Pesticide industries must pay for debts to the poorest countries: Last August at least 80 participants (mainly from the region but also from Europe) gathered in Quito, Ecuador, for a conference on ecological debt organized by Jubilee South America and several other Latin American networks. The discussion focused on the implications of claiming the social and ecological debt from the developed countries responsible for environmental contamination. Mining, deforestation, and the legacy of the green revolution were implicated as the causes of most of the pesticide contamination in the environment and to the human beings who live and work in or near these areas. Pesticide Action Network of Latin America introduced a short video documentary about the problems caused by these industries. The worst examples were the extensive amount of illness experienced by banana plantation workers. There has been no compensation by the companies for the damages their products cause in humans or to the environment.
Countries and workers are in the process of submitting claims of “recognition” of the social and ecological debt accumulated by several northern companies. Within this recognition framework, compensation and restoration of damaged ecosystems will be negotiated and outlined. This implies that the commercial interests and economic power of these companies based in the North must be balanced with the social and ecological impacts in the South.—M Lanuza
