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Compiled by Amanda Suutari
Editing: Regina Gregory, Ann Marten
This case is a good illustration of a system crossing thresholds into new stability domains, both when a dam is built and when it is removed. While dams are being decommissioned increasingly in the US, experimentally reopening gates of a controversial dam in a developing country--and studying what happens-- is less common.
The Pak Mun Dam (PMD) was completed in 1994 by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and funded by the World Bank, despite opposition by 6,000 families who were displaced by the project as well as efforts by local and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the International Rivers Network.
Yielding somewhat to 10 years of resistance by villagers, the government opened the gates for 1 year and commissioned Ubon Ratchathani University to study the effects of the opening of the dam. The study found numerous things, including:
However, the Thai government has since ignored the urging of NGOs and villagers to keep the gates open and decided to close them, and said they will continue to do so for 8 months a year.
For more information visit Rivers Watch and a Ubon Ratchatani University study.
The site is Bunaken National Park, a series of Islands in Northern Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. This coastal resource management is based on models of mangrove community resource centers in Sri Lanka. With degradation of the mangrove forest in the national park, Yayasan Kelola (a local NGO) and the Mangrove Action Programme joined forces to establish the CCRC (Coastal Communities Resource Center). This is intended as a space for coastal resources protection practitioners to gather for workshops and seminars to promote appropriate technologies and livelihood alternatives for coastal communities, with showcases on the following:
The project is in the first phase of a two-phase plan to rehabilitate a disused shrimp pond beside CCRC, by organizing planting by villagers and elementary schoolchildren (the remaining 10 hectares had been unsuccessfully planted three times by local government and forestry department).
Services/benefits recovered: income and economic incentive to preserve a resource, food, fuel, waste treatment, storm protection, water regulation, knowledge systems, education, values, sense of place, ecotourism
It should be noted that this is still a pilot project in the early stages, so the benefits are mostly "potential," although probably more developments have taken place since the last published report.
For more information visit the Earth Island Journal.
Since 1787, "Mariquina," as it was known before the entry of the US, located in metropolitan Manila, is a 2,150-hectare area bordered by mountain ranges and a river. Known for its large shoe industry, this otherwise faceless town had been a dirty city with haphazard shantytowns lining a blackened, polluted river, with no proper garbage disposal, and whose apathetic population was jaded by years of neglect by authorities.
This situation began to change when incoming mayor Marides Fernando came in with a vision to revamp the city in the model of Singapore, which has been praised for its efficient services, clean air and water, and civic responsibility. Fernando believed in the "Broken Window Pane" theory, which describes how citizens will become alienated from dilapidated surroundings, losing their motivation to maintain them (and the corollary that a new sense of cooperation will develop if there is a concentrated effort to rehabilitate them).
A Marikina City Development Authority (MCDA) was created to come up with a master plan which ranged from services to infrastructure to environment and legislation. The initiatives include:
For more information visit the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
The Qiang people live in an area important for its mountain forests, a major source of water for the Yangtze--what happens here has downstream implications. Deforestation and population growth over four decades has caused forests to shrink by up to 40 percent, and biodiversity has also been lost. As the situation worsened, the government began to recognize the importance of the region and that something had to be done.
In the 1980s, the government funded a reforestation program, and scientists designed the model, but they first investigated the socioeconomic situation. The project relied on indigenous knowledge of the Qiang people--key in conservation of biodiversity--and their practices of forest management and home-gardening. Collection of plants for herbal medicines is a major source of income for the Qiang people, and the cultivation of plants was merged with reforestation. This guaranteed participation of farmers, which has in turn increased economic returns on reforestation investment.
Trees are planted in terraces; horizontal bands of original vegetation are alternated with bands of tree seedlings. Indigenous species are preserved in the bands of original vegetation. The practice of alternating bands of new trees with bands of original vegetation creates ideal conditions for medicinal plant cultivation, increases diversity of species in forest stands, and protects against soil erosion from water runoff.
Commonly, reforestation in China involves banning locals from entering forests. If this had been the case, the project would not have been sustainable, because Qiang people traditionally cultivate medicinal plants in common woodlands and around their homes. It focused not only on replanting, but on opening up woodlands to locals--they may cultivate medicinal plants under the tree canopy as always. Because plants need shade, locals have always understood the need to plant trees first. The planting is supported by project funds, but they finance the cultivation of medicinal plants themselves.
This has also given higher status to medicinal knowledge, which may help ensure its being passed on to future generations.
