Oil offsets in Esmeraldas (Ecuador) When the promotion of development shores up unequal risk situations

Abstract

The radical school identifies development as a core strategy for enduring disaster risk reduction. Simultaneously, development policies pursued by neoextractivism States often result in social and territorial dynamics that recompose risk situations without necessarily reducing them. They sometimes even intensify them. The city of Esmeraldas perfectly illustrates the detrimental effects when it comes to the risks of a voluntarist State policy based on oil revenue. Esmeraldas hosts infrastructures that are strategic for the country, for oil processing and export from the Oriente oil fields. The periods of government under Correa's presidency (2007–2017) saw a momentum of compensatory investments (linked to the exploitation of primary resources) and pro-development (with respect to marginal territories catching up), which particularly concerned Esmeraldas. Analysis shows that the considerable sums invested in the city for these reasons resulted in the urban territory evolving without a shared vision. Ultimately, risk situations were recomposed (in certain cases intensified); the colossal economic resources that were mobilised did not give rise to progress commensurate with investments (the development objective remained intact); ways of managing territories and also development and compensatory funds remained structurally asymmetrical, cultivating subordination that constituted one of the long-term props shoring up risks in Esmeraldas.