Ecuadorian Environment Minister Tarsicio Granizo speaks during an interview with IPS in his office in Quito. Credit: Nina Zambrano/IPS

By Ela Zambrano
QUITO, Jul 20 2018 (IPS)

Ecuador has decided to move towards a bioeconomy-based development model, “which must be sustainable,” because otherwise “the remedy could be worse than the disease,” said the country’s Environment Minister Tarsicio Granizo, who is spearheading this innovative approach.

In this interview with IPS, Granizo explained that the proposal represents a response to an extractivist model which cannot be followed forever. His ministry is working hand in hand with other ministries, productive sectors and the governments of the 24 provinces of this South American country of 17.7 million people.

Ecuador is a megadiverse country, but it is also rich in minerals and fossil fuels. The current model of development is based on its underground riches, but now the aim is to move towards a post-extractivist model, focused on the sustainable use of the country’s biological resources.

As a first step, the government is drawing up an inter-ministerial environmental agenda with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to identify the administration’s current environmental actions, in order to design a new cross-cutting strategy.

The minister pointed out that it is not yet possible to talk about a “transition” or timeframes because “the new forms of economy are just being thought out.” But he stressed that “the concept of the bioeconomy at the state level is already in place.”

IPS: You’re leading what’s called a transition from extractivism and fossil fuels to the bioeconomy. Why?

TARSICIO GRANIZO: The bioeconomy is one of the many ways forward for this country which has an economy based on oil and minerals extraction. There may be other ways out, but let’s remember that we are a megadiverse country and that we have to make sustainable use of our megadiversity, with the highest technology.

IPS: What is the future for mining and oil in this model?

TG: We are talking about a long-term transition, whether we like it or not we have to continue exploiting oil and mining, we still have important resources in both sectors that support the country.

IPS: With a time limit for the exploitation of fossil fuels due to climate change…

TG: There is a deadline for oil exploitation; and, mining will always be there, but it must be organised. We cannot yet say that we are in a process of transition, we have just started thinking about these new forms of economy that will allow Ecuador to leave behind extractivism one day.Of course, not everything bio is necessarily sustainable, because I can replace oil with another product and run out of that product. The sustainable bioeconomy is based on that: the sustainable use of biological resources, and that includes a circular economy in waste management.

IPS: But can you put a timeframe on the goal of implementing the bioeconomy?

TG: We cannot… How long will fossil fuels last?

IPS: Experts say Ecuador’s fossil fuels could run out in 20 years, including officials from your ministry…

TG: Maybe 20 years, but in mining, we’ll have to see how things go for us. Mining revenues have to be greater than the environmental liabilities. In this respect, we cannot yet set timeframes.

IPS: What is the bioeconomy model you envision for Ecuador?

TG: We are thinking of sustainable bioeconomy as a model for which several elements are necessary: conservation, innovation, investment, and markets.

IPS: What comes first?

TG: Conservation. Ecuador’s soil is already conserved, through protected areas, protective forests that cover 30 percent of the national territory. Innovation is where we are most concerned, where we still have a long way to go.

IPS: How is the sustainable use of megadiversity included?

TG: Of course, not everything bio is necessarily sustainable, because I can replace oil with another product and run out of that product. The sustainable bioeconomy is based on that: the sustainable use of biological resources, and that includes a circular economy in waste management.

IPS: You stress the need to move towards a circular economy, one based on produce-consume-recycle rather than produce-consume-throw away…

TG: The circular economy is a part of the bioeconomy, for example waste can be a good business and an alternative for those already working as waste pickers. We see examples in many parts of the world where waste management is an option. What arrives at the treatment centres is minimal, everything stays in the factories. Little by little we have to make progress towards that.

IPS: They say the bioeconomy will favour the development of the most vulnerable segments of society. Is that true? Why and how?

TG: Of course, for example, it is the poor who rummage through and separate the garbage. We need to help them out of poverty and help them become small-scale entrepreneurs and have a better quality of life. We have identified about 500 bio-enterprises; the thing is that most of them are small-scale or pilot projects. We work mainly with the Popular and Solidarity Economy (an economic organisation institutionalised in 2011 in the country, whose members, individuals or groups, are based on cooperation and solidarity).

IPS: Is there an example that serves as a letter of introduction to what Ecuador already does in bio-economics?