For more information visit UNESCO.
The Gansu province of China is one of the driest and poorest areas in the mountainous area of northwest China. River runoff is too saline for drinking or irrigation, and groundwater is scant and of bad quality. Agriculture is largely rain-fed. After conducting a study and pilot project in the early 1990s, the province's water research institute suggested introducing rainwater harvesting on a broader scale. In the wake of a drought in 1995, the provincial government launched the program quickly, with a successful media campaign calling for donors and technical support. The province provided a $50 subsidy to each rural household to build a rainwater collection "field" on roofs or paved courtyards, and two underground tanks.
The results have been called "phenomenal"--farmers are diversifying into cash crops, have built 23,500 greenhouses, planted 440 hectares of fruit trees and 22,500 hectares of cash crops. In addition:
Services restored/benefits: poverty alleviation, water and food security, erosion control
For more information visit Changemakers.
Villages in the Taklimakan are threatened by mobile dunes caused by overgrazing, salinized soil from irrigated farming (the area is flat and had poor drainage) and overexploitation of fuelwood. Natives of the targeted region--four counties in Hotan Prefecture--were chiefly farmers and herders.
Scientists at a nearby institute, noticing the worsening conditions and encroachment of sand dunes, speculated that propagation of the tamarix, a small tree or bush known as the "salt cedar" could reverse the deterioration of salinized areas by acting as a "biopump," keeping the groundwater well below the surface (as opposed to on or near the surface, where water would evaporate quickly and, combined with poor drainage, is the reason for salinization of soil).
Trees were planted in rows so that crops could be grown between them. Volunteer guards (who would be given a stipend from the profits gained from increased incomes) protected the nurseries. A rotational system was introduced for harvesting fuel. Results:
Services/benefits: Increased household income, food/fodder, fuel, erosion control
For more information visit the HORIZON Solutions Site.
This pilot project was launched in Fuzhou, a crowded city of 2.5 million people in southwest China, on the Baima Canal, which pre-project was (and still is, except this section) 100 miles of what is basically open sewer which runs through the city and drains into the Ming River. Along this small section there are 40 influent points where wastewater from 12,000 people is released into the canal. Before the installation of the Restorer, the water in the canal was grey, laden with sewage and garbage, and emitted a powerful stench.
In the Autumn of 2003, Ocean Arks International installed a wastewater treatment system on a 600-meter stretch of this canal which flows along high-rise apartment buildings, a temple, shops, restaurants, and a school. The Restorer is basically a 600-meter-long floating pontoon, which houses two long racks with a walkway between for workers to access a central control barge, to trim the garden, and to pick up litter. The Restorer's technologies, among other things, include oxygen emitted from blowers along the pontoon, botanical gardens which line the sides of the pontoons with root systems which house two strains of bacteria, one of which was introduced to convert ammonia into a more benign form, and the other, along with some introduced carp, to consume the sewage solids. Below the surface of the water a recycle pipe moves bacteria through the system to keep it biologically active.
After a year in operation, the water is clear, does not smell, and contains fish. The Restorer is meeting technical standards set by Fuzhou officials: ammonia levels are down, and biochemical oxygen demand is down to a tenth of original numbers. Residents report seeing butterflies and birds there for the first time in their lives.
The system is calculated to be one eighth of the price of a conventional sewage treatment system, which makes it ideal for places like rapidly urbanizing China where services like waste and sewage treatment can't keep up with demand. While Ocean Arks has installed similar projects in over 80 locations, one staff member commented that he didn't think they'd done a facility "which had such a drastic improvement on a day-to-day basis in people's lives." The project has attracted the attention of officials from other cities who have come to Fuzhou to learn more about it.
For more information visit Ocean Arks.
The decline of the region's fishery (especially the kaikoso, a species of clam important to local subsistence and livelihood) was caused by various factors including overfishing, mangrove destruction, reef blasting, night fishing and foreign fishers.
When villagers of the Veratavou region and a local non-governmental organization got together to find solutions to the problem, they created a list of rules; they banned blasting, gill nets, and mangrove cutting around the lagoon, stopped issuing licenses to foreign fishers, and designated "tabu," or no-take, reserves in designated areas in the lagoons.
Results were immediete and dramatic. The kaikoso increased up to three times in the protected areas, there was a spillover effect into non-protected areas, and other vanished species, including a local delicacy, made reappearances. Residents reported up to 35% increased incomes (some of which goes into a collective trust fund for eight villages, which has been invested into electrification projects). Coastlines are expected to be more resilient to cyclones or other natural disturbances. Community cohesion is increased, and interest in science and tradition among young people has also improved.
