Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
a voluntary local tax contribution of up to 25 percent of total tax. When
Quito residents fi ll out their tax forms, they can check a box that indi-
cates they would like a portion of their taxes to go to Vida para Quito.
This is an especially creative way of generating a budget in a culture in
which philanthropy is not common.
The organization leads a number of programs, including urban park
development, urban reforestation, recycling, environmental education,
river recuperation, and other programs. It uses local resources to attain
environmental goods. Its projects are geographically focused and
the amenities it promotes have the potential to help a wide swath of
Quiteños, not just tourists visiting the ecoreserves. For example, the
Ciclo-Q bikeway project provides a way for people to use their bikes as
a safe means of transportation in an automobile-centric city. This reduces
air pollution, increases public safety, and provides an inexpensive means
of transportation. The projects of the ecoindependent sustainability
organizations attempt to limit environmental bads and increase environ-
mental goods for a broad segment of the urban population.
Vida para Quito is fairly well known among Quiteños because of its
funding structure, and residents have more positive views of the organi-
zation than they have of environmental organizations in general. This
may be due to the fact that NGO leaders are considered to be among
a higher class, and average Ecuadorians do not know how or where the
NGOs spend the money. Vida para Quito, by contrast, must report data
publically, since it is subject to the “transparency law.” Its budget and
the salaries of its staff can be found online. In 2007, half of a percent of
its funding was spent on staff costs and over 98 percent of its budget
was spent on investment in construction and services.
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An environmen-
tal professional remarked that groups funded independently like Vida
para Quito “will be around for fi fty years.” This is a long life in a sector
where groups come and go, year to year.
Environmental Goods: Who Gets Them and Who Decides?
Who decides if Ecuador should prioritize saving the rainforest, creating
ecotourism, resisting foreign development of natural resources, or creating
bikeways along the streets of Quito? The social and ecological landscape
of Ecuador is being created in the image of donors, not in the image of
Ecuadorians. Ecuadorian NGOs' dependence on foreign funding (foreign
distribution of environmental “goods”) shapes the agenda of Ecuadorian
environmentalism and has limited the growth of organizations focused
