‘ … Beggars sitting on a sack of gold’: Oil exploration in the Ecuadorian Amazon as buen vivir and sustainable development

Abstract

This article analyses the tensions within a concept of sustainable development, by examining the practice of human rights in the socio-environmental conflicts surrounding Ecuadorian President Correa’s expansion of oil exploration in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon. Contradictions between the rhetoric of buen vivir and the neo-extractive development policies of President Correa mirror contradictions in the rhetoric of social inclusion, environmental protection and sustainable economic growth found in Agenda 2030, and the reality of world politics dominated by foreign capital which heads disproportionately towards extractive sectors to meet the growing energy consumption needs of industrialised countries. Correa’s pursuit of further oil exploration reflects the pragmatic argument that to be effective and politically acceptable, development and environmental approaches need to develop strategies that work with the economic interest mechanisms of the neoliberal framework of industrialised countries.

While Agenda 2030 reaffirms that every state has and shall freely exercise full permanent sovereignty over all its wealth, natural resources and economic activity, sovereignty in the context of a cycle of dependence on natural resource exploitation may lead to the violation of human rights in the pursuit of economic development. Therefore, we have to question whether a sustainable development agenda that seeks to de-couple economic growth from development and in which all three pillars – economic, social and environmental development – are equal, is actually workable in the current neoliberal model of global governance?

Keywords:

• sustainable development goals
• human rights
• socio-environmental conflict
• natural resource exploitation
• oil extraction
• Yasuní National Park
• Ecuador
• Amazon

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note on contributor

Joanna Morley completed an MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights in 2015. Her published articles include: ‘Extreme energy, “fracking” and human rights: a new field for human rights impact assessments?’ (co-author) in the International Journal of Human Rights, and a book review of ‘Human Rights From Community: A Rights-Based Approach to Development’ by Oche Onazi in the International Community Law Review. Her research interests include the human rights impacts on local communities of international development policies linked to natural resource exploitation, particularly focussing on Chinese investments in Latin America and Africa.

Notes

1. J. McNeish and A. Borchgrevink, ‘Introduction: Recovering Power from Energy – Reconsidering the Linkages Between Energy and Development’, in Contested Powers: The Politics of Energy and Development in Latin America, ed. J. McNeish, A. Borchgrevink, and O. Locan (London: Zed Books), 2.

2. The special rapporteur takes a broad view of ‘natural resources’, including land, water, soil, air, coal, oil, gas, other mineral and precious metal deposits, flora and fauna, forests and timber. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Maina Kiai. A/HRC/29/25 (2015). http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session29/Pages/ListReports.aspx.

3. Ibid., 5. See also ‘The Next Not-So-Cold War: As Climate Change Heats Arctic, Nations Scramble for Control and Resources’, Democracy Now, 1 September 2015, http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/1/the_next_not_so_cold_war.

4. UNHRC, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association,

6. See also Human Rights Watch (HRW), At your Own Risk: Reprisals against World Bank Group Projects (2015), https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/22/world-bank-group-project-critics-threatened-harassed-jailed.

5. H.D. Correa and I. Rodriguez, Environmental Crossroads in Latin America: Between Managing and Transforming Natural Resource Conflicts (San Jose, Costa Rica: University for Peace, 2005), 23; M. Coletta and M. Raftopoulos, eds, Conceptualising Nature in Latin America: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Environmental Discourses (London: ILAS, 2016).

6. Correa and Rodriguez, Environmental Crossroads in Latin America, 23.

7. C. Davidson and L. Kiff, ‘Global Carbon-and-Conservation Models, Global Eco-States? Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative and Governance Implications’, Journal of International and Global Studies 4, no. 2 (2013B): 1–19, 8.

8. G. O’Toole, Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean: Introduction (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2014), 180.

9. United Nations, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Conference on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Follow-up to the United Nations Development Agenda Beyond 2015 and to Rio+20. LC/L.3590/Rev.2 (2013), 7, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1001RIO_20-Rev2ing.pdf.

10. Ibid., 55.

11. O’Toole, Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean, 245.

12. M. Goodale and S.E. Merry, The Practice of Human Rights Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). Introduction available at: http://humanrights.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/767/2014/06/MarkGoodaleHumanRights.pdf, 11.

13. B. Bull and M. Aguilar-Stoen, Environmental Politics in Latin America: Elite Dynamics, the Left Tide and Sustainable Development (London: Routledge, 2015), 8.

14. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Latin America: Energy and Sustainability (2012), http://www.latinamerica.undp.org/content/rblac/en/home/ourwork/environmentandenergy/overview.html.

15. A. Marin and A. Smith, Background Paper: Towards a Framework for Analysing the Transformative Nature of Natural Resource-based Industries in Latin America: The Role of Alternatives (research project, Sustainable Pathways for Natural Resource Industries, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), in partnership with Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación (CENIT), 2010), 1, http://nrpathways.wix.com/home#!project-framework/c5ro.

16. A. Rebossio, ‘Latinoamérica comienza a debatir la gestión de sus recursos naturales’, El País, 5 March 2015. Available in English at: https://eyeonlatinamerica.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/latin-america-natural-resources-management/.

17. World Bank, ‘Latin America: Bridging the Gap in Water Access’, The World Bank News, 30 August 2012, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/08/30/agua-aneamiento-america-latina.

