KAIROS Partner Acción Ecólogica Recognized for its Ecological and Community Work
KAIROS partner Acción Ecólogica in Ecuador received the prestigious international award, Georgescu-Roegen, for its 25 years of work in defense of nature, the rights of communities and local economies. The prize was granted by the president of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Join us in congratulating them for their tremendous work. The following is a translation of the press release announcing their receipt of this award:
On February 2, 2013, Acción Ecólogica was presented with the first ever Georgescu-Roegen Award during the 13th Delhi Sustainable 
Development Summit, in India.
The award was presented by R.K. Pachauri, president of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on behalf of a jury comprised of such influential actors in bio-economics as Herman Daly and Joan Martínez Alier.
Georgescu-Roegen was a Romanian mathematician, statistician and economist best known for his work The Entropy Law and the Economics Process. He was the first economist to speak about thermodynamics and entropy. He was a precursor to the re-inscription of the concept of economy in the biosphere and in the long term – pillars of “biological economics” and of what he termed “bio-economy.”
Acción Ecológica received this award in recognition of its history of more than 25 years fostering the defense of the environment, the rights of communities and of local economies.
In its letter of acceptance, Acción Ecológica states: “We experience this recognition as a tribute to the local, national, international efforts, of which we are part, to move towards a new post-petroleum dependent civilization that respects life and its natural cycles.”
Acción Ecológica also highlights that “we live in a highly schizophrenic context in which the drive is to increasingly exploit the richness of the earth, especially oil, even with the knowledge that this is the main cause of the local and global environmental crisis; a context in which new markets and dependencies are sought, even with the knowledge that losing self-governance is our death sentence; a context in which the economy is thought to be efficient when it helps the wealthy, and to be in crisis when it helps the poor.”
In the letter, Acción Ecológica clearly indicates its commitment to “continue to defend life, to continue the initiative of non-exploitation of the Yasuni National Park, and to work towards the yasunization of new territories throughout the world, alongside a world movement in defense of life, with which we would like to share this recognition.”
Furthermore, it indicates that the communities that resist and defend their territories not only must not be criminalized, but also must be recognized, protected and respected.
This type of recognition demonstrates that local resistance, environmentalism, eco-feminism and the defense of human rights are alive and well, are necessary, have great political and financial significance, and are inscribed in the international scene as the voices that make the path towards utopia possible.
For more information on KAIROS’ work with Latin American partners, please contact Rachel Warden, Latin America Partnerships coordinator, rwarden@kairoscanada.org
