Tuesday, 20 December 2016 18:06 – Acción Ecológica denounces the request for an administrative procedure for the closure (legal annulment and shut down ) by the Minister of the Environment, for straying from the purposes and objectives for which we were constituted.
According to the notification of the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of the Environment (MDI-VSI-2016-00033), this administrative decision, was taken disseminated “the serious environmental impacts and ecosystem that would result from the extractive activity” in the Cordillera del Condor and for denouncing the violation of human rights of the communities living in this area. We must say that it is precisely these objectives for which Acción Ecológica was established, as stated in Article 2 of our statute: “Promote the defense of the rights of Nature in order to ensure the preservation of a healthy environment and achieve the rights of the Good Living, promoting integral respect. ”
The Ministry of Environment’s reply (MDI-CGAJ-2016-261) also states that we do not comply with the national laws. We affirm that Acción Ecológica strictly adheres to the laws and that our actions are in perfect harmony with the National Plan for Good Living 2013-2017, whose Goal 7.12.b states that it is a priority: “To optimize participatory environmental management and control for the conservation of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, through processes of community integration that consolidate a culture of peace and sustainability in the territories under special regime, as well as in the special territorial district of the Amazon,” among others.
The position of Acción Ecológica on the conflict in the Cordillera del Cóndor is and has been to request a commission of peace and harmony with Nature, and we believe that to achieve this peace, we need a bath of truth about what is happening in those territories of the country.
Acción Ecológica was closed once before in 2009 by the current government of Ecuador, for the same reasons they now argue, however, these were clarified and was favorably resolved.
At that time, thousands of people in Ecuador and the world raised their voice against this injustice. Once again we are receiving solidarity and we thank the social organizations, movements, guilds, human rights institutions, environmental organizations, feminists, and others , we know that it is with this kind of manifestations that we will be able to reverse the arbitrariness and illegitimacy of the closure of Acción Ecológica.
Acción Ecológica is an organization that has defended nature for 30 years and is also an integral part of the International Federation of Human Rights – FIDH, because we are convinced that only by defending the territories that support the reproduction of life can the rights of humans be guaranteed.
We will continue to defend human rights and Nature because “We are like the grasses of the high plateau which, when mowed down, grow again …”
ACCIÓN ECOLÓGICA
Quito, December 20, 2016