Here is the text of a resolution that I’m submitting for the Hands Off Venezuela conference next week.
This conference notes that the previous model of economic development in Venezuela has resulted in severe ecological degradation in many parts of the country.
Conference also notes that it is the country’s working class and poor who have been most adversely affected by this disregard for environmental considerations which the race for profits has created.
Conference further notes
- The plan by the Environment and Natural Resource Ministry to reduce the air pollution levels in Caracas by 80 percent in 2007, with the goal of being pollution free by 2010.
- The improved protection of waterways and fishing areas, especially those affected by oil exploration and drilling.
- The protection of unique ecological areas and indigenous lands, such as the 3.6 million-hectare Imataca Forest Reserve.
- The assistance given to thousands of coffee-growing families in the Andes region to establish environmentally sustainable organic coffee and vegetable co-operatives.
- The banning of the cultivation of genetically engineered crops on Venezuelan soil and the establishment of a large seed bank to maintain indigenous seeds for peasant movements around the world.
Conference agrees to show our full support for such important developments by trying to disseminate information about the revolution’s commitment to Venezuela ‘s environment in our publications.
Conference also expresses its concern that a few large mining and energy projects – like the opening of further coal concessions in the Sierra Perija or the plan for a gas pipeline through the Amazon basin to Argentina – appear to repeat the old pattern of disregard for the environment and have brought opposition from indigenous groups and environmentalists in Venezuela and other countries of Latin America.
Conference therefore urges the Bolivarian government to submit all such development plans to the strictest environmental and socio-ecological standards and to direct democratic control by the communities concerned.
Liam redux 
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