Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions
The Ecuadorian Context
Chapter 2 of “Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions” by Tammy L. Lewis greatly emphasizes the fact that Ecuador is such a great place to study environmental issues. Besides the outstanding amount of biodiversity throughout the country, especially considering the four very different bioregions: the Galapagos Islands, the coast (la costa), the Andes (la sierra), and the Amazon (el oriente, the east, also called la selva, the jungle), there is also Ecuador’s representativeness, and the amount of transnational funding that the country receives which makes it so unique. By being very similar to other Latin American and Caribbean countries, Ecuador is representative in that it casts a glimpse into the entire region. Although Ecuador and other countries throughout the region are very similar in a lot of ways, particularly in economic standing, biological richness, and bounty of natural resources, Ecuador is considerably different in that it has four distinct regions all with unique environmental challenges to face. The capital city of Ecuador, Quito, is the second highest capital in Latin America, where it stands atop the Andes mountains surrounded by active volcanoes. Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador and its main port, lays along the coast, where the environment and climate is much different than in Quito. The Galapagos Islands, now a major ecotourism destination since the 1876 book and study by Charles Darwin, is one of the most important biological factors of Ecuador. Finally, the Amazonian region, which is rich in petroleum and indigenous tribes, all make up what is Ecuador’s unique environment (Lewis, 2016. Pg.26-27).
Ecuador is now known as a “biodiversity hotspot”. Norman Myers, a British environmentalist, coined this term in 1988 when referring to areas that not only contain exceptional concentrations of species and high levels of endemism, meaning the species are native to the area, but areas that also face exceptional degrees of threat. This is common to see in tropical rainforests, as they are over-exploited and losing precious biodiversity quite rapidly (Pg. 29). Currently, any area is a qualified biodiversity hotspot if, a) it has at least 1,500 vascular plants as endemics, found no place else in the world and simply irreplaceable, and b) has 30% or less of its original natural vegetation. In other words, it must be threatened. Some of these hotspots include Brazil, Madagascar, Indonesia, southeast Asia, and of course, Ecuador, along with about 30 others that represent only 2.4% of the Earth surface, and are home to 43% of bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian endemic species. (2019).
As much as Ecuador is a biological hotspot in that it hosts endemic species and must be protected, it is also a hotspot for chief exports such as petroleum, which plays a leading role, and other goods in the following order based off of revenues: bananas, shrimp, canned fish, flowers, cocoa, and coffee (Lewis, 2019. Pg.31). Their oil deposits, however, attract the most foreign attention, and provide Ecuador with its economic foundation. This causes a large challenge for Ecuador’s sustainable development, because more often than not, they must choose extractive development over sustainable development to succeed in the global market. When Ecuador is making substantial profits from their petroleum, they can increase income for all, improve infrastructure, invest in the health and education of its people, provide the people with clean water, electricity, and many other valuable things. Socioeconomically, it can be beneficial, however, causing significant harm to the environment in the same respects (Pg.33). Large, rich oil companies get richer and richer, as the state sees seeming benefits for the people, and therefore environmental factors are overlooked until citizen-workers can put enough pressure on the state to start making changes. Aside from the more tangible products that are sold for profit, Ecuador also makes a large portion of its revenues from ecotourism. This is great in some ways, as it brings attention and focus to the biological hotspot and makes many people who visit feel the need to protect it more. However, tourist development in the Galapagos Islands comes with its own difficult territory. In addition, mangroves are being destructed while shrimp farming, and health problems, specifically in indigenous peoples, are caused when using pesticides for cut flower farming (Pg. 36).
As much as I am a believer in sustainable development, especially in a place like Ecuador, or any biological hotspot for that matter, it is easy to understand why the country struggles so much with the back and forth ideas of extractive and sustainable development. Just about every way that Ecuador can gain enough money to pay their national debts, or keep their people from being economically poor, harms the environment they cherish in a few or several ways. Sustainable development is a much more thorough process and I believe that it is difficult for corporations and the state to see that there can be an economic and sustainable end goal. Quick money and resources are in their chief exports, and as a poor country, sometimes they have no choice but to choose extraction in the short term. With a strong and powerful government, and a leader like Ecuador’s past president, Rafael Correa, one who is willing to fight to make changes about the country’s means of exportation and exploitation, will bring the country that much closer to sustainable development, and in turn, buen vivir/ sumak kawsay, or “the good life.”
