Fraudsters and Land Speculators convince many to Invade Reserve to cash in on unheard of offers from new mining company.

I could start this new tale by stating that being a buffer area to national protected areas is becoming a tough job. There are so many factors involved that I hope to get them all in one short article.

In general the presence of international mining interests in Ecuador has been a disaster for the areas that interest these rapacious companies. With the new mining law that the World Bank imposed on Ecuador, that eliminated any percentage of product for the benefit of this country, that money has been employed to manipulate and divide the communities affected. Where elected governments have been opposed to this extractive industry, Mining companies have openly supported opposition parties during political campaigns. Where environmentalists have opposed mining projects they have been targeted for police harassment and intimidation. In all phases of project development money that should be paid to governments for mining privileges and obligations, these “investments” instead has been used undermine the local political process. In the case of Cotacachi, which has always been one of the poorest jurisdictions coupled with a recognized progressive participatory political process, this is an unjust situation. It is traditional in Ecuador’s politics that politicians receive payment from extractive industry and since this does not happen in this municipality these funds are employed to finance the opposition. Didn’t the World Bank have a campaign against corruption? Someone must have wolfed their witz.

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First of all let me apologize for the delay in getting any new information published on this site. There have been some unfortunate delays in getting access to the account with my usual lackadaisical approach to public access.

Having said that there has been a lot to keep people informed about. To start the new foundation has been recognized by the ministry of environment, which means we have legal status for managing the reserve. This also means we have to arrange for some office space to have an address that will allow us to get a tax registry number and then open a bank account. This process is under way with discussions taking place on the new address.

The new board of the reserve is comprised of some new community reps along side some people from CIBT. Here is a brief summary of this group.

Fabian Hernandez- Founder of the community eco tourism project Comite de Ecoturismo de Manduracos.

Jose Cueva- Commercial organic vegetable producer who also works in certification of organic produce. Jose also is an organizer of community participation in protected areas with the El Chontal protected forest and the Cambugan project.

Ximena Mina- Member of the ecotourism project and elected member of the Paroquial council here in our area.

Maritza Cifuentes- Secretarial/Administrative manager of CIBT who continues with this new organization in an administrative role well learned from Marta Mondragon.

Timoteo Metz- Founder of Restoration Forestry and member of directory of Ancient Forests International.

Jose DeCoux- Los Cedros organizer and resident.

We need some suggestions on where to look for support for this new organizational structure. The first task for the FLC will be to get the tax, bank affairs in order and the management plan updated and re-approved by the Ministry of Environment.