18. Rebossio, ‘Latinoamérica comienza a debatir la gestión de sus recursos naturales’.

19. UNDP, Summary: Regional Human Development Report 2013–2014 (2014), http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/hdr/human-development-report-for-latin-america-2013-2014.html.

20. Despite being one of the most unequal regions in the world, between 2002 and 2010 inequality fell in all 18 countries with the exception of Nicaragua and Costa Rica (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Latin America: Poverty Reduction (2012B), http://www.latinamerica.undp.org/content/rblac/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/overview.html; G.A. Cornia, ‘Falling Inequality in Latin America: Policy Changes and Lessons', The World Financial Review, January--February (2014): 60--63).

21. The Gini index for per capita income measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure, among individuals or households within an economy, deviates from a perfectly equal distribution World Bank Data: GINI index (World Bank estimate) (2015) http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI.

22. World Bank, Latin American and Caribbean Overview: Results (2015), http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/lac/overview; G. Molina, ‘Inequality is Stagnating in Latin America: Should We Do Nothing?’, The Guardian, 27 August 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/aug/27/inequality-latin-america-undp.

23. Inequality plateaued in Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Chile and Paraguay between 2007 and 2012 (Molina, ‘Inequality is Stagnating in Latin America’).

24. J. Faieta, UNDP: Economic Growth is Not Enough, 20 February 2015, http://www.latinamerica.undp.org/content/rblac/en/home/ourperspective/ourperspectivearticles/2015/02/20/con-crecimiento-econ-mico-no-basta-jessica-faieta-.html.

25. K. Koenig, ‘Ecuador Breaks Its Amazon Deal’, The New York Times, 11 June 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/opinion/ecuador-breaks-its-amazon-deal.html?_r=0.

26. Barcena (2015), cited in Rebossio, ‘Latinoamérica comienza a debatir la gestión de sus recursos naturales’.

27. International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPCIG), ‘Putting National Resources Industries to Work for Sustainable Development in Latin America’ (United Nations Development Programme Seminar, 18 May 2015, Brasilia), http://pressroom.ipc-undp.org/putting-national-resources-industries-to-work-for-sustainable-development-in-latin-america/.

28. Barcena (2015), cited in Rebossio, ‘Latinoamérica comienza a debatir la gestión de sus recursos naturales’.

29. United Nations Agenda 2030, Transforming our World: The 20130 Agenda for Sustainable Development, United Nations A/RES/70/1 (2015), Target 9.4. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld.

30. Ibid., Declaration, para. 27.

31. O’Toole, Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean

, 245.

32. Ibid.

, 188.

33. L.C. Gray and W.G. Moseley, ‘A Geographical Perspective on Poverty-Environment Interactions’, The Geographical Journal 171, no. 1 (2005): 9–23, 18.

34. United Nations Agenda 2030, Transforming our World.

35. Ban Ki Moon, cited in United Nations News, ‘“Now is the Time for Implementation”, Ban Urges Session on Integrating UN Sustainability Agenda’, UN News Centre, 2 May 2016, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53834#.VzinB2Nlm8U.

36. P. Martin, Oil in the Soil: The Politics of Paying to Preserve the Amazon (Plymouth: Rowan and Littlefield, 2011), 2.

37. A. Cori and S. Monni, The Resource Curse Hypothesis: Evidence from Ecuador. SEEDS Working Paper Series No 2814 (2014), 18, http://www.sustainability-seeds.org/papers/RePec/srt/wpaper/2814.pdf.

38. U. Villalba, ‘Buen Vivir vs Development: A Paradigm Shift in the Andes?’, Third World Quarterly 34, no. 8 (2013): 1427–42, 1439.

39. L. Rival, The Yasuní-ITT Initiative: Oil Development and Alternative Forms of Wealth Making in the Ecuadorian Amazon. QEH Working Paper Series – QEHWPS180 (2009), 5, 4, http://www3.qeh.ox.ac.uk/pdf/qehwp/qehwps180.pdf.

40. C. Mikkelsen et al., eds, The Indigenous World 2014 (Copenhagen: The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 2014), 148.

41. CODENPE (2003), Greene (2008), Radcliffe (2013), Acosta (2013), Zorrilla (2014), cited in ibid., 2.

42. J. Dayot, Valuation Struggles in the Ecuadorean Amazon: Beyond Indigenous Peoples’ Responses to Oil Extraction (MPhil Thesis draft paper, University of Oxford, 2015).

43. A. Acosta, ‘The Yasuní-ITT Initiative, or The Complex Construction of Utopia’, in The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State, ed. D. Bollier and S. Hellfrich (Massachusetts: Levellers Press, 2012).

44. The first constitution in the world to do so. See also C. Kendall, ‘A New Law of Nature’, The Guardian, 24 September 2008, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/sep/24/equador.conservation.

45. P. Martin and I. Scholz, ‘Policy Debate | Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative: What Can We Learn from its Failure?’, International Development Policy 5, no. 2 (2014): 3.

46. C. Larrea and L. Warnars, ‘Ecuador’s Yasuni-ITT Initiative: Avoiding Emissions by Keeping Petroleum Underground’, Energy for Sustainable Development 13, no. 3 (2009): 219–23; C. Davidson and L. Kiff, ‘Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative and New Green Efforts – Away from Petroleum Dependency?’, University of Calgary Occasional Papers 3, no. 1 (2013A): 1–30, 10.

