Letter to the Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in protest of withdrawing legal status to Accion Eccologica

Fiona Dove

March 2009

Dear President Correa,

We would like to express dismay at the decision taken by your administration to withdraw the personería juridica of Acción Ecológica.

Dear President Correa,

We would like to express dismay at the decision taken by your administration to withdraw the personería juridica of Acción Ecológica. We have been among the many organisations that have applauded the recognition of the rights of nature and the right to “well-being” (buen vivir) in the new Ecuadorian Constitution promoted and approved during your mandate as President, and are shocked that an organisation such as Accion Ecologica that has worked to defend nature and the well-being of local people would be effectively prevented from operating at this time and under this administration.

Accion Ecologica is highly respected internationally for its dedication to defending the Amazon and its peoples from oil companies, such as Texaco. We have worked with Accion Ecologica and greatly admire their courage and commitment inprotecting the country’s social and ecological wealth against the economic interests of national and transnational corporations eager to exploit them in a socially unjust and environmentally unsustainable manner.

Protecting the country’s natural resources and peoples against industrial logging, commercial shrimp farming, oil exploration and extraction, monoculture tree plantations, biopiracy, water privatization and so on –as Acción Ecológica has been doing over many years- is clearly in line with the new Ecuadorian Constitution. Even more so: it is an obligation for any person, organization and institution in Ecuador.

We therefore find it hard to understand why Accion Ecologica's legal status would be withdrawn and hope that it is an error.

Your government is seen by many as one of the most progressive within the region and as an example to many other governments that do not respect nature or people’s well-being. Your government is also a sign of hope for those of us who are fighting for a socially just and environmentally sustainable world. This action against one of the most respected civil society organisations in your country, however, is putting in jeopardy the credibility of your government.

We therefore hope and trust that you will intervene on this issue and ensure that Acción Ecológica’s legal capacity is restored immediately so that they can continue doing what they do best: protecting people’s and nature’s rights.

Yours sincerely,

Fiona Dove
Executive Director, Transnational Institute
de Wittenstraat 25, 1013HC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +31206626608 Fax: +31206757176

Fiona Dove

Director of TNI

Fiona Dove has been Executive Director of TNI since 1995. She holds degrees in Development Studies and Industrial Sociology, and a post-graduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation Methods.

A second generation African of Anglo-Irish descent, Dove was born in Zambia and grew up in South Africa. As a teenager, she became active in the anti-apartheid movement within South Africa. Dove played a leading role in feminist and anti-militarist organisations and from the mid-1980s, served the non-racial labour movement. She worked as a trade union magazine editor for Umanyano Publications in Johannesburg, and as an official of the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers' Union.

Dove came to The Netherlands at the end of 1994 to take up a scholarship at the Institute for Social Studies in The Hague. She was offered the directorship of TNI on graduating at the age of 34.