References
Lewis, T. L. (2016). Ecuador's Environmental Revolutions: Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents, and Ecoresisters. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
What Are Biodiversity Hotspots? (2019). Retrieved from https://www.conservation.org/priorities/biodiversity-hotspots
The Ecuadorian Context
Chapter 2 of “Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions” by Tammy L. Lewis greatly emphasizes the fact that Ecuador is such a great place to study environmental issues. Besides the outstanding amount of biodiversity throughout the country, especially considering the four very different bioregions: the Galapagos Islands, the coast (la costa), the Andes (la sierra), and the Amazon (el oriente, the east, also called la selva, the jungle), there is also Ecuador’s representativeness, and the amount of transnational funding that the country receives which makes it so unique. By being very similar to other Latin American and Caribbean countries, Ecuador is representative in that it casts a glimpse into the entire region. Although Ecuador and other countries throughout the region are very similar in a lot of ways, particularly in economic standing, biological richness, and bounty of natural resources, Ecuador is considerably different in that it has four distinct regions all with unique environmental challenges to face. The capital city of Ecuador, Quito, is the second highest capital in Latin America, where it stands atop the Andes mountains surrounded by active volcanoes. Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador and its main port, lays along the coast, where the environment and climate is much different than in Quito. The Galapagos Islands, now a major ecotourism destination since the 1876 book and study by Charles Darwin, is one of the most important biological factors of Ecuador. Finally, the Amazonian region, which is rich in petroleum and indigenous tribes, all make up what is Ecuador’s unique environment (Lewis, 2016. Pg.26-27).
Ecuador is now known as a “biodiversity hotspot”. Norman Myers, a British environmentalist, coined this term in 1988 when referring to areas that not only contain exceptional concentrations of species and high levels of endemism, meaning the species are native to the area, but areas that also face exceptional degrees of threat. This is common to see in tropical rainforests, as they are over-exploited and losing precious biodiversity quite rapidly (Pg. 29). Currently, any area is a qualified biodiversity hotspot if, a) it has at least 1,500 vascular plants as endemics, found no place else in the world and simply irreplaceable, and b) has 30% or less of its original natural vegetation. In other words, it must be threatened. Some of these hotspots include Brazil, Madagascar, Indonesia, southeast Asia, and of course, Ecuador, along with about 30 others that represent only 2.4% of the Earth surface, and are home to 43% of bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian endemic species. (2019).
As much as Ecuador is a biological hotspot in that it hosts endemic species and must be protected, it is also a hotspot for chief exports such as petroleum, which plays a leading role, and other goods in the following order based off of revenues: bananas, shrimp, canned fish, flowers, cocoa, and coffee (Lewis, 2019. Pg.31). Their oil deposits, however, attract the most foreign attention, and provide Ecuador with its economic foundation. This causes a large challenge for Ecuador’s sustainable development, because more often than not, they must choose extractive development over sustainable development to succeed in the global market. When Ecuador is making substantial profits from their petroleum, they can increase income for all, improve infrastructure, invest in the health and education of its people, provide the people with clean water, electricity, and many other valuable things. Socioeconomically, it can be beneficial, however, causing significant harm to the environment in the same respects (Pg.33). Large, rich oil companies get richer and richer, as the state sees seeming benefits for the people, and therefore environmental factors are overlooked until citizen-workers can put enough pressure on the state to start making changes. Aside from the more tangible products that are sold for profit, Ecuador also makes a large portion of its revenues from ecotourism. This is great in some ways, as it brings attention and focus to the biological hotspot and makes many people who visit feel the need to protect it more. However, tourist development in the Galapagos Islands comes with its own difficult territory. In addition, mangroves are being destructed while shrimp farming, and health problems, specifically in indigenous peoples, are caused when using pesticides for cut flower farming (Pg. 36).
As much as I am a believer in sustainable development, especially in a place like Ecuador, or any biological hotspot for that matter, it is easy to understand why the country struggles so much with the back and forth ideas of extractive and sustainable development. Just about every way that Ecuador can gain enough money to pay their national debts, or keep their people from being economically poor, harms the environment they cherish in a few or several ways. Sustainable development is a much more thorough process and I believe that it is difficult for corporations and the state to see that there can be an economic and sustainable end goal. Quick money and resources are in their chief exports, and as a poor country, sometimes they have no choice but to choose extraction in the short term. With a strong and powerful government, and a leader like Ecuador’s past president, Rafael Correa, one who is willing to fight to make changes about the country’s means of exportation and exploitation, will bring the country that much closer to sustainable development, and in turn, buen vivir/ sumak kawsay, or “the good life.”
References
Lewis, T. L. (2016). Ecuador's Environmental Revolutions: Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents, and Ecoresisters. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
What Are Biodiversity Hotspots? (2019). Retrieved from https://www.conservation.org/priorities/biodiversity-hotspots