work with governments to create change.