nature for sale

the impacts of privatizing water and biodiversity

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executive summary

preface nature for sale

1. public support for private control

• introduction
• papua new guinea: the ‘invisible’ privatization of clan land
• croatia: the indirect impact of EU trade liberalization
• bolivia: privatization and social unrest
• ghana: ifi’s and water privatization
• indonesia: the new water resources law and privatization

2. water privatization

• introduction
• paraguay: privatizing the guarani aquifer
• water a human right
• canada: privatization, contamination and nationalization
• central and eastern europe: water privatization
• impeding access to water through public finance
• uruguayans: unite against water sell-off
• philippines: cholera and higher water rates
• scotland: scottish water, a private company under public control
• colombia: privatizing community aqueducts
• el salvador: water as a social problem
• nigeria: denying access to drinking water
• malaysia: good public governance
• palestine: occupation and privatization of water aquifers
• australia: positive flows imposed by government

3. selling forests & parks to loggers & tourist companies

• a tragedy of the commons?
• australia: forest and plantation privatization in victoria
• georgia: protecting forests
• indonesia: privatization of national parks
• malaysia: the privatization of gunung mulu national park
• swaziland: biodiversity privatization and human rights abuses
• usa: the disneyfication of its parks
• malta: golf course defeated

4. the new markets 1: selling carbon

• the carbon market: “nature on sale” all over again
• costa rica: markets of environmental services and the privatization of resources
• brazil: plantar – privatizing the climate and land for profit
• carbon sinks or sinking climate
• paraguay: life as commerce? mbaracayú: land of the aché

5. the new markets 2: selling our genes & knowledge

• introduction
• england: bioprospecting
• the group of mega-diverse countries
• the new columbus: craig venter conquers latin american genes
• some current patents
• UPOV – plant breeders’ rights
• biopiracy and its impacts on biological and cultural diversity
• canada: court case rules in favour of patents on life
• costa rica: biopiracy and the case of INBio
• developing countries defending their genetic resources

6. conclusion: privatization & the poor

• excluding the poor
• togo: drinking water
• colombia: monetarization of life: the case of green markets
• the millenium development goals for sale!
• russia - siberia: communism and capitalism: different roads to the same place
• latvia: finnish pulp factory threatens local forests

 

“I also think – and this may sound like heresy – that the whole biodiversity issue is beginning to sound more like economics than biology. As science begins to penetrate the gene structure, the equatorial rainforests enter into the valuation process. Science serves the economy, and both of them serve capital. Today, rainforest communities are evicted and their territories appropriated along with their traditional knowledge, which is given a market value. All of this lies at the heart of the new environmental conflicts; this also explains the war the US and its allies are waging in the Andean region.

Community management of rainforests cannot be considered a true alternative if it fails to question the foundations of the prevailing economic model. As in the old proverb “let’s change everything without changing a thing”, some people change the official discourse, but their aim is still profit. Greenwash cannot be allowed to take over new initiatives.

The sustainable economic relations advocated so strongly by multilateral institutions are not sufficient to create sustainable societies. We need an economy that ensures the welfare of all society, that guarantees not only monetary income, but also food sovereignty and equality, ecological conservation and cultural sovereignty. Societies need to regain control of political and social structures in order to ensure control over the profound transformations required.”

Hildebrando Velez Galeano, CENSAT/Friends of the Earth-Colombia, “Communities do it Best”, Link Magazine, 2002. www.foei.org/publications