Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 8.2. (continued)
In 2008, Ecuador's constitution was the fi rst in the world to recognize
legally enforceable rights of nature. In recent years, Ecuador's efforts to man-
age the Yasuní National Park - one of the most biologically diverse spots on
Earth - have comprised innovative appeals to global responsibility through
monetary compensations for not opening the park to oil exploration. However,
in 2013 Ecuador withdrew its proposal to refrain from oil exploration in its
Yasuní National Park because it had not received promised compensation
from the world's industrialized nations (Espinosa 2013 ; Pellegrini et al. 2014 ).
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa explained that “the Yasuní proposal was
based on the principle of co-responsibility in the battle against climate change,
but just 0.37 % of the target [US$ 2.3 billion] was provided by international
donors…This failure of the international community touches on the wider
issue of justice in the battle against climate change. What level of responsibil-
ity should be taken by the developed nations that have most contributed to the
problem of climate change and are most able to tackle it? And what is the
responsibility of the less developed nations? Clearly, a just solution would see
the more developed nations bearing proportionally more of the responsibility”
(in Falconi-Puig 2013 ).
Until 1956, the Yasuní region was entirely ancestral Waorani territory
when fi rst contacted. Now it is a complex mix of overlapping designations,
and Waorani leaders are divided between those opposed to new oil develop-
ment on their territory and those more inclined to negotiate with oil compa-
nies (Finder et al. 2009 ). The failure of Ecuador's innovative approach points
to the ongoing tension between appeals to global responsibility and the values
of the sustainability of life, human and other-than-human, and to national and
global fi nancial interests.
Confl icts such as the U'wa and Yasuní cases play out at once across local,
national and global political contexts. On the one hand, they draw attention to
transnational negotiations and distinct articulations of justice around plane-
tary environmental sustainability. On the other, they demand from academics
and policy makers a better understanding of the dynamic local forms of eco-
logical knowledge. It is pressing to act, effectively addressing the complexity
and multisided responsibility for implementing Earth Stewardship.
8.4
Liberation Philosophy and Decolonial Thinking
The perspectives of Kusch have provided one of the most important sources of
inspiration for another Argentinean thinker at the end of the twentieth century,
Walter Mignolo. In the 1990s Mignolo developed the notions of border (boundary)
 
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