47. A. Acosta et al., ‘Dejar el crudo en tierra o la búsqueda del paraíso perdido. Elementos para una propuesta política y económica para la Iniciativa de no explotación del crudo del ITT’, Revista de la Universidad Bolivariana 8, no. 23 (2009): 429–52; Reproduced in English at: http://www.sosyasuni.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=130:leaving-the-oil-underground-or-the-search-for-paradise-lost&catid=17:generala, 1.

48. Ibid.

49. Martin and Scholz, ‘Policy Debate | Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative’, 5.

50. Ibid.

51. Through the CDM, industrialised countries invest in sustainable development projects in developing countries to earn credits which they can use to offset their greenhouse gas emission targets, set by the Kyoto Protocol: L. Warnars, The Yasuni-ITT Initiative: An International Environmental Equity Mechanism? (Master thesis, Political and Social Sciences of the Environment, School of Management, Radboud University Nijmegen, 2010), v, http://www.campusvirtual.uasb.edu.ec/uisa/images/yasuni/documentos/2010%20warnars%20equity.pdf.

52. For a summary of the debates surrounding REDD see also Larrea and Warnars, ‘Ecuador’s Yasuni-ITT Initiative’, 219–23, 222.

53. Ibid.; Davidson and Kiff, ‘Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative and New Green Efforts’, 1–30, 11.

54. Warnars, The Yasuni-ITT Initiative, v. For a list of International and national NGOs who formed transnational networks to contribute to the Initiative see also Martin, Oil in the Soil, 2. For a full list of official backers of the Initiative see also C. Larrea, Ecuador’s Yasuni-ITT Initiative: A Critical Assessment. Environmental Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean, (ENGOV) Project Conference, 13–16 June 2012, 12, http://www.ecuadoramazonia.com/images/documentos/Ecuadors%20Yasuni-ITT%20Initiative%20A%20Critical%20Assessment.pdf.

55. US$19 m was attributed to international donors, US$50 m was pledged as a donation by Italy and US$47 m was pledged as bilateral technical assistance by the German government. A national fundraiser in Ecuador collected about US$3 m. El Comercio (2012), PRNewswire (2012), cited in Davidson and Kiff, ‘Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative and New Green Efforts ’, 1–30, 25.

56. J. Watts, ‘Ecuador Approves Yasuni National Park Oil Drilling in Amazon Rainforest. Environmentalists Devastated as President Blames Lack of Foreign Support for Collapse of Pioneering Conservation Plan’, The Guardian, 16 August 2013.

57. UNDP, UNDP Statement on Decision by Government of Ecuador to Conclude Yasuní-ITT Initiative, 16 August 2013, http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/articles/2013/08/16/undp-statement-on-decision-by-government-of-ecuador-to-conclude-yasun-itt-initiative.html.

58. J. Vidal, ‘Ecuador Spied on Amazon Oil Plan Opponents, Leaked Papers Suggest’, The Guardian, 3 August 2015.

59. For the reasons given by the NEC for not accepting signatures see also A. Vaughan, ‘Ecuador Signs Permits for Oil Drilling in Amazon’s Yasuni National Park: Companies Could Start Extracting Oil Underneath Key Biodiversity Reserve on Earth by 2016’, The Guardian, 23 May 2014.

60. Ibid.

61. Mikkelsen et al., The Indigenous World 2014, 153.

62. Davidson and Kiff, ‘Global Carbon-and-Conservation Models, Global Eco-States?’, 1–19, 11.

63. Martin, Oil in the Soil, 86.

64. For full data on the biodiversity, including endangered and near-threatened species see also M.S. Bass et al., ‘Global Conservation Significance of Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park’, PLoS ONE 5, no. 1 (2010): 5.

65. The uniqueness of the National Park is its likelihood to maintain wet, rainforest conditions as climate change-induced drought intensifies in the eastern Amazon, increasing its ability to sustain this biodiversity in the long term. For full data on the biodiversity, including endangered and near-threatened species see ibid.

66. Deforestation within Yasuní National Park is estimated at a rate of 0.11% per year, with that rate increasing. Ibid., 7.

67. ANDES, President Correa: Our Best Decision Was to Develop ITT Field. Agencia Publica de Notices del Ecuador y Suramerica, 14 July 2016, http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/president-correa-our-best-decision-was-develop-itt-field.html.

68. Swords (2014), cited in H. Guardado, ‘Nicaragua’s Proposed Interoceanic Canal: A Threat to the Environment and Indigenous Rights’, The Huffington Post, 3 November 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hazel-guardado/nicaraguas-proposed-inter_b_6083274.html.

69. M. Becker, ‘The Stormy Relations between Rafael Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador’, Latin American Perspectives 190 40, no. 3 (2013): 43–62, 45.

70. P. Gready and W. Vandenhove, eds, Human Rights and Development in the New Millennium (London: Routledge, 2014).

71. United Nations, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Conference on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Follow-up to the United Nations Development Agenda Beyond 2015 and to Rio+20. LC/L.3590/Rev.2 (2013), https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1001RIO_20-Rev2ing.pdf.

72. McIber (2015), cited in UNHRC, Accountability Mechanisms for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: A High-Level Roundtable Discussion at the 29th Session of the UN Human Rights Council 18 June 2015, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, http://www.fes-globalization.org/geneva/Human%20rights.htm.

73. O’Donaghue (2015), cited in

ibid.

74. Ruckner (2015), cited in

ibid.

