Oil Conflict in Ecuador

Abstract

This article has three purposes. First, the photographs and text narrate the diverse and persistent mobilization efforts against the oil sector operating in the Amazon region of Ecuador. Second, the study explores limitations of resistance networks composed of Northern environmental and Ecuadorian domestic groups. These networks tend to target Northern oil multinationals while overlooking the increasing interest and influence of Asian oil firms in the Amazon. Third, the article is aimed at showing how photography can complement interviewing in field research and how it can be of methodological interest to environmental social scientists in the complex way it defines the role of the researcher.

That Which Doesn’t Break Us: Identity Work by Local Indigenous ‘Stakeholders’

“…As in the case of previous studies, our findings of this study confirm that local Indigenous Peoples suffer serious cultural impacts from negative impacts to the local ecology and through societal changes related to oil and gas development (Garcia and Vredenburg, 2003;Lertzman and Vredenburg, 2005;O'Rourke and Connolly, 2003;Whiteman and Mamen, 2002;Widener, 2007). In contrast to previous studies, we show in this study how the Machiguenga actively engaged in boundary spanning identity work in the face of such dynamic changes.…”

“…A growing body of research clearly documents hostile interactions between Indigenous Peoples, and multinational companies and national governments that are forcibly developing Indigenous lands (e.g. Banerjee, 2000;Calvano, 2008;Cragg and Schwarz, 1996;Flanagan and Whiteman, 2005;Imbun, 2007;Kapelus, 2002;Lertzman and Vredenburg, 2005;McCormick, 2006;Moore, 1998;Szablowski, 2002;Wheeler et al, 2002;Whiteman, 2004a, b;Whiteman and Mamen, 2002;Widener, 2007).…”

Serendipitous conservation: Impacts of oil pipeline construction in rural northwestern Ecuador

“…Many argue that focusing conservation efforts on biodiversity 'hotspots' is failing (Myers, 1993;Terborgh, 1999). For instance, by 1988 only 8% of western Ecuador's prime forest remained (Dodson and Gentry, 1991), but conservation efforts still abound with some success (Rudel, 2000;Welford, 2000;Welford and DeFalco, 2003;Widener, 2007Widener, , 2009. Looking eastward to the Ecuadorian Amazon, conservation has been hit-and-miss.…”

“…Nevertheless, dark and human misery tours, collectively known as 'dark tourism', are a growing economic sector (Lennon and Foley, 2000). Widener (2007Widener ( , 2009 argues that oil disasters (and implicitly all mining developments) that attract media attention can inspire community, national and transnational challenges to oil and mining developments such as Podocarpus NP (Noboa, 1997;Tello et al, 1998); stimulate tourism infrastructure growth (Widener, 2007(Widener, , 2009; and mobilize communities, for example Mindo, to seek alternatives to oil development such as expanding tourism (Widener, 2007(Widener, , 2009. This latter example speaks to the notion of nature-society hybrids (Zimmerer, 2000) where this example of conservation is part of a boom in conservation that illustrates a reworking of capitalist modernity.…”

“…Notwithstanding this split, by the early 1990s, the roots of environmental activism and a community-wide conservation mentality in Mindo were firmly entrenched and tourism (although not necessarily ecotourism) was being actively promoted by community/town leaders as a viable economic alternative to cutting the forest (Widener, 2007(Widener, , 2009(Widener, , multiple interviews 2014. At the time, the most significant component of tourism by far was bird-related tourism.…”