Neoliberal Boom, 1987 to 2000: The Rise of Ecodependence
During 1987 to 2000 is when Ecuadors environmental organizations really started to grow. In these years concerns about the environment started to grow which resulted in the number of environmental organizations starting to grow greater.
In 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) discussed sustainable development. The idea of sustainable development at this time was a major shift, because it was not only finding development for the present but was also thinking about the futures needs. The Earth Summit was a major turning point in Ecuadors history. Ecuador was the first Latin American country to sign the Convention Biological Diversity. After this Ecuador was in view by the world, which helped them to get more transnational funding for the projects they wanted to proceed with. USAID had a past interest in Ecuador, and then helped them to get the funding they need to run projects that were focused on their environment.
On of the projects sponsored by USAID was the Sustainable Uses of Biological Resources project (SUBIR). The purpose of this project was to combine environmental, economic, and political aspects of sustainability. One of the attempts of this project was that women of communities were given alpacas to raise, but the result was that they ended up giving the alpacas the food that should have been going to feeding their families. This project was attempted multiple times and seemed to be a fail almost every time. Some said that communities were worse off during the projects and that the project made deforestation more likely.
Ecodependent organizations also began to grow during this time. Ecoimperialist organizations used there funds to grow the ecodependent organizations. Because these ecodependent organizations were being funded by all of these international organizations they said that the ecodependent projects were being changed due to the funders wants.
I think that this time period was a very important part of Ecuadors history. This is when environmental organizations had really started to take off and the projects that had needed funding could take place.