Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Of particular importance to the theme of this chapter is the organiza-
tions' receipt of international funding. Over three-quarters of the responding
groups received funding through donors. The most common sources of
funding are foreign sources (foundations, INGOs, and foreign govern-
ments). Fifty percent of groups received at least half of their funding
from foreign sources, nineteen organizations (24 percent) received some
foreign funding, nine organizations (11 percent) received no foreign
funding, and twelve groups did not report. In terms of organizations'
budgets, at the top, more than 10 percent of organizations have budgets
over US$1 million and just under 10 percent of the groups have no
budgets. Ninety percent of the organizations working on environmental
issues in Ecuador believe that international funding is “somewhat” to
“very important” in resolving the environmental problems that they are
working on.
Organizations cover a broad spectrum of issue areas, but three issues
dominate: environmental education, biodiversity conservation, and sus-
tainable development. Other issues less frequently mentioned included
labor rights, public health, and environmental justice. Half of the orga-
nizations' main issue areas had changed since the organization was
founded. The groups report that the reasons for changes were largely
due to availability of funding (70 percent). Other reasons topping the
list included “needing to secure available resources” and “donor priori-
ties.” The survey indicated that resource issues (i.e., availability of envi-
ronmental goods) rather than changes in the organization's mission or
leadership drove changes in issue area. This theme was reinforced in
interviews.
Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents, Ecoresisters, and Ecoindependents
As the overview of the organizational survey suggests, the environmental
sector in Ecuador is diverse: it contains international, national, and local
groups, some rich and some poor groups, it covers all geographic areas
of the country, and though the main issues areas are biodiversity conser-
vation and sustainable development, many themes are addressed, includ-
ing environmental education, water pollution, and deforestation. I
outline composites of four types of environmental groups. They are not
equal in size, scope, or infl uence. They represent “ideal types.” I defi ne
the types according to key dimensions: degree of receipt of environmental
aid from abroad, primary issue area, type of projects executed, how it
