Accion Ecologica under threat or is it a bureaucratic formality?
Acción Ecológica is an environmental NGO in Ecuador, which includes a wide variety of actors in diverse groups. They do a lot of good work and offer an institutional setting, training and education as well as a platform for action and publication of research to protect the environment against the Ecuadorian state, which is more industrial and progressive than ever.
Recently rumours started circulating that there was a plot against Acción Ecológica – that the government, currently in serious stand-offs with the people in connection particularly with the aggressive expansion of the mining industry, wants to shut down Acción Ecológica.
It is unclear what exactly is happening, but the the story is – more or less – that they got a letter from the HealthDepartment (through which the NGO was legalised as a juridical person)saying that their juridical status has expired. The official explanationis that that is the case for all organisations that became legal institutionsover 20 years ago (before the Department of the Environment existed) andthat it’s just a bureaucratic formality to now get registered asjuridical entity via the Dept. of Environment.
On their website Acción Ecológica says that the Health Department said they’d withdraw the juridical status of Acción Ecológica because they have not fulfilled the objectives for which they were set up. Something might smell fishy and Acción Ecológica therefore calls for support.
Monday, April 6, 2009 at 13:22 (599)
Monday, April 06, 2009
Ecuadorian Government Provisionally Delays Suspension of Environmental Organization’s Legal Status
2009-03-20
Members of Acción Ecológica, a close partner organization of Amazon Watch, were notified yesterday by Ecuador’s Ministry of Health that the suspension of their legal status to operate in the country was provisionally put on hold. The Ecuadorian government will reach a final decision on this matter within two months.
Acción Ecológica is hopeful that their legal status will be definitively reinstated especially given that Ecuador’s President Raúl Correa confirmed on March 14th that the organization has met all legal conditions required of it. The President’s affirmation should clear the way to the signing of inter-ministerial agreement between the Ministries of Health and Environment and allow the organization to move beyond its recent legal impasse.
While Acción Ecológica recognizes the roles of distinct government ministries in assuring the transparence of legal regulations, the organization says it expects that the recent action taken in favor of their legal status will lead to better protection of civil rights in the country and allow them to continue their work to defend the health and well-being of Ecuadorian communities and ecosystems.
Ivonne Ramos, the President of the Acción Ecológica collective, issued a statement expressing gratitude for the solidarity of the hundreds of individuals, communities, organizations, academics, and journalists around the world who came forward to support the organization, guided by their deep concern for the environmental situation on the planet and for the rights of organizations striving to defend nature and life.
“With your words and support we feel like a part of a great wave, which grows ever more universal, of all those defenders of life and nature, breaking on the beach of our collective struggles,” affirmed Ramos.
Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 13:49 (617)
UPDATE:
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT*
We wish to communicate that on Monday, August 31, 2009, Acción Ecológica finally regained its legal status through resolution 069 of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment.
We would like to take this opportunity to deeply thank all the people, institutions and organizations – both nationally and internationally – whose solidarity and support enabled us to recover our legal identity that the government of Rafael Correa arbitrarily and unjustly withdrew from us in February.
We would also like to say that, consistent with our ecological principles and in spite of constant threats and abuse, Acción Ecológica will always act with the same commitment in favor of environmental justice, the defense of human and collective rights, and the rights of nature.
For our planet and its inhabitants!
Ivonne Ramos
President
Acción Ecológica – Ecuador
presidencia@accionecologica.org
Tel: +593 (02) 2547516