Organizational Bust, 2000 to 2006
Organizational Bust, 2000 to 2006
Opportunities for Ecoresisters and Ecoalternatives
This chapter analyses the decline in transnational funding that began around 2000 and the consequent shrinking of the mainstream segments of the environmental sector (ecodependents). Grassroot and radical activists (ecoresisters), who had long been an overshadowed aspect of the movement, came to the fore. While these activists and their groups existed almost since the beginning of Ecuador’s environmental mobilizations, the decline of international support from ecoimperialists that caused the decline of ecodependents’ strength, coupled with a crisis of the state, created an opening for ecoresisters. Ecoresisters were independent of transnational funding and autonomous in their agenda setting. They had the capacity to set their own terms and resist the dominant environmental and development agendas. They had a radical critique of the extractive development model and they presented alternative visions for the future that were more aligned with ecology. Coupled with indigenous movements, they pressed for alternatives to development: buen vivir/sumak kawsay: “living well.” Ties are made to the literature on dependency and world polity. A fourth type of environmental group is explained and illustrated: ecoentrepreneur organizations, groups that are relatively independent from international funding structures and represent another alternative for organizing sustainably.
Keywords: Ecuador, Ecodependents, Ecoresisters, Ecoimperialists, Extractive development, Buen vivir, Sumak kawsay, Dependency, World polity, Ecoentrepreneur
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