Key Players and Conflicting Goals in the Development Trajectory
The first chapter of Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions discuss why Ecuador is such a unique place as well as any background information we may need to understand the rest of the book. Ecuador is such a unique place to study about the environment because they have so much biodiversity, but almost one third of their population is below the poverty level.
In 2007, Ecuador’s new president, President Rafael Correa, proposed a new initiative that would slow down climate change and protect biodiversity. The initiative was called the Yasuní-ITT Initiative. The initiatives goals were to start to transition Ecuador to renewable energy sources, which in turn would help with sustainable living conditions. The hope was that the world would help to fund this initiative, so that indigenous people of Ecuador would have their land protected and in turn the project would help by reducing global carbon emissions. The initiative did not receive enough funding, which then resulted in the state having to drill for oil. As President Correa said, "the world has failed us ... in our fight against climate change."
Although President Correa's Yasuní-ITT initiative did work out the way he had wanted, he had come up with another plan to help the people of Ecuador. This plan was called The National Plan fro Good Living. The plan goes beyond just sustainable development and considers the quality of life. The plan had two goals: 1) to reject traditional development model and 2) to look at a new vision for the country's future. Common phrases used for this plan are, "Buen vivir" and, "Sumak Kawsay", whcih generally translates to "good living." When looking at this plan it seems to be in unison with the triple bottom line. The three pillars of this are: 1) environmental protection, 2) economic development, and 3) social justice. The triple bottom line seems as if it could just be summarized into meaning having a good quality of life or "good living."
Another important factor when it comes to development is the treadmill of production(TOP). The theory describes that political and economic elites benefit when there is more production and economic growth, but this growth then causes environmental degradation. There are three main players in the treadmill of production: 1) State, 2) Corporations, and 3) Citizen workers. The states roles are to accumulate tax revenues and to provide protection for citizens. The Corporations role is profit. The Citizen-worker goal is to possibly slow down the treadmill when need and to be the change-makers. There are two categories that help to make changes and slow down the treadmill: 1) Nongovernmental organizations(NGOs) and 2) Social movement actors(SMAs). NGOs are organizations that are recognized by the state to act on the environment or other sectors. SMAs are typically volunteers that want to protect the environment or looking for alternatives. Schnaiberg's description of the treadmill shows a relationship between production expansion and ecological limits. He uses three types of synthesis to show the relationship. The first is economic synthesis, in which there is no state regulations, which results in lots of product expansion which then leads to lots of environmental degradation. The second is managed scarcity n which the state puts forwards and enforces regulations, which then in turn lowers environmental impact. The third is ecological synthesis in which the state limits the producers limits to the environment based on scientific data.
Through reading just this first chapter I feel like I have already started to learn so much about Ecuador's environmental past and I am very excited to learn more about Ecuador. Reflecting back over this chapter I was very interested about the Yasuní-ITT Initiative. When reading about the initiative and how it failed I was kind of shocked. I thought the initiative was a very smart way to slow down global climate change and start to get under-developed countries to steer away from extraction and more towards renewable energy sources.