75. United Nations Agenda 2030, Transforming our World, preamble.

76. Ban Ki Moon, cited in United Nations News, ‘Civil Society Must Be “Equal Partners” in Implementing UN Sustainability Agenda, Ban Tells Parliamentarians’, UN News Centre, 31 August 2015, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51759#.VfaifrQ-Cu4.

77. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Climate Change: UN Expert Welcomes Historic Paris Agreement But Calls on States to Scale Up Efforts to Meet the 1.5 °C Target, 21 April 2016, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=19850&LangID=E.

78. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘No Time for Complacency’ – UN Rights Expert Says as the Paris Agreement Faces its First Key Test, 13 May 2016, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=19962&LangID=E.

79. Bull and Aguilar-Stoen, Environmental Politics in Latin America

, 7.

80. B. Adams, Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in a Developing World (London: Routledge, 2008).

81. A. Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).

82. B. Mansfield, ‘Sustainability’, in A Companion to Environmental Geography, ed. N. Castree et al. (Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2009).

83. J. Donnelly, ‘Human Rights, Democracy, and Development’, Human Rights Quarterly 21, no. 3 (1999): 608–32, 611.

84. United Nations News, ‘Global Investors Must Play Full Role in Shifting World to Clean Energy, Says UN Chief’, UN News Centre, 27 January 2016, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53101#.VziuhmNlmqA.

85. United Nations News, ‘World of Business Must Play its Part in Achieving New Sustainable Development Goals – UN Chief’, 20 January 2016, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53055#.VzivBmNlk_U.

86. Ibid.

87. J. McNeish and A. Borchgrevink, ‘Introduction: Recovering Power from Energy – Reconsidering the Linkages Between Energy and Development’, in Contested Powers: The Politics of Energy and Development in Latin America, ed. J. McNeish, A. Borchgrevink, and O. Locan (London: Zed Books, 2016), 4–6.

88. N. Stammers, Human Rights and Social Movements (London: Pluto Press, 2009), 205.

89. R.M. Auty, Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis (London: Rutledge, 1993).

90. T.L. Karl, ‘The Vicious Cycle of Inequality in Latin America’, in

What Justice? Whose Justice? Fighting for Fairness in Latin America, ed. S.E. Eckstein and Wickham-Crowley (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2003).

91. O’Toole, Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean

, 186.

92. See also C. Brunnschweiler, ‘Cursing the Blessings? Natural Resource Abundance, Institutions, and Economic Growth’, World Development 36, no. 3 (2008): 399–419; M. Alexeev and R. Conrad, ‘The Elusive Curse of Oil’, The Review of Economics and Statistics 91, no. 3 (2009): 586–98; Mako Kuwimb, ‘A Critical Study of the Resource Curse Thesis and the Experience of Papua New Guinea’ (PhD thesis, James Cook University, 2010), http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/11667/.

93. G. Bridge and T. Perreault, ‘Environmental Governance’, in Companion to Environmental Geography, ed. N. Castree et al. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009), 475–97, 492. See also T.L. Lewis, Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions: Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents and Ecoresisters (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2016).

94. M. Freeman, Human Rights (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002), 151; G. Rist, The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith (London: Zed Books, 2008).

95. N. Connolly, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: A Duplicitous Distraction?’, The International Journal of Human Rights 16, no. 8 (2012): 1228–49, 1242;

S. Marks and A. Clapham, Human Rights Lexicon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 429.

96. Bull and Aguilar-Stoen, Environmental Politics in Latin America, 3.

97. O’Toole, Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean

, 199.

98. Ibid., 245. See also A. Westervelt, ‘Lawsuit Against El Salvador Mining Ban Highlights Free Trade Pitfalls’, The Guardian 27 May 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/may/27/pacific-rim-lawsuit-el-salvador-mine-gold-free-trade.

99. Donella H. Meadows et al., The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind (New York: Universe Books, 1972).

100. G. Turner, A Comparison of the Limits to Growth with Thirty Years of Reality (Canberra: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), 2008), 38.

101. D. Short et al., 2014. ‘Extreme Energy, “Fracking” and Human Rights: A New Field for Human Rights Impact Assessments?’, The International Journal of Human Rights Special Issue: Corporate Power and Human Rights (December 2014), 2.

102. Latin America is not considered a main contributor to greenhouse gasses having contributed only about 4% of global emissions. O’Toole, Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean, 154–5.

103. Ibid.

104. Ibid., 180.

105. Davidson and Kiff, ‘Global Carbon-and-Conservation Models, Global Eco-States?’, 1–19, 5.

106. J. Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Biodiversity Vulnerability and Conservation Alternatives’, Ecology and Evolution 6, no. 14 (2016): 4997–5012.

107. Larrea and Warnars, ‘Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative’; Davidson and Kiff, ‘Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative and New Green Efforts’, 1–30, 6.

108. Daily crude oil production is measured in barrels per day. Since 1970 Ecuador has increased its crude oil production per day by 12,183%, versus a 44% increase from OPEC overall. Lewis, Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions, 31.

109. R. Ray and A. Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests: Chinese Investment and the Environmental and Social Impacts of Extractive Industries in Ecuador. Discussion Paper 2015–16. Working Group on Development and Environment in the Americas. Global Economic Governance Initiative (ENGOV), 2014, 8, http://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/files/2014/12/Ecuador1.pdf.

110. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic Survey of Latin America, 2012: Policies for an Adverse International Economy (Washington, DC: United Nations Publications, 2012), http://www.cepal.org/en/node/30073.

