2. right to claim ecological debt
For decades, northern countries have
helped themselves to the natural riches of
Latin America , Asia and Africa in order to
fuel an unsustainable economic growth. The
exploitation of forests, biodiversity,
minerals, oil and traditional knowledge has
left environmental destruction and social
and cultural upheaval in its wake. Friends
of the Earth International is calling for
the recognition and repayment of the
ecological debt – the cumulative results of
decades of resource plundering, destroyed
biodiversity, environmental damage, waste
dumping and climate change -- owed by
industrialized countries to the people of
the South.
Affected communities and Friends of the
Earth in Paraguay and Argentina are calling
upon the World Bank and Inter-American
Development Bank to provide compensation
and remediation for the environmental and
social disruption caused by the
Yacyretá mega dam
. On the
opposite side of the world,
Friends of the Earth
Scotland
is building alliances between
Scottish and southern communities in order
to address the repayment of the ecological
debt
