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''In Argentina there is environmental masquerading'' |
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By Francesca Colombo*
Argentine
biologist Raúl Montenegro, winner of the ''Alternative Nobel Prize'',
spoke with Tierramérica about his environmental achievements.
BUENOS AIRES - Argentine biologist Raúl Montenegro
will receive in December the Right Livelihood Award, known as the
''Alternative Nobel Prize'', for his ''outstanding and wide-ranging
work with local communities and indigenous peoples to protect the
environment and conserve natural resources in Latin America and
elsewhere.''
The prize, whose name refers to the principle that ''each person
should follow an honest occupation'', recognizes people who provide
practical answers to major contemporary problems. It was founded
in 1980 and includes an award of 268,000 dollars. Montenegro will
receive it in a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament.
Montenegro is a professor of evolutionary biology at the University
of Córdoba, in central Argentina, and president of that province's
Environmentalist Foundation, FUNAM. He has dedicated his life to
anti-nuclear activities, creating protected nature areas, fighting
chemical contamination, combating deforestation, and protecting
water resources.
He has worked in Latin American and African countries, as well as
India, and says he learned in his travels that knowledge is to be
found closer to the earth, far from urban lights.
In 1992 the activist received the Austrian Nuclear-Free Future Award;
in 1989 the Global 500 prize from the United Nations; and in 1971
the scientific research award given by the University of Buenos
Aires.
Q: What does receiving the Alternative Nobel mean to you?
A: It is an international pat on the back for the soul. When one
experiences so many struggles, many of them difficult and fruitless,
and one receives so many threats and pressures, the prize is like
a shield that I can be thankful for and enjoy.
Q: What are the leading environmental problems in Argentina?
A: Corruption, inept officials, and the selfishness of companies
and of many citizens. The result is a country that has increasingly
less natural environment, and more and more contamination. More
than 80 percent of the native forests have been destroyed. There
is no environmental management; there is environmental masquerading.
Q: The Mbya tekoa yma and Tekoa kapii yuate communities
have been thrown off their lands in the Yabotí reserve, in Misiones
province (northeast), by private companies that are logging hundred-year-old
trees and destroying habitat. What has FUNAM achieved in defense
of these communities?
A: A lot, but it's not enough. It has revealed the four leading
culprits in that silent genocide: the Mocomá Forestal company, Misiones'
Governor Carlos Rovira, Ecology Minister Luis Jacobo and director
of Guaraní affairs Arnulfo Verón. FUNAM won a yearlong moratorium
on tree extraction, though it isn't strictly enforced, and it established
that (indigenous) communities must be owners of the territories
where they live.
Q: Is it possible to halt the genocide and the chainsaws
with e-mail and fax campaigns like FUNAM is conducting?
A: Yes, because their impact is tremendous. Governments fear that
sort of international pressure and the publicity of how they are
responsible (for environmental problems).
Q: Another FUNAM campaign calls for a ban on the hunting
and trade of iguanas. Has that produced results?
A: We won for an undetermined amount of time an end to hunting without
quotas. We also publicized ties between the governor of Córdoba,
Eduardo Angeloz, and La Unión tannery. The scandal and the subsequent
bankruptcy of the firm led to a drastic reduction in iguana hunting.
Q: In 1994 FUNAM was in Guatemala to fight the construction
of a Canadian nuclear reactor. What was that experience like?
A: Exceptional. We explained to the national environmental agency
the risks of that reactor, and we convinced them to take a stance
against its entry into the country. Years later we led a similar
campaign in Zimbabwe and they shelved an initiative to buy an Argentine
nuclear reactor.
Q: Why do you say that FUNAM is ''truly Third World''?
A: Because we work without pay, and with ridiculously low budgets.
In 23 years we have hardly used any external funds. Despite our
limited financial capacity, we are a headache for many governments
and corporations. But the communities respect us.
Q: Must an academic like you have his feet in the dirt in
order to achieve change?
A: It's important, but also to know how to step out when one is
always in contact with the earth. I bring the technical tools to
the community, but also in the field I obtain ideas and knowledge
that is important for academia. Ivory towers are as dangerous as
getting down to the dirt. The challenge is to have humility and
to never stop learning.
* Francesca Colombo is a Tierramérica contributor.
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