TG: There are projects with guadua bamboo cane to make furniture and laminates. This is a fast-growing, abundant resource in the coastal and Amazon regions, which resprouts easily. It is also very interesting what is happening with vicuña wool in (the province of) Chimborazo. Vicuña wool fetches a very high price on the international market. In this country, Chimborazo is the only place where vicuñas (a South American camelid) are found, and that is why we are in the process of teaching local communities how to shear vicuñas, and to treat and use their wool so that it has added value.

IPS: How much does the bioeconomy currently represent in Ecuador, and what share of the country’s GDP is it expected to represent?

TG: Currently the bioeconomy represents about 10 percent of the industrial GDP, and we plan to double that in the coming years.

IPS: In how long?

TG: We are taking a series of measures, we have created the country’s Bioeconomy Network and the 2015-2030 Biodiversity Strategy, we have created an entity with the Private Technical University of Loja to promote bioeconomic initiatives. We are launching the brand BioEcuador.

IPS: Have you encountered resistance in the economic and productive sectors?

TG: Fortunately, the ministries of production, mining and hydrocarbons, and foreign trade are very well aligned. We have managed to position the bioeconomy as a state commitment also in the productive sectors. We have also talked with the banks to establish soft credit lines with certain benefits to promote the bioeconomy in aspects such as nutraceuticals (‘nutrition’ and ‘pharmaceutical’ – natural foods that provide medical or health benefits). The concept of bioeconomy is already positioned at the state level.

IPS: What are the strategies?

TG: To use the rich biodiversity that we have in order to provide economic alternatives for the country. In the bioeconomy we do not rule out the improvement of monocultures, for example we have selected five sectors to work in: oil palm farming, shrimp, flowers, cattle and bananas. We want to reach an agreement with these producers so that they do not expand their agricultural frontier, but improve their productivity within their current range. That’s one aspect.

IPS: Since the bioeconomy is a long-term project, how can we ensure that future governments maintain this direction and do not change it?

TG: As soon as producers see that the bioeconomy is a real alternative, it will not matter which government is in power.

IPS: Is this being established at a legislative and policy level?

TG: It is included in the Organic Environmental Code and above all in the 2017-2021 National Development Plan. We are working on the development of public policies.

IPS: Environmentalists criticise aspects of the bioeconomy, such as the use of biofuels based on monocultures. What is your view on this?

TG: Biofuels have their pros and cons. The problem is that land that should be aimed at guaranteeing food sovereignty is allocated to meet transport needs.

IPS: So you don’t rule out biofuels?

TG: No. I always say that everything can be done in Ecuador as long as it is done where it should be done and is done properly.

IPS: Are there other countries in Latin America looking towards the bioeconomy?

TG: There was a bioeconomics summit in Germany (in Berlin in April), attended by some Latin American countries. Several are in our line of sustainable bioeconomy. Others see the bioeconomy as the improvement of their monocultures. We don’t rule out that possibility either.

IPS: So, Ecuador is betting on different formulas, not only on the bioeconomy?

TG: Of course, we can think about the sale of services; in providing banking services to other countries; and, the sustainable bioeconomy. We have to look for alternatives for post-extractivism.

IPS: So the bioeconomy is one path, although a privileged one…

TG: Yes, but sustainable, it must be sustainable, otherwise the remedy could be worse than the disease.

Excerpt:

Ministers, authorities and international representatives who participated in the celebration of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, on June 17, in the Middle of the World City, in Ecuador, the first Latin American country to host the event called “Global Observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification.” Credit: Ela Zambrano/IPS

By Ela Zambrano
MIDDLE OF THE WORLD CITY, Ecuador, Jun 18 2018 (IPS)

Sustainable land management (SLM) and conservation are the recipes that with different ingredients represent the basis for combating soil degradation, participants in the event to celebrate the World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD)agreed on Jun. 17 in Ecuador.

Under the theme “Land has true value. Invest in it,” a Latin American country hosted for the first time the celebration of the World Day, in the Middle of the World City, Ecuador, a country that stands out for sustainable soil management initiatives.

The WDCD’s slogan for 2018, in fact, is linked to Ecuador’s proposal to recover the concept of the bioeconomy, in the sense that “there cannot be unlimited extraction; there must be a commitment to preservation and to sustainable land management,” the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, José Miguel Torrico, told IPS."The role of women in land sustainability is key, since women are in the majority among peasant farmers in Asia and Africa, according to 2017 data, so they should be provided training, technology, and information." -- Tarja Halonen

The conference, held symbolically in the Middle of the World City, some 25 km from the centre of Quito, was led by the UNCCD deputy executive secretary, Pradeep Monga.