Services restored/improved: Food/income, storm protection, cultural heritage values/knowledge systems
This case is similar to what happened in Fiji. The Cook Islands in the South Pacific are populated by indigenous Koutu Nui, whose way of life depends on coastal resources, especially the trochus (their shellfish staple source of subsistence and income).
Similar to Fiji, the Raratonga islanders' fishery was on the decline due to overfishing; fishers were going out further to chase increasingly fewer and less diverse species of seafood; trochus harvests were shrinking.
The elders in Raratonga, alarmed, decided to re-introduce the traditional no-take system known as raui. Unlike Fiji, these are temporary reserves which are instituted or lifted according to season, harvests, and other conditions. Bans on net fishing and night fishing were installed. The local churches, strong social centers for the Koutu Nui people, endorsed the program, which helped strengthen the commitment of villagers. Results were equally dramatic: Trochus populations have exploded, diversity of sea life has rebounded, corals have increased. It has given way to other plans, including bringing local schools to study the life in the lagoon.
Services restored/benefits: food/fiber, ornamental resources (trochus shells), recreation and tourism, education
For more information visit the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme.
This project was a collaboration between the US Forest Service (USFS) and The Nature Conservancy (NC), a US-based nonprofit organization that targets near-pristine land and buys it for the purposes of conservation and protection.
The Forest Legacy Program, created in 1978, is a partnership between private landowners, participating states and the USFS to identify and protect environmentally important forests from being converted to "non-forest uses." It is seen as a cost-effective way to give private owners the means to maintain native forests on their lands. In 1999-2003, the Nature Conservancy began buying forested land in South Kona from private owners, with the intention of helping the Forest Service gain control of the land. The Forest Service then bought what is called an "easement," (or usage rights, which include restrictions on the way the land is used, to protect it from activities local authorities deem inconsistent with sustainable forest management such as industrial logging, ranching or development of subdivisions), from the Nature Conservancy. As Hawaii is the only state without National Forest Lands, this was the strategy of the Forest Service to offer long-term protection of Hawaii's important forests. While Forest Legacy Easements have been authorized since 1978, this is the first case in Hawaii.
The NC usually only buys undisturbed land to ensure its continued protection. This area had been severely degraded in places by intensive grazing and logging in the 1950s and 1960s. But it was also considered to be important, both to the local watershed and native species. It was intended to be a good opportunity for the NC to experiment with reforestation, and to explore options for economic revenues through controlled logging and possibly some limited ranching. The koa, for example, is a major canopy tree, providing shade and wind protection to a diverse range of species; the NC will through its work rehabilitating the land decide whether it's viable or sustainable to log some of the koa and remove it without causing extreme damage to the forest.
It should be noted that this project, and the Nature Conservancy, is not free from controversy. Some critics are fear buying the land will open it up to logging under the guise of "sustainable forestry,'" and that logging of the native koa may not be sustainable. While the NC's aim is to redirect some of American corporate wealth for conservation on a scale otherwise unachievable, critics say the compromises it has made along the way to its donors have undermined some of its successes, have led to some scandals over lack of disclosure on financial transactions, and that vested interests in the governing board members have silenced it on issues in direct conflict with its stated policies, such as opening the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
For more information visit the Nature Conservancy and the Citizen Review.
This is a pilot project initiated by a local entrepreneur, so this case demonstrates potential rather than results. Similar to the honge tree in India (see South Asia section) it's a variation on the theme of using biodiesel fuel from a local resource with various uses, with projected benefits to rural communities.
Vanuatu is a (relatively) low-income string of 83 islands in the South Pacific, some 1,300 km west of Fiji. 80% of its population is rural. Its main export commodity is coconut, harvested widely here (and in other tropical areas) for its copra (the dried flesh), while its oil is used in food products such as margarine as well as cosmetics, soaps, lotions, etc. The spread of cheaper soy and canola has displaced the coconut market, causing its prices, and therefore incomes in Vanuatu, to fall. Some coconut estates have closed down as a result.
