By Maggie I. Jaruzel
The work of Amazon Watch, a California-based Mott grantee, was highlighted during the recently televised global LIVE EARTH concerts. A 60-second Public Service Announcement (PSA), narrated by actor Martin Sheen, described efforts to protect Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest.
The PSA aired several times, generating broad interest in the international campaign to save Yasuni National Park, one of the most bio-diverse ecosystems on the planet, said Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch, an international nongovernmental organization that supports the efforts of indigenous communities to protect the Amazon environment.
"The public response so far has been impressive. We have received hundreds of emails from peopl eager to take action to protect the Amazon. It's been incredible exposure for the Amazon issue," Soltani said.
Mott's Environment program, through its International Finance for Sustainability focus area, promotes environmentally sustainable development and supports greater public participation in the economic decisionmaking process of international financial institutions (IFIs). Since 1999, the Foundation has made five grants totaling $808,333, to Amazon Watch to support its IFI programs.
Amazon Watch’s short televised clip highlights a plan by Ecuador President Rafael Correa to avoid drilling in Yasuni National Park. He has proposed keeping the country’s oil in the ground in exchange for financial commitments from the international community to offset the lost oil revenues, estimated to range from $2 billion to $3.5 billion.
If those funds are secured, the government has pledged to invest the money in sustainable social development programs for people living in the rainforest because their lives have already been negatively impacted by previous oil projects in the region.
According to Soltani, in addition to creating health and social problems for people, oil drilling causes serious environmental damage. For example, drilling is not possible without tremendous deforestation. Globally, tropical deforestation is responsible for between 20 percent and 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Halting deforestation in the Amazon rainforest would be a key component of any plan to tackle global warming, Soltani said, adding that the Amazon rainforest plays a critical role in regulating global climate.
“The Amazon rainforest helps to create rain clouds that water farmers’ fields from Argentina to Iowa and helps power the trans-oceanic air currents. The livelihoods of millions of people are dependent upon those currents.”
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