Creating the Ecuador Pre-Assignment & General Pre-Meeting Notes

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YDO--cy6ItiVimZbUrmL7kWWI8sDBWC9/view

Ecuador Presentation-
» Campsite focus: Climate Action (13), Life on Land (15), Quality Education (4)
» Seasonality changes in the jungle and extreme weather conditions
» Amazon rainforest *
 Ecuador concerns:
 Deforestation- 20% of forests lost
 biodiversity
 cash crop dependence  deforestation cause
 limited education access
 High rainfall is important
 Food (88% of organic food from rainforests)
 Biodiversity- 10 species extinct every day
 pharmaceuticals from rainforest plants
 Important for reducing carbon
» Poverty: 40%; people living on very little money  working to strengthen responses to
natural disasters
» Deforestation for cash (result of poverty)  farming ruins soil so it can only be used for
limited time (rainforest not suited for these types of farming)
» Weather conditions- Climate change & greenhouse effect worsening the El Nino
flooding
 Weather is wetter, more drastic storms, temperatures rising noticeably etc.
» Lack of education- not enough government support, very limited access to higher
education  limits knowledge on climate issues
» Cycle:
» Lots of upward HDI trends in recent years
» Environmental protection LOCAL:
 Small groups in rural areas (poor)  hoping to develop tourism because they face
deforestation
» The Camp-
 work with local communities to understand the problems Ecuador is facing
 utilize design thinking
 project goals: practicality, cheap costs, long term ideas, dependability, impactful,
educating
» Projects:
 Reforestation- replanting trees & teaching locals proper care; establishing tourism
as an alternative income; improving the quality of life while maintaining customs
and culture
 Disadvantages include:
 Takes decades, lots of resources, and money to complete
 Labor intensive
 Only successful on a local scale
 This alone does not attract tourists
 Education- adding to the reforestation project by teaching locals about
environmental issues; building schools and academic facilities; accommodating
teachers
 Disadvantages include:
 Requires money from families
 Schooling is optional  families may need kids at home (farming)
  Few resources & no internet connection
 Takes generations and many years
 Tourism development- works towards long term goal of using their land, culture
and traditions for a sustainable & profitable income; teaching locals basic
English; raising awareness & promoting to the world; learning about the locals’
way of life; basic facilities
 Disadvantages include:
 Reliant on tourists each year can potentially be unstable income
 High quality facilities are required  very costly
 Tourism has negative effects like pollution and high electricity
usage
 Takes very long time
» Project successes (local vs global):
 3620 trees planted  directly impacted 200 community members
 5 school projects completed  directly impacted 26 kids (40 families)
 Around 400 tourists per year  directly impacted 200 community members
 SDG 13: requires much faster rate to achieve the SDG goals
 SDG 15: forest loss is declining but a lot of biodiversity loss & other negative
habitat losses are occurring
 SDG 4: tons of children are still out of school or even drop out

Articles I Found:
Covid-19 and Climate:
https://earther.gizmodo.com/this-is-what-climate-change-looks-like-in-an-era-of-cov-
1842539967
https://amazonwatch.org/news/2020/0430-covid-crude-and-climate-crisis-and-opportunity-
in-the-ecuadorian-amazon

Effects of Politics:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/6/how-will-ecuador-elections-affect-the-future-of-
the-amazon
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/29/chevron-ecuador-lawsuit-steven-donziger/

Environmental Issues:
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/for-ecuador-a-litany-of-environmental-challenges-
awaits-in-2020/
Ecuador Pre-Assignment for Monday, February 22, 2021

3 Takeaways/Topics of Interest
1. The three projects are all well under way, but very insufficient on the global scale.
The projects are great in the way that they involve the local people, but there doesn’t
seem to be any major efforts on helping them with a global outreach yet.
2. The cycle (visualization above in notes). Its very helpful for not only visualizing but
also reflecting on the campsite projects and goals and how they are connecting them
altogether.
3. The government is a key factor in issues Ecuador is facing because the people do not
have the resources to recover from natural disasters and neither school nor poverty
are being prioritized on the legislative scale.

Reflection
Not only has Ecuador been facing the rapidly spreading Coronavirus within its border,
but also record extreme flooding and weather conditions. The government still provides very
little support if any at all even though both the communities of people and the Amazon
Rainforest are in danger. The Ecuadorian citizens and indigenous people are speaking out
before their land is destroyed, but it seems as though even the democracy is feeling fragile
and in potential danger. Although even countries like the United States will be feeling the
effects of climate change and environmental issues during the global pandemic, people in
countries like Ecuador will feel the effects at a much greater magnitude. The Ecuadorian
portion of Amazon Rainforest is facing alarming deforestation rates, and the pandemic will
only worsen this due to increased poverty. These issues have always been important, but the
importance and priority of countering the environmental issues of this country seem to be
rising up at an alarming rate. The oil pipelines, deforestation, dependence on cash crops,
economic collapse, and many other issues are just the tip of the iceberg for what Ecuador
must face in order to maintain SDG goals. Even though it’s not impossible, the extent of the
challenges must be recognized, both by Ecuadorian people and people around the world.

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Some Questions (More on Master Doc):
o Since environmental issues have not really been a topic in the recent presidential
elections at all, has government funding and support for environmental projects been
ruled out? What are potential changes (if any) that we could see from the Ecuadorian
government in the near future?
o What progress has been made on expanding global outreach and increasing the scale
on the campsite projects? Are there any current plans to expand the projects in such a
way?
o Since Covid-19 has had a huge impact on tourism worldwide and it is hard to predict
when tourism will be a more dependable source of income, what new ideas are there
for a new profitable income?