A local entrepreneur named Tony Deamer has successfully developed a way to use coconut fuel in vehicles as an alternative to conventional fuel. Currently Vanuatu is a net importer, with some 9 million US dollars, or 10% of the value of its imports on fuel. Coconut oil could take pressure off the balance-of-payments deficit. Vanuatu is facing serious problems of underemployment and lack of opportunities especially in rural regions. Deamer is also promoting using the opportunities they offer not only for fuel but for other coconut-based products, such as:
Like other biodiesels, coconut is cleaner than diesel and burns more slowly. When performance was monitored, the engines running on full or partial coconut oil showed less wear and tear on engines.
A major drawback is that the oil solidifies at 22 degrees celsius; while it is primarily aimed at the domestic market this is not the issue it would be in, say, Canada, but nevertheless temperatures do fall below 22 degrees in Vanuatu, therefore fuel lines need to be fitted with heat exchangers to warm up the fuel, or it must be mixed with conventional diesel. Deamer is currently developing a filtration process that would address this.
Deamer uses coconut oil in five of his own fleet of vehicles for his business, and about 200 minibuses in the city are using some proportion of mixed diesel/coconut fuel in their tanks. There is also experimentation being done on farm machinery.
Other regions of the world are looking to coconut fuel as a source of cheap local fuel, including the Philippines and Nigeria. This illustrates a versatile local resource which offers other products/services/opportunities than biodeisel, and that benefits rural dwellers who are currently off the grid or dependent on imports. But it is still not a very clean energy source, and its large-scale benefits have unresolved questions (such as growing coconut trees would compete with agricultural or forest land).
Potential services/benefits: poverty alleviation, economic opportunities, self-sufficiency, air quality, sense of place
For more information visit the Television Trust for the Environment.
Fighting for justice after what has been called one of the most catastrophic environmental disasters in history, Luis Yanza and Pablo Fajardo are leading an unprecedented community-driven legal battle against a global oil giant. According to the plaintiffs, beginning in 1964 and through 1990, Texaco dumped nearly 17 million gallons of crude oil and 20 billion gallons of drilling wastewater directly into the Ecuadorian Amazon. Allegedly suffering from the health effects of the pollution, the region's inhabitants are demanding a complete cleanup in potentially the largest environmental lawsuit ever filed in the world. Yanza co-founded the Amazon Defense Front to organize 30,000 inhabitants of the northern Ecuadorian Amazon in a class-action lawsuit against Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron in 2001. The lead lawyer, Pablo Fajardo, a resident of one of the affected communities, has become the public voice of the plaintiffs.
Unprecedented Petroleum Pollution
The Ecuadorian Amazon contains five percent of all the world's plant and animal species and is one of the most biodiverse places in the Amazon and on Earth. As the region’s primary oil investor in the 1970s and 1980s, Texaco built much of Ecuador's oil infrastructure but chose not to re-inject back into the ground the wastewater and sludge brought up by the drilling process, called formation waters. Instead, according to the plaintiffs, billions of gallons were dumped into the region’s waterways, or left in more than 1,000 unlined, open pits scattered throughout the area. By the company's own estimates, it spilled nearly 17 million gallons of oil into soils and waterways, and another 20 billion gallons of formation waters. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spilled just over 10 million gallons of oil. In 1992, Texaco left Ecuador, leaving behind what experts and inhabitants call a monumental environmental disaster.
To this day, the region's 30,000 inhabitants primarily drink water that has been deemed contaminated by experts involved in the case. According to the plaintiffs, many of the waste pits continue to pollute the rivers, streams and groundwater. In some areas, all water sources are contaminated and few fish survive in the rivers. The plaintiffs claim that prolonged exposure to toxic substances has led to a serious health crisis, and caused people living in such proximity to pollution to suffer dramatically increased incidences of skin disease, respiratory ailments, reproductive disorders and a cancer rate seven times higher than the rest of the country’s population. They also claim that the regional devastation includes more than two million acres of deforestation. Chevron, however, claims the region’s environmental and health problems are not a result of the pollution left behind by Texaco, and that they are no longer responsible.
Leading the Community to Seek Justice
In 1993, Yanza, working with a team of US-based lawyers, filed a class-action lawsuit against Texaco. Plaintiffs included a coalition of residents brought together by Yanza's organization, including 80 villages and five different indigenous peoples. The initial case against Texaco (acquired by Chevron in 2001) was filed in 1993 in a New York district court, near Texaco’s headquarters. In 1996, a superior court judge dismissed the case, but the plaintiffs filed an appeal and won a reversal of the decision. In 2002, the US Court of Appeals agreed with Chevron's request to send the case to Ecuador. However, the court warned Chevron that US courts would intervene if the company tried to avoid a judgment imposed by the Ecuadorian courts.
