Ending ecocide in Almeria
December 9th, 2014
By Nick Meynen.
You don’t expect smiles and jokes from a
man who lives in a village that’s facing extinction due to ecocide (1).
But David Dene (66), a UK-born globetrotter, is beaming with energy and
happiness. The story he brings us is the story of Rio de Aguas, the
eco-village in Almeria (Spain) where he settled in the late nineties.
It’s a remarkable story about extraction versus renewal. About a
real-life David vs Goliath battle, where Goliath stands for a much
bigger and destructive enemy.
Ecocide at Rio de Aguas
People have been living in the Rio de
Aguas area since Neolithic times – despite the semi-arid climate and the
fragile ecosystem. This is one of the last wild places in Spain. The
landscape is dotted with caves and cliffs. The desert of Tabernas, where
Westerns were shot, is just seven kilometres away. The difference
between Rio de Aguas and Tabernas is that Rio de Aguas is fed by a
spring from a very ancient aquifer, which makes a huge difference in
ecosystem. The Natural Park around Rio de Aguas has wild goats, wild
cats and turtles, and many types of cactuses, fig trees and flowers.
That semi-arid paradise is now under
threat, including the people living in it. The Department of the
Environment has allowed a change of land usage, allowing “agricultural
production” on the aquifer. Permission has been granted for an
industrial, mechanized olive tree plantation on 3,600 hectares of land
that sit on top of the same aquifer that turned El Rio de Aguas in an
oasis in the desert. One million trees have already been planted on only
500 hectares, but investor Juan Carrion Caceres bought a total of 1500
hectares and plans to add another 2 million. It takes 25 times the flow
of the Rio de Aguas to irrigate the 1 million already planted, which is
why fossil underground water that has accumulated over millions of years
is now pumped up at great speed. As soon as there are 2 million more
trees, at least 1 billion litres of water per year will be needed, 3 to 5
times more than the total rainfall falling on the water basin and 75
times the flow of the river. Already, water tables and the flow in the
Rio de Aguas have dropped sharply, making life extremely difficult for
all villagers downstream. But in the face of these facts, David refuses
to see the investor as evil ‘I can only presume that he is unaware of
the catastrophe that he is bringing on our communities.’
Olive trees are of course not the issue
here. Olives are connected to life in the Mediterranean like salt is
connected to the sea. The issue is the industrial method. First, the
land is stripped naked and bulldozed until all slopes are at around 20
degrees to allow for mechanized harvesting using grape picking
machinery, harvesting at two hectares per hour. The planting of up to
9,000 trees a day uses laser technology and all trees are treated with
herbicide. ‘It is like mining everything flat, piercing the land,
poisoning it and sucking up all the ancient water to drip-feed export
products.’
David versus Goliath
Communities from Brazil, Cameroon or
Indonesia might recognise both the industrial tree plantation problem
and the David versus Goliath struggle: ‘we’re facing nepotism here: jobs
are given to friends and families, companies are closely tied to the
politicians in power and the attitude here is: if you don’t do what I
want you to do I’m going to give you trouble.’ As a result, most people
don’t want to be named because they’re afraid to stand up against
injustice perpetrated against nature and society by the rich and
powerful. ‘But that’s exactly why you have to show this mafia that it’s
not just you protesting, but that thousands of people are behind you,
including people of power and influence.’
So how did David get this campaign
started? ‘We had a torrential rain in 2012 and after that the water
situation was good. But six months later, the river went down as if a
bath plug had been taken out.’ David emailed pictures to the University
of Almería and in July 2014, Professor Jose Maria Calaforra confirmed
what the villagers already knew: the olive plantations are severely
damaging the spring of El Rio de Aguas. In 2011 an European Union
financed report had already declared the aquifer to be 330%
over-exploited. ‘With such facts I started the campaign. Three months
later, the Facebook page on the Ecocide in Rio de Aguas has 23.000
followers. We distributed 7,000 leaflets, had coverage in local
newspapers and received tremendous support from the End Ecocide team.
