Abstract
Over the past 20 yr, a standard narrative has evolved to describe the impacts of oil development in Ecuador’s Amazon region. According to this narrative, international oil companies exploited weak government oversight to destroy the rain forest and harm native communities. Eventually, Amazonian Indians and environmentalists joined together to fight ‘big oil’ in courts of law and public opinion. This story has been told in countless international campaigns, Internet posts, news and magazine articles, and even in a recent movie. Among North American and European academics, plaintiffs’ lawyers, and journalists, it has now become almost a certainty. Yet many of its assumptions and implications remain unexamined. Are the essential facts true? Should private companies be held accountable for sovereign decisions made by government about oil development and indigenous rights? Why is this discourse so popular in the US, Canada, and Europe, but dismissed by many Ecuadorian social scientists? Using historical evidence and 3 case studies, we conclude that the standard narrative as it stands today obscures more than it explains and may undermine democratic governance in Ecuador.
Highlights
FROM BANANA REPUBLIC TO PETROSTATEIn 1967, Ecuador entered the world petroleum market when a significant oil discovery was made in the country’s northeastern rain forest, known as the Oriente
Ecuadorians were faced with a question that had persisted since independence from Spain in 1822: how to incorporate the country’s Amazonian territories
From 1972 to 1990, the Lago Agrio fields were operated by Texaco under a contract between the Ecuadorian government and the TexPet Consortium
Summary
In 1967, Ecuador entered the world petroleum market when a significant oil discovery was made in the country’s northeastern rain forest, known as the Oriente. From 1972 to 1990, the Lago Agrio fields were operated by Texaco under a contract between the Ecuadorian government and the TexPet Consortium. It awarded an exploration contract that included part of the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve to Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) Another contract was given to Conoco that included the Yasuní National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve, as well as traditional territory of the Huaorani people). As roads extended throughout the northern Oriente, impoverished highland peasants flooded in and settled on ‘unoccupied’ land under Ecuador’s agrarian reform laws (Baynard et al 2013, Wasserstrom & Southgate 2013) To secure their claims, migrants were required to cut down half the forest and plant pasture or other crops (Pichón 1993). The Federation of Indigenous Organizations in Napo (FOIN) was founded in 1975, and the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Pastaza (OPIP) was created in 1979
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