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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
June 9, 2007
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| May 7, 2007 |
Green Solutions Towards A Sustainable El Salvador – Ricardo Navarro |
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| Ricardo Navarro with Ana Francis, a gender specialist from El Salvador |
Ricardo Navarro founded the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology (CESTA) in a bid to address the environmental and social needs that arose after the end of El Salvador's civil war. The impact on the environment post-war was devastating, to the extent that it is now the second most degraded country in Latin America. As president of CESTA - El Salvador's largest environmental NGO – Mr. Navarro, a trained engineer, has worked in collaboration with urban and rural communities, corporations as well as lobbying political parties to find ecological and sustainable solutions to this prevailing issue. |
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| Ricardo explains the different projects undertaken by CESTA |
Mr. Navarro stressed the idea of seeing that “environment and social problems are like an iceberg. There is a part of the iceberg you see and a bigger part that you don’t see. What you see is pollution, waste and deforestation, or on a social level poverty and lack of houses are the top layer of the iceberg. We do not see the social and political structure of society that makes the top layer happen. In our institution we work on both levels, the upper part and the political structure.” In 1995, Mr. Navarro was the recipient of the Goldman award, often referred to as the environmental 'Nobel Prize', for his work at CESTA. |
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| Ricardo and fellow guest educator Futoshi Sato talk about sustainable living |
Some Projects undertaken by CESTA:
"Eco-bici” project shows people how to build their own bicycle, recycle used bicycles and generally raises awareness about the environmental benefits of cycling.
Constructing dry composting latrines to prevent contamination of water supplies.
Promotion of organic agriculture to cut down on the need for costly chemicals and encourage the use of efficient stoves to lessen dependence on scarce fuel wood.
Rejuvenation of barren land by planting a tree for every person who died during the war. Over 65,000 fruit bearing and medicinal trees have been planted in this “Forest of Reconciliation” in Guazapa, a region bombed heavily with napalm during the war.
Saving sea turtles- an agreement was made with sea turtle catchers that each time a turtle is caught, 12% of the eggs are donated to CESTA. The eggs are then harvested, giving life to the turtles. |
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Why did you choose to found an environmental NGO during the civil war?
There are many layers to a society. For example if you think about climate change you will know it is created by overproduction of carbon dioxide. We are emitting more than the environment is capable of coping with. Who creates all the carbon dioxide? People with money. At the same time, people living in vulnerable situations are suffering. It is the big corporations that are interested in trading for money, so they push governments to create ‘free trade’ agreements and they created the World Trade Organization. What does free trade mean? By buying into this ‘free trade’ they let companies come and exploit our resources and the profits go back to the country the company comes from. So in El Salvador you will see roads, hydro-electric dams for the electricity… developments are being made with foreign investment in mind.
You have been criticized for being too political or spending too much time negotiating with politicians, what is your response to this?
El Salvadorians face many problems, but they are not just from El Salvador but also from the [United] States. You cannot talk about environmental problems without thinking about the political aspects. So in order to struggle for a better environment we have to work at the cause’s level. We have to fight legislative assemblies and world free trade agreements. A lot of mining corporations come to El Salvador because of the free trade agreements. They passed a mining law, it says that when a mining company finds gold and silver, they have a right to take 98% of the wealth obtained from what they extract. The other 2% can be negotiated, so it may be even less than this figure. Mining leaves a lot of pollution and destroys a lot of forest in order to get these minerals. There is an imbalance, people who did not enjoy the benefits but were left with the consequences pay for the price.
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