At the twelfth summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas countries (ALBA), held in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s president spoke about the need of the region to move away from environmentalism that indiscriminately prioritizes ecosystem protection over economic ends.

The presidents or delegates from member states Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Ecuador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Lucia met on July 29 and 30 for the first ALBA summit since the death of ALBA ‘founding father’ Hugo Chávez

During Correa’s opening address (Sp), he had strong words for environmentalists and indigenous leaders who oppose him domestically on his government’s renewed push to auction off oil and mining concessions. He said:

“Another extremely serious problem I see in our country, and its a problem of the left, a supposed new left, supposed ‘environmentalists’, and its the problem of making human rights secondary to the supposed rights of nature. This is a problem. Human beings are the most important part of nature. If we dont overcome poverty, poverty itself will degrade our environment.”

Ecuador’s Constitution recognizes the rights of nature in Articles 10 and 71-74. In 2010, ALBA members signed a statement in La Paz saying: “Nature is our home and is the system of which we form a part, and therefore it has infinite value, but it does not have a price and is not for sale.”

This week, the message was different. 

“We need our non-renewable natural resources. Our best chance for sovereign development is our non-renewable natural resources. With them, we can avoid the levels of exploitation that certain countries subject their work forces to. Latin America doesn’t have to go through that stage," Correa said. 

He compared his government’s policies for granting large oil and mining concessions to the sustainable development of other economic sectors.

“There are those who say the oil is a curse. Please, go see a psychiatrist! Anything can be a curse! Tourism, poorly directed, can be a curse. Sex tourism, exploitive tourism, etcetera. Agriculture, poorly directed, can be a curse. The use of chemicals, monocultures that exhaust the land, etcetera. Industry, poorly directed, can be a curse: when it contaminates, uses chemicals, produces poor quality, etcetera.”

“But just because there is bad tourism, bad agriculture, bad industry, we’re not going to conclude we shouldnt have tourism, agriculture, industry. The sensible, intelligent, responsible conclusion is to do good tourism, good agriculture, good industry.”

“The sensible, intelligent, responsible, historical conclusion is that we should do good exploitation of non-renewable natural resources, and not the infantilism of rejecting their use.”

Similarly, he applauded Bolivian president Evo Morales’ shifting attitude towards mining in his country, and Venezuela’s ongoing use of oil revenues to fund social programs.

Correa also warned of the danger of “indigenous fundamentalism”: the mythification of the demands of indigenous groups and leaders. He said these leaders are not always progressive, honest or selfless.

The final declaration of the XII Summit in Guayaquil includes language that addresses Correa’s concern over excessive environmentalism. The 2013 ALBA declaration of Guayaquil reads:

"We reject the extremism of certain groups who, under the banner of fighting extraction, are systematically opposed to the exploitation of our natural resources, and demand it is only done with the consent of the people and communities who live near the source of wealth." 

Parallel to the presidential summit, social movements from the ALBA nations met off-site, also in Guayaquil. After the two-day satellite summit, they presented the presidents with a list of demands (Sp), including:

    -a new financial architecture to sustain socialism and regional development according to principles of “good living” (balance between humankind and nature)
    -agrarian reform to move toward food sovereignty
    -rejection of the United States global spying agenda
    -an audit of bilateral investment treaties