111. Neo-extractivist governments are characterised by the expansion of industries for an export-led development model to fund social programmes through higher taxes or nationalisation. J.R. Webber, ‘Neostructuralism, Neoliberalism, and Latin America’s Resurgent Left’, Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory 18, no. 3 (2010): 208–29.

112. L. Shade, ‘Sustainable Development or Sacrifice Zone? Politics Below the Surface in Post-neoliberal Ecuador’, The Extractive Industries and Society 2, no. 4 (2015): 775–85, 773.

113. World Bank, Ecuador Overview: Context (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015), http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/ecuador/overview.

114. Monaghan (2008), cited in A. Kennemore and G. Weeks, ‘The Elusive Search for a Post-Neoliberal Development Model in Bolivia and Ecuador’, Bulletin of Latin American Research 30, no. 3 (2011): 267–81, 276.

115. World Bank, Ecuador Overview: Context.

116. E. Sinnott, J. Nash, and A. de la Torre, Natural Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean: Beyond Booms and Busts? (Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 2010).

117. B. Bull and M. Aguilar-Stoen, Environmental Politics in Latin America: Elite Dynamics, the Left Tide and Sustainable Development (London: Rutledge, 2015), 4.

118. Correa (2009), quoted in El Cuidadano in Kennemore and Weeks, ‘The Elusive Search for a Post-Neoliberal Development Model in Bolivia and Ecuador’, 267–81, 274.

119. Republic of Ecuador, Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador. Political Database of the Americas (2008), 279, http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/english08.htmlart.

120. Ibid.

121. C. Walsh, ‘Development as Buen Vivir: Institutional Arrangements and (de)colonial Entanglements’, Development 53, no. 1 (2010): 15–21, 18.

122. Republic of Ecuador, Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, 275.

123. Gudynas (2011), cited in D. de Wit, ‘UN-REDD and the Yasuní-ITT Initiative as Global Environmental Governance Mechanisms’, Bridges 7 (Spring 2013), 3–4, https://www.coastal.edu/media/academics/bridges/pdf/deWitFINAL.pdf.

124. M. Cunningham, ‘“Living Well” The Latin American Perspective’, Indigenous Affairs (2010) 1–2/10, 52–9, 53.

125. Hevia-Pacheco and Vergara-Camus (2013), cited in A. Ordóñez

et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress: Poverty Reduction in Ecuador (London: Overseas Development Institute, 2015), 29, https://www.odi.org/publications/9958-ecuador-extreme-poverty-progress-reduction-inequality.

126. National Secretariat of Planning and Development (SENPLADES), National Development Plan/National Plan for Good Living, 2013–2017 (Quito, Ecuador: 2013), 460–1.

127. Ibid.

128. C. Larrea, Ecuador’s Yasuni-ITT Initiative: A Critical Assessment. Environmental Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean, (ENGOV) Project Conference, 13–16 June 2012, 12–13, http://www.ecuadoramazonia.com/images/documentos/Ecuadors%20Yasuni-ITT%20Initiative%20A%20Critical%20Assessment.pdf.

129. A. Acosta et al., ‘Dejar el crudo en tierra o la búsqueda del paraíso perdido. Elementos para una propuesta política y económica para la Iniciativa de no explotación del crudo del ITT’, Revista de la Universidad Bolivariana 8, no. 23 (2009): 429–52. Reproduced in English at: http://www.sosyasuni.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=130:leaving-the-oil-underground-or-the-search-for-paradise-lost&catid=17:generala, 5.

130. V. Davidov, ‘Saving Nature or Performing Sovereignty? Ecuador’s Initiative to “Keep Oil in the Ground”’, Anthropology Today 28, no. 3 (2012): 12–16, 12.

131. Walsh, ‘Development as Buen Vivir’, 15–21; L. Rival, ‘Ecuador’s Yasuni ITT Initiative: The Old and New Styles of Petroleum’, Ecological Economics 70 (2010): 358–65.

132. U. Villalba, ‘Buen Vivir vs Development: A Paradigm Shift in the Andes?’, Third World Quarterly 34, no. 8 (2013): 1427–42, 1439.

133. L. Rival, The Yasuní-ITT Initiative: Oil Development and Alternative Forms of Wealth Making in the Ecuadorian Amazon. QEH Working Paper Series – QEHWPS180 (2009), 5, http://www3.qeh.ox.ac.uk/pdf/qehwp/qehwps180.pdf.

134. Kennemore and Weeks, ‘The Elusive Search for a Post-Neoliberal Development Model in Bolivia and Ecuador’, 267–81, 280.

135. Becker, ‘The Stormy Relations between Rafael Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador’, 43–62, 51.

136. B. Bull and M. Aguilar-Stoen, Environmental Politics in Latin America: Elite Dynamics, the Left Tide and Sustainable Development (London: Rutledge, 2015), 4.

137. R. Ray and A. Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests: Chinese Investment and the Environmental and Social Impacts of Extractive Industries in Ecuador (Boston, MA: BU Global Economic Governance Initiative Working Paper 15–17, 2014), 35, http://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/files/2014/12/Ecuador1.pdf.

138. Ibid., 35.

139. Secretaria de Hidrocarburos del Ecuador (2011), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Biodiversity Vulnerability and Conservation Alternatives’, Ecology and Evolution 6, no. 14 (2016): 4997–5012.

