Ecuador Geography Profile 2012

Environmental policy is another area in which the government shows open contradictions. The National Plan of Development (which, if unmet, provides cause to call early elections, according to the new constitution) prioritizes environmental sustainability as an element of economic development, giving it an equal or superior status to social equality and the development of a “radical democracy.” However, the president has proposed an aggressive mining and oil policy as a way to generate wealth. Correa’s environmental sensibility is rather doubtful. For example, Presidential Decree No. 486 (amended by Decree No. 902), which was opposed by environmental experts and activists, regulated the “incidental fishing” of sharks, which are a protected species at the international level and which are fished essentially for their fins. Another episode was the dispute over the possible exploitation of the IIT oil fields in the Yasuni Protected Reserve, between then-Energy Minister Alberto Acosta and the president of Petroecuador. The former proposed a plan to leave the oil untouched in order to protect the park and to seek the support of the international community for economic compensation. The president of the oil company was in favor of exploiting the fields. Correa showed a preference towards Petroecuador in the dispute, and Acosta soon lost his ministry post. The most difficult social conflict that Correa has faced during his time in government has been the protests carried out by the indigenous and peasant groups opposed to the government’s projects of mining exploitation; these groups claim that the zones where these projects are carried out are ecological reserves and will contaminate their water sources.