Ecology might be defined as the art of living gracefully with one’s own environment; David Orr defines ecological design by similar lines as that which gently lives in its ecological, cultural, and physical setting.  The ecology movement of Nicaraguans through their own process of education has been an enlightening struggle of an oppressed people opening up to positive design despite limitless objections and obstacles set forth by the business world.  In this they take a place of honor among other Indigenous and peasant peoples from around the world in standing up for environmental justice. However due to 60 years of cash crops, the majority of the country’s Native people are now unable to remember how to farm their Native crops, and have become reliant on white starches and flours. 

            The recent company standoffs with the Nicaraguan people are:

“As many as 20,000 banana workers and their families in Nicaragua are suffering serious health problems, including sterility and birth defects from the use of nemagon, a pesticide that was banned for use in the U.S. in 1979. Five hundred banana workers filed a lawsuit in Nicaraguan courts that won a $500 million judgment against U.S.-based companies Dole, Dow and Shell, but the companies refused to recognize the judgment.

They attacked the Nicaraguan law that was enacted to allow the affected banana workers to sue the chemical and fruit companies. Dole in particular claims it is environmentally and socially responsible on its banana plantations. The three companies recently counter-sued the claimants for fraud, claiming not everyone included in the suit worked at the affected plantations.

The companies are seeking $17 billion in damages. Recently, thousands of banana workers and their supporters marched from Chinandega, in the north of Nicaragua, to Managua, the capital, to publicize their plight and to demand support from Nicaragua's President Enrique Bolanos.[1]” (Kathy Hoyt, co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network, 2004.)

Despite this lose of knowledge they are trying to learn how to better care for their environment after the disaster of Hurricane Mitch and government and corporate abuses.  Forestry, the largest industry, has been affected by the wisdom of Nicaraguans to learn from their mistakes. In interviews with local teachers and business people, Nicaraguans expressed desire for jobs, but only if they were sustainable and have acted on this principle.  Prior to this at the time that José Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo, leader of the Liberal Alliance, a conservative coalition came to power, the country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in Nov., 1998,  killing 4,000 people, and burying 1,500 in a mudslide when the Casita volcano collapsed; much of the country's agricultural land and infrastructure were destroyed. The Liberal party continued its abuses into the presidency in the 2001 elections with Enrique Bolaños Geyer who defeated Daniel Ortega, but Geyer has been much more open-minded and even convicted his benefactor Aleman for embezzlement.  Aleman is now in prison.