The Entanglements of Oil Extraction and Sustainability in the Ecuadorian Amazon

AbstractOcelots were historically hunted for their skins but habitat loss is now their most serious threat, causing rapid declines in populations throughout their range. Ocelot abundance has been estimated for various locations across the Neotropics, but we still lack this information from some countries, including Ecuador. Knowing whether ocelot abundance is increasing or decreasing is important to assess the conservation status of this species and the conditions of its habitats in the Ecuadorian Amazon and in the region. To determine whether ocelot abundance and its behavior are affected by human-related activities, camera-trap surveys were carried out in two localities of Yasuní National Park (YNP), one that has experienced hunting, oil extraction, and roads (Maxus Road) and one that is largely unaffected by these activities (Lorocachi). During the survey, 35 and 36 individual ocelots were photographed in Maxus Road and Lorocachi, respectively. Population density estimates were similar for both localities, ranging from 0.31 (SE±6) to 0.85 (SE±17) ocelots/km

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Aguinda v. Texaco Inc.

Journal of Legal Anthropology ◽

10.3167/jla.2010.010201 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 147-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Veronica Davidov

Keyword(s):

Scientific Knowledge ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Oil Extraction ◽

The State ◽

Legal Process ◽

Complex Relation ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon ◽

Legal Structures ◽

A Site ◽

Collective Representations

This article analyzes a series of litigations that began with the Aguinda v. Texaco Inc. case as a site of production of new legal subjectivities for indigenous communities in the region of the Ecuadorian Amazon polluted by oil extraction activities. They engage in the transnational and local legal structures, contribute to and generate legal and scientific knowledge and expertise, and articulate multiple legal subjectivities that position them not only as homogenous plaintiffs in a highly publicized lawsuit, but also as legal actors in complex relation to each other, and to the state. Through such engagements with this legal process, indigenous actors are recrafting their collective representations in ways that challenge the ‘ecoprimitive’ stereotypes of indigeneity, historically associated with the ‘paradox of primitivism.’

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Is this a Real Choice? Critical Exploration of the Social License to Operate in the Oil Extraction Context of the Ecuadorian Amazon

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12208416 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (20) ◽

pp. 8416

Author(s):

Alberto Diantini ◽

Salvatore Eugenio Pappalardo ◽

Tim Edwards Powers ◽

Daniele Codato ◽

Giuseppe Della Fera ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Structural Equation ◽

Local Community ◽

Reference Model ◽

Procedural Fairness ◽

Oil Extraction ◽

Social License To Operate ◽

Social License ◽

The Social ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon ◽

Oil Company

The purpose of this research was to critically analyze the social license to operate (SLO) for an oil company operating in Block 10, an oil concession located in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The specific study area is an important biodiversity hotspot, inhabited by indigenous villages. A mixed-methods approach was used to support a deeper understanding of SLO, grounded in participants’ direct experience. Semi-structured interviews (N = 53) were conducted with village leaders and members, indigenous associations, State institutions, and oil company staff, while household surveys were conducted with village residents (N = 346). The qualitative data informed a modified version of Moffat and Zhang’s SLO model, which was tested through structural equation modelling (SEM) analyses. Compared to the reference model, our findings revealed a more crucial role of procedural fairness in building community trust, as well as acceptance and approval of the company. Procedural fairness was found to be central in mediating the relationship between trust and the effects of essential services provided by the company (medical assistance, education, house availability) and sources of livelihoods (i.e., fishing, hunting, harvesting, cultivating, and waterway quality). The main results suggested that the concept of SLO may not appropriately apply without taking into account a community’s autonomy to decline company operation. To enhance procedural fairness and respect for the right of community self-determination, companies may need to consider the following: Establishing a meaningful and transparent dialogue with the local community; engaging the community in decision-making processes; enhancing fair distribution of project benefits; and properly addressing community concerns, even in the form of protests. The respect of the free prior informed consent procedure is also needed, through the collaboration of both the State and companies. The reduction of community dependence on companies (e.g., through the presence of developmental alternatives to oil extraction) is another important requirement to support an authentic SLO in the study area.

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NewCernotinacaddisflies from the Ecuadorian Amazon (Trichoptera: Polycentropodidae)

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.3960 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. e3960 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lucas M. Camargos ◽

Blanca Ríos-Touma ◽

Ralph W. Holzenthal

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Crude Oil ◽

Male Genitalia ◽

Amazon Basin ◽

Oil Extraction ◽

Environmental Threat ◽

Two New Species ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon ◽

First Time

Two new species of the caddisfly genusCernotinaRoss, 1938 (Polycentropodidae) are described from the lowland Amazon basin of Ecuador,Cernotina tiputini, new species, andCernotina waorani, new species. These represent the first new species described from this region. We also record from Ecuador for the first timeCernotina hastilisFlint, previously known from Tobago, and present new Ecuadorian locality records forC.cygneaFlint, andC.lobisomemSantos & Nessimian. The homology of the intermediate appendage of the male genitalia of this genus is established. The region surveyed is under severe environmental threat from logging, mining, and crude oil extraction, making the description of the biodiversity of the region imperative.