140. ANDES, ‘Ecuador and Chinese Consortium Andes Petroleum Sign Two Exploration Contracts in the Amazon’, ANDES, 26 January 2016, http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuador-and-chinese-consortium-andes-petroleum-sign-two-exploration-contracts-amazon.html.

141. El Comercio (2013), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5013.

142. I. Riofrio, ‘Oil Extraction Threatens to Expand Further into Ecuadorean Rainforest Under New 20-Year Contract’, Mongabay News, 3 February 2016, https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/oil-extraction-threatens-to-expand-further-into-ecuadorean-rainforest-under-new-20-year-contract/.

143. ANDES, ‘Ecuador and Chinese Consortium Andes Petroleum Sign Two Exploration Contracts in the Amazon’.

144. J. Kaiman, ‘Controversial Ecuador Oil Deal Lets China Stake an $80-Million Claim to Pristine Amazon Rainforest’, LA Times, 29 January 2016, http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-ecuador-china-oil-20160129-story.html.

145. ANDES, ‘Ecuador and Chinese Consortium Andes Petroleum Sign Two Exploration Contracts in the Amazon’.

146. Kaiman, ‘Controversial Ecuador Oil Deal Lets China Stake an $80-Million Claim to Pristine Amazon Rainforest’.

147. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 1.

148. C. Mikkelsen et al., eds., The Indigenous World 2014 (Copenhagen: The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 2014), 150.

149. M. Arsel and N.A. Angel, ‘“Stating” Nature’s Role in Ecuadorian Development: Civil Society and the Yasuní-ITT Initiative’, Journal of Developing Societies 28, no. 2 (2012): 203–27, 207.

150. F.E. Lu and N.L. Silva, ‘Imagined Borders: (Un)Bounded Spaces of Oil Extraction and Indigenous Sociality in “Post-Neoliberal” Ecuador’, Social Sciences 4, no. 2 (2015): 434–58, 435.

151. Becker, ‘The Stormy Relations between Rafael Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador’, 54.

152. A. Ordóñez, E. Samman, C. Mariotti, and I. Marcelo Borja, Sharing the Fruits of Progress: Poverty Reduction in Ecuador (London: Overseas Development Institute, 2015), 30, https://www.odi.org/publications/9958-ecuador-extreme-poverty-progress-reduction-inequality.

153. S. Nicolai, T. Bhatkal, C. Hoy, and T. Aedy, Projecting Progress: The SDGs in Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Scorecard (London: Overseas Development Institute June 2016, 2016), 19, https://www.odi.org/publications/10454-projecting-progress-sdgs-latin-america-and-caribbean.

154. CEPAL, cited in Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 32.

155. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 6.

156. Asemblea Nacional del Ecuador (2010b) art. 94, cited in Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 7.

157. The Palma ratio is the ratio of the average income of the richest 10% in a country compared to the average income of the poorest 40%. Cobham and Sumner (2013), cited in Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 9.

158. The NBI combines deprivation in housing conditions, access to water and sanitation, the household dependency ratio and children’s access to primary education. A household is considered poor if it is deprived in one or more of these dimensions. INEC (2015a), cited in Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 16.

159. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 7.

160. Becker, ‘The Stormy Relations between Rafael Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador’, 54

161. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 1.

162. The financial crisis that began in 2008 put pressure on Ecuador's international sources of finance. In 2008, Ecuador defaulted on two outstanding bonds totalling $3.2 billion dollars leading Moody's to downgrade Ecuador's debt to Caa3, and Ecuador losing access to its traditional Western creditors. Therefore, China has seen Ecuador through a prolonged period of limited access to financial markets. Porzecanski (2010), cited in Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 12.

163. P. Martin and I. Scholz, ‘Policy Debate | Ecuador's Yasuní-ITT Initiative: What Can We Learn from its Failure?’, International Development Policy 5, no. 2 (2014): 4. In an interview with the foreign media on 16 February 2014, President Correa said there was no limit to the loans from China, ‘the more they can lend us, the better. We need financing for development and we have profitable projects. (…) We complement China, they have a surplus of liquidity and a shortage of hydrocarbons while we have a surplus of hydrocarbons and a shortage of liquidity. China finances the USA and could pull Ecuador out of underdevelopment’, Correa (2014), cited in A. Cori and S. Monni, ‘The Resource Curse Hypothesis: Evidence from Ecuador’, SEEDS Working Paper Series No 2814 (2014), 12, http://www.sustainability-seeds.org/papers/RePec/srt/wpaper/2814.pdf.

164. Reuters (2013), cited in Cori and Monni, ‘The Resource Curse Hypothesis’, 11.

165. The official document, in its entirety, can be consulted at the following link: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2014/feb/19/china-development-bank-credit-proposal-oil-drilling-ecuador1. Cori and Monni, ‘The Resource Curse Hypothesis’, 11.

166. Normally, countries that are part of OPEC, like Ecuador, do not offer this possibility for competitive reasons. According to Reuters (2013), EP PetroEcuador warned the government in March 2011 that PetroChina's claim to Ecuador's oil supply could prevent the country from signing more favourable contracts. Cori and Monni, ‘The Resource Curse Hypothesis’, 11.