Legal support is coming in from both the USA and Europe. Our call for
help is being answered.’
Meanwhile, other organisations are doing
their bit in the resistance. The Grupo Ecologista Mediterráneo (GEM or
Mediterranean Green Group) opened a criminal investigation into a
plantation of 350 hectares irrigating 600,000 olive trees without
apparent irrigation permission and without an Environmental Impact
Assesment (Gespater S.L). This represents only one tenth of the area
under olive plantations, but it’s an important diversification in the
struggle as it opens a key battleground.
Inspired by Ecuadoreans
I want to know how David copes with all
these seemingly depressing facts. ‘It helps that I used to work in
Ecuador, where the situation is much worse and the leaders of the
resistance there are amazingly brave and strong. My fight here is
easier. I do not think that I will be criminalized and arrested for
protecting our water and our lives (2). There is no need to feel down
when I am working with such spirited people in Ecuador. It also helps
that there is a strong solidarity here in Rio de Aguas. I live in a
global circle of friendship, confidence, trust and help, which avoids
fear and anger. Look at our campaign: there’s no judgment, no anger. The
whole campaign is about facts.’
But these facts are so depressing that I
still wonder how David beams with positive energy. Only in the end of
the interview I start to understand how he does it. ‘It’s essential to
enjoy what we’re doing. We’re going to enjoy the intensity of this
experience every bit of the way. We’re soon organising a music festival
for 300 to 500 people. We keep talking about facts and with the festival
people can’t ignore it. It is happening. But you have to have
compassion for those who don’t understand – you cannot become
judgmental, and that is the hard part. Don’t fight it, allow it. Don’t
move into a confrontational situation. I try to expand the box without
belittling the other person. It also helps that here in the valley I
have a super-direct connection to the ecosystem and everybody here has
that, somewhere inside. It’s here that we can and must reawaken the idea
that we are the custodians of the planet and to stop acting like
rapists and parasites; that we need to work for the well-being of nature
and the biosphere, our life-support system. My mission is to raise that
awareness of the total interdependence. We have to disengage from the
consumer society which is blinding us to the reality of nature. I’m part
of nature, part of the micro-organisms, and so are you. We are not
masters, but a part of the system. We have to stop denying this.’
It seems that globetrotting David has
moved once more to settle down in this most energetic and promising
place, or rather sphere, which Naomi Klein eloquently describes as
Blockadia: the land of people connected to place but also globally
united in their struggle for environmental justice.
(1) Eco-cide derives from the Greek “oikos” meaning “house” or “home” and the Latin “caedere” meaning “strike down, demolish, kill”. It literally translates to killing our home. Ecocide is the destruction of our natural environment. Defined as the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystems of a given territory it covers all major environmental disasters. More information on ending ecocide is here.
(2) In between recording and
pubishing this interview, José Isidro Tendetza Antun, one of David’s
Ecuadorian friends and a leader from the Shuar resisting the Mirador
mine project, was found dead. See our reporting on that here. David asked us to include the following lines in this interview:
“José Isidro Tendetza Antun was our
companion, we bought him his ticket to Lima. This was a great man who
devoted and gave his life in the protection of his territory, his land,
and for the lives of his people. This man has become a martyr for the
land of the Ecuatorian Amazon, and for the Shuar Nation. We honor,
remember and hold his inspiring words in our hearts. May our warrior
friend rest in peace.” On the facebook page of Ecocide El Rio de Aguas Spain there’s also a tribute video.
More info
The issue of industrial tree plantations is covered in depth in EJOLT report 3: An overview of industrial tree plantations in the global South. Conflicts, trends and resistance struggles
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The YouTube link is of my 5 minute film presentation of our situation in El Rio, which I gave in the UN Building in Geneva as a reason why we need Rights for Nature. This is an adventure. !
