Ricardo went to Ecuador invited by the Third World Ecological Studies Institute (Instituto de Estudios Ecologistas del Tercer Mundo) to deliver a number of conferences and a one week course of forests and plantations. Quito, Riobamba, Esmeraldas and Cuenca were the cities where the conferences were held, with an average of 100 people attending each. The course took place in the Amazonia. In all cases the audience was very broad, including environmentalists, foresters, development NGOs, students, teachers, representatives from indigenous and peasant organizations, FAO, government officials and even the military.
The organizers also managed to open up spaces in a number of local radio programmes with a wide audience. WRM opinions on deforestation (also including mangrove destruction by shrimp farming) and industrial plantations (including eucalyptus, pine trees and oil palms) were quite easily understood by most, except for foresters! As a follow up, Ricardo wrote an article on the forest and plantation issue in Ecuador, published in Spanish in the Third World Network magazine Revista del Sur. Anyone interested in a copy of the article please let us know.