Acción Ecológica
Acción Ecológica is one of the main environmental organisations based in Ecuador. It campaigns on a range of issues including oil extraction, exploration and pipeline transport, Amazon Rainforest protection, food sovereignty, biofuels and plantations for carbon offsets. The organisation and its members have been facing death threats, attacks, assassination attempts, defamation, criminalisation, attempts of dissolution and others for the past ten years.
While the new Constitution promulgated in 2008 contained clauses referring to the environment and its protection, over the last couple of years, the government has permitted multinational corporations to enter and exploit oil and gas reserves to the detriment and devastation of the environment and indigenous communities. HRDs working to protect the environment increasingly find themselves targeted and in need of protection.
A presidential decree in 2013 targeting civil society organisations has so far only resulted in one entity being closed down (Fundación Pachamama) but the threat of closure looms large over more (Fundamedios) and has a deeply chilling effect on journalism. What's more, the President's use of state controlled media to harass, stigmatise and defame HRDs by name (especially on his 3-5 hour Saturday morning TV program) has made many HRDs wary.