“There is a close relationship between the soil and water; between the soil and climate; between the soil and biodiversity; connections that traditional cultures enjoy together, and it is something we can learn from Ecuador,” Monga said during an international colloquium that was a central part of the WDCD celebration, which has been taking place since 1995.

Everything that is produced and consumed in the world uses resources that come from the earth, he said, citing the example that 10 square metres of land are needed to make a bicycle. “There is a footprint on the earth that we cannot quantify,” he warned.

The UNCCD goodwill ambassador and former president of Finland (2000-2012), Tarja Halonen, presented an estimate of the impact on the economy, pointing out that “desertification affects our countries by about nine percent of the GDP, which amounts to 23 trillion dollars annually.”

Halonen also stressed that it is essential for a gender perspective to be incorporated in the fight against desertification.

“The role of women in land sustainability is key, since women are in the majority among peasant farmers in Asia and Africa, according to 2017 data, so they should be provided training, technology, and information,” she said.

Joao Campari, Global Leader of Food Practices in the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), said “We are consuming too much,”, referring to the elements that put pressure on soils and drives degradation.

“Forty percent of food is thrown away every day; in some countries of the world more is consumed than is needed, and in others, there is nothing to eat,” so there is a need to reduce pressure on ecosystems, he said.

For his part, John Preissing, representative in Ecuador of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said that combating land desertification is closely linked to the fight against hunger.

(L to R): John Preissing (FAO), Ecuadorian Environment Minister Tarsicio Granizo, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister José Valencia), UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary Pradeep Monga, and UN-Ecuador representative Arnaud Peral pose with posters for Sustainable Development Goals during the colloquium on the World Day to Combat Desertification in Ecuador. Credit: Ela Zambrano/IPS

That is why it is necessary to make progress, for example, towards “smart livestock farming, one of the main causes of degradation, but at the same time one of the main sources of food.”

One of the hosts of the WDCD celebration, Ecuador’s Environment Minister Tarsicio Granizo, stressed that soil degradation “is not only an environmental problem; it is a problem that has to do with food sovereignty and security.”

Granizo recalled that Ecuador, like other Latin American countries and other developing regions of the South, is facing a bleak situation, because “it is estimated that 47 percent of the soils are suffering from degradation problems and 20 percent are seriously desertified.”

But, as was commented during the colloquium, Ecuador stands out for its proposals to address the problem, such as the BioEcuador initiative, which incorporates sustainable land management through the bioeconomy, and the Integrated Management Plan to Combat Desertification, Land Degradation and Adaptation to Climate Change.

These projects, said the local minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, José Valencia, are some of the credentials with which the country demonstrates its determination in favour of sustainable development.

Valencia also pointed out, “as a sign of political will, the fact that 110 countries have established national targets to combat desertification, whose impacts affect human beings, biodiversity and ecosystem services,” within the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

During the colloquium it was stressed that reducing soil degradation is a cross-cutting target in several of the 17 SDGs.

Torrico, meanwhile, underscored that in terms of human mobility, desertification generates different consequences in the regions of the South.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, countries are facing problems of population displacement within their borders, while in Africa, the continent with the greatest desertification, the phenomenon has generated the most severe problems of poverty and forced emigration, he explained.

With respect to the setting of measures, the UNCCD regional coordinator cited that “in Latin America there is an important initiative, the 20/20; to recover 20 million degraded or deforested hectares by the year 2020.”

“All the countries in Latin America and around the world are assessing their problems (of degradation), the locations and how they can solve them, which has enabled them to set concrete goals,” he said.

Several ministers from Caribbean countries participated in the events of the WDCD, as well as delegates from European and Latin American governments and representatives of environmental and social organisations.

Ecuadorian minister Granizo considered that the South-South exchange is an element that should be added to the fight against desertification. “There are local experiences that have been successful in some countries, that could work in others, but they remain limited to local experiences,” he explained.

The participants warned that efforts to neutralise degradation must be accelerated. If not enough progress has been made by 2050, “50 percent of the land will be in the process of degradation and there will be a decrease in food between 15 and 20 percent,” said Torrico.