In May 2003, the 30,000 plaintiffs, led by Fajardo's legal team, filed a lawsuit in Ecuador's northern Amazon, demanding that Chevron pay for a complete cleanup, including removal of all formation waters, debris and equipment; remediation of all contaminated water bodies and lands; recuperation of fauna, flora and aqueous life; and monitoring and improvement of the health of the inhabitants.
Chevron does not deny dumping formation waters or oil in the region, but says the resulting contamination has not harmed the inhabitants and it is not responsible for any cleanup. In March 2007, the plaintiffs, with the abundant evidence collected from 45 field inspections, had already proven the existence of extensive contamination, and that further delay was not necessary. The judge issued an order to begin an assessment of the damages, which was carried out by an independent expert, culminating in a report released in April 2008 citing $8.3 - $16 billion in damages. Fajardo and Yanza have been touring the country relentlessly, making the trial an issue of national dignity and sovereignty in anticipation of a final decision in 2008.
Long Term Impact
The impact of Yanza and Fajardo's efforts on Ecuador's oil industry is already far-reaching. They have publicized the long-term effects on the environment and people, leading the government of Ecuador to pass stronger environmental protection laws. Texaco and Chevron’s legacy in Ecuador is now part of the national collective consciousness. Fajardo and Yanza recently hosted the president of Ecuador on a tour of Texaco's former operations, leading to a pledge by the government to relocate several contaminated communities.
Their work entails significant risk, as well. Yanza, Fajardo, their families and a number of their colleagues have become targets of death threats, harassment and intimidation. In December 2005, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States issued precautionary measures for Yanza and Fajardo in an effort to protect their lives. Fajardo's brother was killed just months after he joined the legal team; no investigation has taken place and no one has been arrested for the homicide. Fajardo has been forced to vary his daily routine, often sleeping in a different place each night.
Yanza and Fajardo are recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize. For more information see the Goldman Prize website.
This is a projection based on a successful pilot project of raising tree frogs in the Peruvian Amazon.
Peru is one of eight so-called "mega-biodiverse" countries which in total possess 70% of the world's biodiversity. Yet logging, agriculture and infrastructure development are clearing away habitats of abundant species still yet to be discovered. Many conservation projects lack long-term funding, and so ecologist Rainer Shulte is creating a sustainable business out of conserving the habitat of the threatened poison dart frog.
The poison dart frog is important as an indicator of the overall health of its tropical rainforest habitat. It also helps in insect regulation, consuming various insects, including mosquitos, which are common vectors of disease. Its venom is being studied for its potential both for medicines and natural pesticides, and it is an important example for the study of the evolution and dispersal of species.
The frogs will be raised by local farmers (campesinos) in 250 production lots covering 3,000 hectares, most of which are located in buffer zones of national parks or reserves. Artificial breeding sites (plastic containers) are set up in the frog's natural nesting grounds in generally highland tropical forests. The tadpoles are harvested from the bottles, put in cages, and transported overseas, where demand for these beautiful animals is high and can fetch 40 to 120 US dollars each. Because raising them in situ is contingent on an intact ecosystem, it is expected that the growth of this industry will provide both an economic incentive to preserve the forests, and will help to provide an additional source of income to struggling farmers. This will also provide a disincentive for the smuggling of frogs (the exotic pet trade is poorly regulated and has been blamed for endangering marketable species). Other benefits include:
There are also longer-term plans, such as ecological education to increase awareness and strengthen the long-term benefits, and some agricultural training will be given to encourage campesinos to adopt lower-impact farming instead of "slash and burn" or other methods unsuited to local conditions (especially in the highlands, many farmers are immigrants from other areas and so unfamiliar with the terrain). While the well-being of the frogs can't be guaranteed once sold, it is assumed the target market, hobbyists who pay a high enough price, will spend a lot of effort and time caring for them. In addition, they will know their purchase is supporting an activity that helps to preserve the rainforest. The project's own website will feature links to the best websites of care and feeding of the frogs, and will also produce its own educational materials for buyers. Shipping methods will be such as to avoid stress or injury to the frogs. It should be noted that the proposal doesn't address the possibility of the frog becoming invasive, which is something to investigate, since the exotic pet trade has been blamed for the invasion of certain kinds of fish and other species.
Benefits: Incentive to preserve habitat, poverty alleviation, education.
For more information visit the Global Environment Facility.
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