Benefits and Burdens of Transnational Campaigns: A Comparison Of Four Oil Struggles In Ecuador

Abstract

Through an examination of four sites of contention in Ecuador, this study explores the impacts of transnational campaigns on domestic organizations and community groups while holding constant the focus of conflict, the construction of an oil pipeline. The international organizations verified local claims, enabled access to international venues such as conferences and investor meetings, and influenced the financing of future large-scale projects. Yet, the transnational campaigns unintentionally emphasized environmental conservation at the expense of local dignity-in-life claims, resonated only with select groups, and potentially undermined domestic networking building. The Northern campaigns emphasized World Bank standards that were arguably weak on environmental protection, especially when compared to the environmental justice demands arising in the oil hubs. Indeed, community participation, environmental health regulation, and economic redistribution may be better achieved through grassroots efforts that target the state, rather than through transnational engagement dependent on international bodies and concerns.

Offshore Oil, Environmental Movements, and the Oil‐Tourism Interface: The Old Harry Conflict on Canada's East Coast

“…Intervention in political networks is justified by the perception that new oil extraction creates risk for established tourism networks. This is consistent with Widener's (2009) work on oil tourism, which finds that environmental interests in Ecuador use the value of nature-based tourism when mobilizing against oil development. As with the wilderness and wildlife discourse, the drive to preserve existing social-ecological networks is linked to the degree to which ecological networks are integrated with economic networks.…”

“…While tourism is intimately bound up with mobility networks, the associated environmental costs are often overlooked. Widener's (2009) research on oil tourism in Ecuador and the Philippines highlights the less obvious connections between oil development and tourism. The threat of oil development can draw the attention of potential tourists to endangered environments that should be seen before they are altered by oil extraction.…”

“…The threat of oil development can draw the attention of potential tourists to endangered environments that should be seen before they are altered by oil extraction. Oil extraction can also serve as an incentive for "dark tourism" to places impacted by disasters like the Exxon Valdez wreck in Alaska (Widener 2009). Widener sums up the multifaceted, complex relationship between oil and tourism by noting that oil development "may attract media attention to the area; inspire community challenges to the oil industry or oil impact; increase funding for tourism infrastructure; and reinforce.…”

“…Nature-oriented tourism, by contrast, is built around wilderness iconography and promises economic benefits from non-extractive experiences of nature (Stoddart 2012;Urry and Larsen 2011). These industries are rarely analyzed in relation to each other (Jennings 2015;Widener 2009). To examine what we term the "oil-tourism interface," or the relationships between offshore oil and tourism sectors, we use the proposed offshore oil project called Old Harry in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.…”

“…Oil extraction has repeatedly prompted social movement mobilization elsewhere (Freudenburg and Gramling 1993;Gedicks 2001;Oriola 2013;Schl€ uter, Phillimore, and Moffat 2004;Widener 2007Widener , 2009). However, offshore oil and tourism are rarely incorporated into the same discussions about social and ecological sustainability in Atlantic Canada.…”