Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

160 • ECOTAGEstate embracing Turkish-speaking peoples from Turkey through CentralAsia and including the Xinjiang-Uighur region.ECOTAGE. A name used by environmentalist terrorists to describetheir own nonstate political violence with the limited objective ofcombating what they view as antienvironmental actions and policies,whether by private or public agencies. The term ecotage, or monkeywrenching,is meant to emphasize that these terrorists target propertyrather than people, which they believe distinguishes their violencefrom terrorism proper; they also use the term eco-defense. Criticsof environmental extremism have used the term environmental terrorismto cover a wide range of groups, actions, and causes, such asEarth First! environmental activists, Sea Shepherd, and Greenpeaceantiwhaling and anti–seal hunting activists, and animal rights activistssuch as the Animal Liberation Front.Properly speaking, environmentalist terrorists are those groupsinvolved in monkeywrenching, or sabotage, activities directed atlogging, ski-resort development, and the like. It can be argued thatthe agenda of the animal rights groups is not essentially environmentalistas such; certain actions conducted by these groups, suchas the release of lab animals or mink into the wild, is arguably antienvironmentalinsofar as certain of these animals are often exoticto the environment into which they are released and may well carrydiseases and parasites into the local ecosystem that would harm nativespecies. Despite this, several ecotage attacks have been carriedout jointly in the names of both the Earth Liberation Front and theAnimal Liberation Front. The Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace groupsrepresent groups that have combined environmentalism and animalrights activism since they are seeking to preserve whales, dolphins,and seals within the context of their existing habitats.The term monkeywrenching gained currency with Dave Foreman’s1985 book Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching,which gives step-by-step procedures for tree spiking (putting metalor ceramic spikes into trees to make them unprofitable as lumber),spiking devices for flattening the tires of off-road vehicles, destructionof bulldozing and logging equipment, destroying traps, vandalizingbillboards and unoccupied cabins and condos, and tying upcorporate 800 numbers with automated computer phone-ins, amongother things.