The Green Plan is making steady progress in its attempt to promote sustainable development, cultural integrity, and environmental conservation in the South Central Ecuadorian Amazon (specifically, in the Provinces of Pastaza and Morona-Santiago). Notably, in the last month, the Green Plan established critical agreements with the current Ecuadorian administration which will place its policy proposals at the center of important policy debates in the near future.

For example, today (April 13, 2007), the Minister of Environment, Ana Albán, is set to present her Environmental Plan to the Presidential Cabinet. The Green Plan is included among her top priorities, with a special focus on establishing a moratorium on oil extraction in the South Central Amazon. In the next few days, we should be hearing the results of whether or not this proposal was accepted by the Cabinet.

As part of Fundación Pachamama’s Cooperation Agreement with the Ministries of Environment and Economy and Finances, two important studies have been conducted in order to further substantiate the Green Plan’s policy proposals. The first study carried out an macro-economic and fiscal analysis of income generation from hydrocarbon activities. The second study looked at different mechanisms and sources for funding current and potential conservation initiatives in the South Central Amazon. These two studies are the first in a series of technical papers, funded by the Green Plan that will be shared with the government in order to argue for prohibiting further expansion of the “oil frontier” into the South Central Amazon. 

The Green Plan also held a meeting with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the Ministry of Environment, and a number of other organizations from Ecuador’s civil society, to talk about the Ishpingo, Tambococha, and Tiputini (ITT) oil block. The ITT oil block constitutes one of the largest crude reserves in Ecuador. In that meeting, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Alberto Acosta, declared that Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, would stop oil extraction from the ITT block if he were presented with alternative financing strategies that would cover at least 50% of the income expected to be generated from that concession.
It is also worth mentioning that the National Secretariat for Planning and Development (SENPLADES, according to its Spanish initials) and the Ecuadorian Coordinating Body of Environmental Organizations (CEDENMA) have formally incorporated the Green Plan into their internal discussions. For Pachamama, having the Green Plan on the discussion table in these institutions demonstrates the interest that is being generated around this initiative at the national level.

Finally, Pachamama has made a push to attract public attention to the Green Plan. For example, in mid-March, we presented the proposal to the Alliance of Ancestral Peoples in Resistance (APAR), which represents Indigenous Peoples from the Ecuadorian Amazon. It was also presented at the Latin American Congress for Youth and Development, in Argentina. Both of these presentations were intended to generate wide support for this promising and vital initiative for alternative development in Ecuador.