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Biodiversity As Global Commons and the Politics of the Yasuni-ITT Initiative

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Biodiversity As Global Commons and the Politics of the Yasuni-ITT Initiative Paper – India Conference on Sustaining the global commons Author – Torsten Krause, LUCID PhD candidate, Lund University, Sweden Draft Version – Do not cite Whose values or valuable for whom? Biodiversity as global commons and the politics of the Yasuni-ITT initiative TORSTEN KRAUSE* Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability; P.O. Box 170, 221-00 Lund, Sweden *Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: The notion of value is inherent to human society. Even though consciously or unconsciously values are assigned to most objects around us, the debate of what should be valued and based on what grounds re-emerges with regards to ecosystems, biodiversity and related ecosystem goods and services. Ecuador’s Amazon region harbors astounding biodiversity richness in its rainforests. This is especially true for the Yasuni National Park, a UNESCO world biosphere reserve. However, oil exploration is eating into the remaining undamaged areas of the park, with consequences reaching far beyond the risks of pollution and disturbance to the ecosystem and its inhabitants. This paper discusses different perceptions of values with regards to the Ecuadorian Yasuni-ITT initiative and relates those to the technical proposal that puts forward to forego oil exploration, based on the condition that Ecuador will be compensated with at least half of the expected revenues. Assuming that the Yasuni National Park and its biodiversity represent a global commons, this paper will examine the theoretical motivation and reasoning of the ambiguous but innovative proposal put forward by the Ecuadorian government. It is argued that instead of focusing purely on the prevented carbon dioxide emissions that are currently at the focus of the initiative, the center of attention should be the significant biodiversity richness and the ecosystem services the area provides not only for the region, but for the entire world. Keywords: Ecuador, Yasuni-ITT, UNESCO, Oil, Biodiversity 1 Paper – India Conference on Sustaining the global commons Author – Torsten Krause, LUCID PhD candidate, Lund University, Sweden Draft Version – Do not cite Introduction Over the last decades the global discourse and attitudes towards nature and conservation of nature has changed and it has been realized that healthy ecosystems and biodiversity are not only important in itself but also for human wellbeing (MEA 2005). It became evident that a sound environment was the essential prerequisite for all human development and human welfare (Daily 1997). However, even though the awareness of the detrimental effects of deteriorating environmental health has increased, environmental deterioration has gained pace. Levin (2010) argues that the problem is to be found in the notion of the global commons we all live in, where no one bears the full costs nor receives the full benefits of their actions (Levin 2010). Global climate change and an increasing loss of biological diversity, with an estimated extinction rate nearly 100 times higher than the natural background rate (Myers 2003), reshaped political discourses in almost every part of the world. The year 2010 was declared as the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations, highlighting the significance of biodiversity not only as the foundation of most ecosystem functions on which human well being is dependent on, but also for its cultural and spiritual importance (CBD 2010). Today, new policies are increasingly scrutinized and judged by their effects on the environment, at least theoretically. Nevertheless, the clash between development, foremost economic development, societal aspirations and environmental conservation persists. Nature conservation versus development remains a challenge that is progressively addressed around the world, albeit under different conditions and circumstances (Chan et al. 2006). The majority of the remaining healthy and biodiversity rich ecosystems are located in, to our definition ‘underdeveloped’ regions and countries, where the pressure and public debate about development and conservation is not only internally becoming more vocal. These debates are also increasingly carried onto the international arena and receive a great deal of attention from more ‘developed’ countries, international organizations and scientists transcending between academia and politics. Just to mention some examples, the constructing of a road through the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania has received strong international opposition from ecologists and biologists being afraid of the effects on the migration routes of African wildebeest and zebra (Dobson et al. 2010). The disastrous effects of oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia on the other hand have been highlighted by a variety of international civil organizations engaged in climate change and also the more traditional conservation organizations (The Economist 2010). The Republic of Ecuador is a mega diverse country containing astonishing biodiversity richness and various geographical landcapes. However, the country has 2 Paper – India Conference on Sustaining the global commons Author – Torsten Krause, LUCID PhD candidate, Lund University, Sweden Draft Version – Do not cite been shaped through the negative effects of extractive activities such as oil production and mining with devastating effects on tropical forests and human health. Especially the northern Amazon of Ecuador has been affected by oil exploration since the start in the early 1970s. The region has been marked by a history of spills, environmental destruction and colonization (Mena et al. 2006; Finer et al. 2008). Even though Ecuador is an OPEC country with comparatively large oil resources, revenues from its production and exportation have seldom reached the majority of its citizens who, in turn, bear most of the negative impacts. A shift in government in 2006 raised the hopes of many that the period of blundering and careless natural resource extraction is going to come to an end. However, old structures and an economy that is based to most parts on resource extractions do not change in the glimpse of an eye and certainly not without strong efforts. Raphael Correa, the latest president of the Republic of Ecuador announced in 2007 a plan that would deviate from the traditional extractive way of generating revenues for his country (Correa 2007). The idea behind the plan, a major paradigm shift, is to get the international community, including states and philanthropists to compensate Ecuador for its efforts of leaving a large amount of oil in a part of the Yasuni National Park unexploited. The initiative is anchored around the discourse of prevented carbon emissions, central in the debate around global climate change. But, as this paper argues, if the paradigm shift shall be substantial and taking into account long term sustainability, the focus on prevented carbon emissions is a rather weak sustainability argument. What should be the focal point of the debate is the outstanding richness in biodiversity and the risk to the entire ecosystem that an extraction of the Yasuni oil, even under a scenario of best available technology and low impact drilling, could entail. This paper will present a description of the Yasuni-IIT initiative and the main points of the proposal. To what extent international denominations like the UNESCO status are actually having an impact in decision making will be addressed and, subsequently, the paper will explore the question of why and how biodiversity must be considered in the debate about protecting an area that is a global commons. From a national park to the Yasuni-ITT initiative The Yasuni National Park, Ecuador’s largest national park with an area of 9,280 km 2 was created in 1979 (Larrea and Warners 2009). Studies have found that the moist forests of Yasuni are one of the most biologically rich areas in the Amazon basin and most probably in the world, with at least 43 regionally endemic amphibians, birds and mammals (Finer et al. 2008; Bass et al. 2009; Finer et al. 2010). It is assumed that during the last glacial period, when most of the Amazon rainforest was a savanna, only small remnants of rainforests survived in the eastern shadow of the Andes. Yasuni, 3 Paper – India Conference on Sustaining the global commons Author – Torsten Krause, LUCID PhD candidate, Lund University, Sweden Draft Version – Do not cite being one of those areas was a shelter for the biodiversity that inhabited the rainforest in those times and therefore counts with the evidenced species richness observed today (Pitman et al. 2002; Mayle et al. 2004). One hectare of forest in Yasuni harbors nearly as many tree species as the United States and Canada combined. Among the different indigenous tribes living in Yasuni and its surrounding area, two tribes are voluntarily uncontacted, the Tagaeri and Taromenane numbering around 300 people for whom the Ecuadorian government established an intangible zone in the central and southern parts of Yasuni (Finer et al. 2009; Larrea and Warners 2009). The richness of Yasuni, however, is not only limited to above ground. Like in many parts of the western Amazon, the below ground wealth is characterized by vast oil reserves. About 65 percent of the Ecuadorian Amazon is already zoned for oil extraction, overlapping national parks and indigenous territories, such as the Waorani indigenous territory. Concession blocks are assigned to national and various international oil companies, such as Petrobras
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