167. The credit line was part of a broader package, including China's Ex-Im Bank extending a $5.3bn credit line to help maintain public spending, and another $1.5 bn loan from China Development Bank, that Correa secured on a visit to Beijing in 2015. 2016 data from the finance ministry, which excludes the latest ICBC credit line, showed that Beijing was owed $5.4bn by Ecuador and that a ‘chunk’ of the China loans are backed by oil exports. M. Badkar, ‘Ecuador Secures $970m Credit Line From China's ICBC’, Financial Times, 22 January 2016, https://www.ft.com/content/87d39bc8-4bad-3d14-9f57-50c083b3c916.

168. A. Zuckerman, (2016), cited in I. Riofrio, ‘Oil Extraction Threatens to Expand Further into Ecuadorean Rainforest under New 20-Year Contract’, Mongabay News, 3 February 2016, https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/oil-extraction-threatens-to-expand-further-into-ecuadorean-rainforest-under-new-20-year-contract.

169. GFC Media Group, ‘China's Interest in Latin America Grows Exponentially’, 16 February 2016, http://www.gfcmediagroup.com/news/article/418/chinas-interest-in-latin-america-grows-expone. While analysts agree that by and large LAC nations have to pay a higher premium for loans from China, on the whole that higher premium is in the form of interest rates, not loans-for-oil. The majority of Chinese loans-for-oil in Latin America are linked to market prices, not quantities of oil. K. Gallagher, A. Irwin, and K. Koleski, The New Banks in Town: Chinese Finance in Latin America, Inter-American Dialogue Report, February 2012, http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/GallagherChineseFinanceLatinAmerica.pdf.

170. Larrea et al. (2010), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5012.

171. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 8–9. China plays only a minor role in Ecuador's export market currently, buying just 3.5% of Ecuador's exports from 2008 to 2012, however its role in international trade and investment in Latin American and Ecuador is growing in importance, and as it does so, it is increasing petroleum's importance in Ecuador's overall export basket. Ray and Chimienti,

10.

172. T.L. Karl, ‘The Perils of the Petro-State: Reflections on the Paradox of Plenty’, International Affairs 53 (1999): 31–48, 36.

173. R. Ray, ‘China in Latin America Seeking a Path Toward Sustainable Development’, ReVista (Fall 2015): 20–2.

174. T.L. Karl, ‘The Vicious Cycle of Inequality in Latin America’, in What Justice? Whose Justice? Fighting for Fairness in Latin America, ed. S. E. Eckstein and T. P. Wickham-Crowley (Berkley: University of California Press, 2003).

175. V. Davidov, ‘Saving Nature or Performing Sovereignty? Ecuador's Initiative to “Keep Oil in the Ground”’, Anthropology Today 28, no. 3 (2012): 12–16, 12.

176. The ‘Dutch disease’ phenomenon identifies nations that primarily export raw commodities as having overvalued currencies because their exports’ prices are determined by the world market rather than by manufacturing costs. This issue of overvaluing currency is compounded in Ecuador by its use of the US dollar as its national currency. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 7.

177. National Secretariat of Planning and Development (SENPLADES), National Development Plan/National Plan for Good Living, 2013–2017 (Quito, Ecuador, 2013), 331.

178. E. Sinnott, J. Nash, and A. de la Torre, Natural Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean: Beyond Booms and Busts? (Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 2010), 37.

179. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 7.

180. F. Dawson, ‘Ecuador U-turns on Nationalisation’, Pathfinder Buzz, 18 April 2013, http://pathfinderbuzz.com/ecuador-u-turns-on-nationalisa-tion/. Lack of economic diversification also affects the energy supply. Ecuador has a vast hydroelectric potential, mostly in the Andean mountains, estimated at 21,122 MW, and also has the potential for other renewable energy sources, mostly geothermal; solar and wind power are also regarded as important. Larrea and Warnars, ‘Ecuador's Yasuní-ITT Initiative’, 220.

181. Becker, ‘The Stormy Relations between Rafael Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador’, 54.

182. Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 29.

183. Kimerling (1991), Rosenfeld et al. (1997), Fontaine (2003), San Sebastian and Hurtig (2004), Bravo (2007), Finer et al. (2008), De la Bastida (2009), and Larrea et al. (2010), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5002.

184. Kimerling (1991) and Domınguez (2010), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5002.

185. Fontaine (2003); Sierra (2000), and Bilsborrow et al. (2004), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5002.

186. O’Rourke and Connolly (2003), Colectivo de Geografia Critica de Ecuador (2014), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5002.

187. Suarez et al. (2009), Ponce-Reyes et al. (2013), and Espinosa et al. (2014), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5002.

188. Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5002.

189. Republic of Ecuador, Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador (Political Database of the Americas, 2008), art. 71, http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/english08.html.

190. Ibid., art. 313.

191. Ibid., art. 407.

192. Ibid.

193. Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5006.

194. Ibid., 5012.

195. Ibid., 5003.

196. Kimerling (1991), Rosenfeld et al. (1997), Fontaine (2003), San Sebastian and Hurtig (2004), and Finer et al. (2008), cited in ibid., 5005.

197. Bass et al. ‘Global Conservation Significance of Ecuador's Yasuní National Park’;

C. Larrea, A.I. Larrea, A.L. Bravo, P. Belmont, C. Baroja, and C. Mendoza et al. Petroleo, sustentabilidad y desarrollo en la Amazon ıa Centro-Sur. Fundacio n Pachamama (Quito, Ecuador: Unidad de Informacio n Socio Ambiental de la Universidad Andina Simon Bolıvar, 2010);

CONFENIAE and CONAIE (2012), cited in Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5003.