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On Indigeneity, Change, and Representation in the Northeastern Ecuadorian Amazon

Environment and Planning A Economy and Space ◽

10.1068/a36182 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 285-303 ◽

Cited By ~ 58

Author(s):

Gabriela Valdivia

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Market Integration ◽

Ways Of Knowing ◽

Oil Extraction ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

Neoliberal Reforms ◽

The World ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon ◽

Opening Up

Neoliberal reforms throughout Latin America are intended to promote development by opening up economies and encouraging market-oriented practices. These reforms have deeply affected the lives of indigenous peoples and their relationship with extralocal actors. Today, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, some indigenous peoples participate in oil-extraction negotiations, tourism, and intensive cattle ranching and agriculture as part of increased market integration. In the midst of these changes, questions about what ‘indigeneity’ means, both in integrating into and in resisting neoliberal reforms, are increasingly important for understanding social justice and environmental conservation issues in the Amazon region. The author explores how engagement with neoliberal practices and ways of knowing the world has opened up spaces for questioning fixed notions of indigenous identities and their role in representing, imagining, and developing indigenous alliances and rights claims in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

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Oil Extraction in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Incorporating Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice

Conflict Resolution Quarterly ◽

10.1002/crq.21205 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 243-267

Author(s):

Ann Marie Hager ◽

James Larson ◽

Nene Kumashe Ugbah ◽

Vijay Ramesh

Keyword(s):

Conflict Resolution ◽

Oil Extraction ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon

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Maria’s Paradox: Oil Extraction and the Misery of Missing Development Alternatives in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Immiserizing Growth ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198832317.003.0009 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 203-225 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Murat Arsel ◽

Lorenzo Pellegrini ◽

Carlos F. Mena

Keyword(s):

Oil Extraction ◽

Buen Vivir ◽

Her Family ◽

Peasant Communities ◽

Living Well ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon ◽

Oil Sector ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Development Alternatives ◽

The Impact

Why do some residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon support the expansion of oil extraction in their communities even when they believe that the impact of extractive industries on their communities and families has been negative, environmentally as well as economically? Building on nearly a decade of participatory research in the region, this chapter contextualizes this paradoxical choice within Ecuador’s encounter with oil extraction, which has not only failed to deliver the anticipated economic miracle but also resulted in a variety of immiserizing effects, be they economic, cultural, or ecological. Caught between the state whose functions are governed by an ‘extractive imperative’ and the oil sector whose presence is overwhelming, indigenous and peasant communities have not scored meaningful gains either by protesting against these dominant actors or by engaging with the much vaunted but ultimately ineffective concept of buen vivir (living well). The chapter argues that immiserization in this context is best understood as the absence of meaningful pathways to socio-economic development which force the eponymous Maria to choose intensified extraction despite the sector’s pervasive negative impacts on her family and community.

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Oil Extraction and Indigenous Livelihoods in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon

World Development ◽

10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.10.035 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 78 ◽

pp. 125-135 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Matthew Bozigar ◽

Clark L. Gray ◽

Richard E. Bilsborrow

Keyword(s):

Oil Extraction ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon

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Allpa Mama: relaciones sociedad-naturaleza, procesos sociales y agencialidad/ Allpa Mama: society-nature relations, social movements and agency

Letras Verdes Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Socioambientales ◽

10.17141/letrasverdes.23.2018.3033 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 46-68

Author(s):

Natalia Catalina Valdivieso Kastner ◽

Anna Premauer Marroquín

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Social Movements ◽

Life Experience ◽

River Basins ◽

Oil Extraction ◽

Human Beings ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon ◽

Las Mujeres ◽

Politically Active

Para las mujeres kichwas que habitan las cuencas de los ríos Bobonaza y Curaray en la provincia de Pastaza, Ecuador, moldear cerámica es no solo una actividad femenina por excelencia, sino que esta implica un modo de relacionamiento con los seres humanos y no humanos que habitan su entorno. En la actualidad, esta experiencia de vida se ha visto en riesgo a partir de las licitaciones petroleras que desde el 2012 se adelantan en la Amazonía ecuatoriana. Frente a la amenaza que podrían constituir las concesiones extractivas, varias mujeres kichwas -la mayoría ceramistas- se han levantado políticamente manifestando su descontento y abogando por la preservación de sus territorios. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo exponer cómo las mujeres kichwas de Pastaza, entablan relaciones con el territorio y la naturaleza a través de sus cuerpos y del tejido de la cerámica. Se plantea que el moldeamiento del barro aparece como un dispositivo que, además de evidenciar esta relación, se ha convertido en un medio económico y político a través del cual las mujeres kichwas tejen redes y obran en defensa de la reproducción de la vida tal y como ellas la conciben. Abstract For the Kichwa women living at the Bobonaza and Curaray river basins, in the Pastaza Province, Ecuador, molding ceramics is not just an activity women should take care of, but it also implies a way of relating to other human and non-human beings inhabiting in their environment. It also conveys a relationship with the materials and social and symbolic structures that give meaning to their experience. Since 2012 oil extraction tenders in the Ecuadorian Amazon have been posing a threat to their life experience. In this context of threats associated to extractive concessions, a number of Kichwa women –most of them ceramists– have become politically active and put forth their voice of disagreement to advocate the preservation of their territories. This paper seeks to illustrate how Kichwa women from Pastaza establish relationships with nature and territory through their bodies and the activity of “knitting” ceramics. It is argued that the activity of molding clay is both evidence of this relationship, and of economic and political means through which Kichwa women knit social networks and become agents in defending their territories.

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