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| Feb. 12, 2006: Mobile Phone Tower found inside Podocarpus National Park Ecuador's Ministry of Environment allowed mobile phone company Porta, to set up a 30m high reception tower inside Podocarpus National Park, which is causing the death of birds, bats and beetles. This fact was witnessed on February the 12th by Ecuador Tierra Viva Travel Company (ETV) staff while hiking along a millenary trail located inside the boundaries of the Podocarpus National Park (PNP). To ETV staff and clients' dismay a layer of beetles was laying dead inside the tower compound, at least three different species of birds where found laying dead outside and inside the tower compound, a bat was seen hanging dead caught on the barb wire the circles the compound and last but not least, lots of construction garbage was found outside the compound (see pictures below). To top it all up an electric generator was also found near the entrance of the trail. As unbelievable as it seems, the local branch of the Ministry of Environment that oversees the PNP, believes that the tower has national priority and hence overrides any harmed caused to the park and to the species that inhabit the park. This argument could have worked if the park was the only place in the area where a tower of this sort could have been set up. However, the next mountain peak is not far away and in this place there is not a single standing tree. Why couldn't the tower be set up in the already deforested hills located next to the PNP? (To be continued...) By Peter Rodriguez (peter@ecuador-tierra-viva.com)
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