Reference: Environment
Title: ECUADOR: ''AMAZON DAY'' REVIVES DEBATE ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
quito, feb 12 (ips) -- friday's ''amazon day'' celebrations in
ecuador, commemorating the arrival of the spaniards in the amazon
basin some 450 years ago, has revived the debate over the
region's serious environmental problems and social conflicts.
ever since the first spanish settlers set foot in the land of
''el dorado'' or the ''country of cinnamon'' on february 12 1540,
after a long trek from quito, the amazon has become the focus of
ecuadorean nationalism, a prime source of wealth and the scene
of environmental and social conflicts.
education campaigns and official slogans proclaim ''ecuador is
and always will be an amazon country'', in an effort to reaffirm
ecuador's sovereignty over some 200,000 square kilometres of
forest, which were lost during the armed conflicts with
neighbouring peru.
in the past 50 years, successive ecuadorean governments have
claimed that because the spaniards' initially set out from quito
to ''discover'' the amazon, ecuador has sufficient grounds for
claiming sovereignty over the amazon basin.
although the amazon accounts for 48 percent of ecuador's
territory and contains its richest oil deposits, the region's
inhabitants are also among the country's poorest, with most
communities lacking even the most basic infrastructure and
services.
ever since 1970, when oil companies began large-scale
exploration activities, the amazon has been the scene of major
conflicts between indigenous communities and settlers, between
environmentalists and oil companies.
ecuador's 123,000 square kilometres of amazon forest are home
to 95,000 indians belonging to six different ethnic groups, who
have survived european colonists, succesive periods of rubber,
gold and oil exploitation and large waves of settlers.
451 years after the arrival of the spaniards, oil companies
are drilling in a 6,300 square kilometre area of this jungle
region and exploration is being carried out in another 30,000
square kilometres. this means 29.5 percent of ecuador's amazon
territory is given over to oil activities.
but oil, now the country's leading export and source of
revenue, has also caused major ecological disasters in the
amazon.
since oil companies began extracting crude, dozens of leaks
from pipelines and deposits have been reported and some 450,000
barrels of crude have spilled into the amazon environment.
the presence of large oil corporations has attracted thousands
of families from ecuador's empoverished highland and coastal
regions who flock to the area seeking work. this migration has
been encouraged by the country's ''settlement'' laws which
facilitate the acquisition of land in the amazon. (more/ips)
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ecuador: ''amazon day'' (2)
according to the national statistics institute, the rate of
population growth in ecuador's eastern amazon provinces was 5
percent up until 1990, 2.4 percentage points higher than in the
rest of the country.
the amazon's present population is estimated at 315,000
people, not counting the native indigenous groups. most settlers
are subsistence farmers or cattle ranchers whose activities have
caused serious damage to the fragile ecosystem.
the introduction of non-native crops and plants, large scale
deforestation, growing numbers of settlers and the oil industry
have endangered much of the region's rich biodiversity, according
to the natura foundation, a local environmental organisation.
studies by the natura foundation reveal that ecuador's amazon
region ''has the fifth largest diversity of mammals in the world,
the fourth largest diversity of birds, the third in amphibians
and reptiles, and the second laregst diversity of butterflies.''
according to figures from the worldwide fund for nature, the
annual deforestation rate in ecuador's tropical forests is 2.4
percent or 142,500 hectares annually. most of the deforestation
corresponds to the amazon region.
the amazon's indigenous groups, who have often been involved
in violent conflicts with settlers and oil companies, insist that
the government must acknowledge their rights to their traditional
territories in order to halt environmental destruction.
in april 1992, a national organisation representing ecuador's
indigenous groups organised an historic march from the amazon to
the capital to demand that the government officially recognise
indigenous territories and grant legal titles to their lands.
the former government of president rodrigo borja (1988-1992)
finally acknowleged indigenous peoples' rights to 1.1 million
hectares of amazon territory.
in fact a total of 3 million hectares are considered to be
indigenous territories, but under present regulations they have
no control over the use of underground resources, which means
they have no rights over the rich oil deposits.
(ends/ips/trd-sp/dc/vh/cg/93)
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