Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
information to justify the immediate halt and rethinking [of the incinera-
tion effort]” (Basel Action Network 1998). Although the Parliament
granted them an audience, its members made no effort to intervene in
the confl ict. Despite this rebuff, this was a critical moment in the devel-
opment of a transnational EJ collaboration, because Mozambican, U.S.,
South African, and Danish activists were working together in close coor-
dination. Allies such as Greenpeace International and the Joint Oxfam
Advocacy Program (JOAP, Mozambique) donated the funding support
for these activities. Mauricio Sulila remembered:
That was great . . . After that, the Mozambique government opened up the door
a little. We explained to them that we will not give up, we will not be intimidated.
We continued to make pressure, to make noise, to hold international meetings
and meetings at the local level. We were working with several organizations,
especially Greenpeace Denmark. JOAP's support was fantastic. Say we need to
do a demonstration in two days, they were able to provide funds to advertise in
the newspaper. When we needed to travel to Denmark, JOAP funded us. It's not
a lot of money, but it is at the right time, when we really need it. (Lowe 2003)
When asked later how Livaningo organized so effectively on an inter-
national scale, Anabela Lemos stated,
It is mostly through the Internet. But whenever we campaign, we make some
noise here in Mozambique, and at the same time we have the international
network. When our government told us to stop complaining, we went to Denmark
and we spoke to the people
there
, and we realized that, as a result, they started
to listen to us
here
. So we realized then that we couldn't just do a campaign here,
but instead we had to work both ways, here in Mozambique and in Denmark.
(Lemos 2004)
Activists with Greenpeace Denmark were critical to the campaign's
success as well. While the Danish government initially refused account-
ability for the pesticides, Danish activists took responsibility for their
nation's involvement in this confl ict. Greenpeace Denmark staff member
Jacob Hartmann commented on the inconsistency involved in his govern-
ment's embrace of the Basel Convention on Transboundary Hazardous
Wastes (which prohibits wealthy OECD nations from trading or dumping
hazardous wastes in poorer non-OECD nations) while also encouraging
the incineration of pesticides in Matola: “Considering that Denmark is
one of the countries that have taken the lead on this vital treaty, it
makes little sense for Denmark to advocate for an elimination of POPs
[persistent organic pollutants] globally while promoting new sources of
the worst of them in Mozambique” (Puckett 1998, 26). POPs include
the most toxic substances known to science such as dioxins, furans, and