198. Lessmann et al., ‘Large Expansion of Oil Industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon’, 5012.

199. Ibid.

200. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 19–20.

201. Oil pollution in Ecuador has been characterised as ‘one of the largest environmental disasters in history’ by Rainforest Action Network, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Human Rights Impacts of Oil Pollution: Ecuador Impacts on Health, Livelihoods, Environment (2016), https://business-humanrights.org/en/human-rights-impacts-of-oil-pollution-ecuador-22.

202. Today the Ecuadorian Amazon is suffering a public health crisis of immense proportions. The root cause of this crisis is water contamination from 40 years of oil operations. The oil infrastructure developed and operated by Texaco had utterly inadequate environmental controls, and consequently Texaco dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater directly into the region's rivers. The contamination of water essential for the daily activities of thousands of people has resulted in an epidemic of cancer, miscarriages, birth defects and other ailments. Chevron Toxico, Chevron Toxico – The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador: Health Impacts (2016), http://chevrontoxico.com/about/health-impacts/. See also Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Texaco/Chevron Lawsuits (re Ecuador) (2016), https://business-humanrights.org/en/texacochevron-lawsuits-re-ecuador.

203. R. Ray, P. Gallagher, A. Lopez, and C. Sanborn, China in Latin America: Lessons or Spout-South Cooperation and Development (Boston University Global Economic Governance Initiative, 2015), 13, http://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/files/2014/12/Working-Group-Final-Report.pdf.

204. In the extractive industry Greenfield projects refer to new projects that include the exploration of previously unexplored areas, or in areas where oil, gas or mineral deposits are not already known to exist. These projects rely on the predictive power of oil/gas/ore genesis models. Schlumberger, Oilfield Glossary (2016), http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/en/Terms/g/greenfield.aspx; ‘Mineral Exploration Companies – Greenfield Exploration vs. Brownfield Exploration’, undervaluedequity.com (2015), http://www.undervaluedequity.com/Mineral-Exploration-Companies-Greenfield-Exploration-vs.-Brownfield-Exploration.html.

205. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 27.

206. Ibid., 24.

207. Bass et al., ‘Global Conservation Significance of Ecuador's Yasuní National Park’, 13.

208. Repsol (2012), cited in Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 28.

209. D. Hill, ‘Ecuador: Oil Company Has Built “Secret” Road Deep into Yasuni National Park’, The Ecologist, 6 June 2014, http://www.thee-cologist.org/News/news_analysis/2426486/ecuador_oil_company_has_built_secret_road_deep_into_yasuni_national_park.html.

210. Bass et al., ‘Global Conservation Significance of Ecuador's Yasuní National Park’, 7.

211. Greenberg et al. (2005), cited in Ray, and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 28.

212. Blue Moon Fund, Offshore-Inland: Advanced Oil and Gas Technology to Save Tropical Forests and Indigenous Cultures from Destruction, http://www.bluemoonfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/offshore-inland-english.pdf. See also J. Tollefson, ‘Fighting for the Forest: The Roadless Warrior’, Nature 480 (2011): 22–4, http://www.nature.com/news/fighting-for-the-forest-the-roadless-warrior-1.9494. See also http://www.bluemoonfund.org/projects/saving-the-amazon-rainforest-using-modern-technology/.

213. Zuckerman (2014), cited in Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 24.

214. Bass et al. (2010), cited in ibid.

215. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 24.

216. Espinosa (2014) and Swing, (2013), cited in ibid.

217. Auquilla (2014), cited in ibid.

218. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 13.

219. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has published voluntary ‘Guidelines for Environmental Protection in Foreign Investment and Cooperation’ for all investors, regardless of whether they are public or private, or how they are financed. While these are not binding, they carry moral authority for state-owned enterprises. For projects that are bank-financed, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has set ‘Green Credit Guidelines’ for all Chinese banks that finance investment projects abroad, which include requiring investments to meet host-country and international environmental laws. Ray et al., China in Latin America, 14.

220. Ray et al., China in Latin America, 3.

221. K. Gallagher, A. Irwin, and K. Koleski, The New Banks in Town: Chinese Finance in Latin America. Inter-American Dialogue Report, February 2012, http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/GallagherChineseFinanceLatinAmerica.pdf.

222. Ray, ‘China in Latin America Seeking a Path Toward Sustainable Development’.

223. See also Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 25–6.

224. L. Shade, ‘Sustainable Development or Sacrifice Zone? Politics Below the Surface in Post-Neoliberal Ecuador’, The Extractive Industries and Society 2, no. 4 (2015): 775–85, 781.

225. M. Cunningham, ‘“Living Well” The Latin American Perspective’, Indigenous Affairs 1–2/10 (2010): 52–9, 53.

226. Larrea, Ecuador's Yasuni-ITT Initiative, 12.

227. Cunningham, ‘“Living Well” The Latin American Perspective’, 53.

228. Republic of Ecuador, Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, art. 57. According to the 2010 census, indigenous people represent 7% of the Ecuadorian population (1.018 million), comprising 14 distinct peoples and 12 indigenous cultures (Minority Rights Group, Ecuador Overview, http://www.mi-norityrights.org/4133/ecuador/ecuador-overview.html; Larrea and Warnars, ‘Ecuador's Yasuni-ITT Initiative’, 220).

229. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIPS), UN Doc: 61/295 (2007). See also Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Indigenous and Tribal Peoples’ Rights over their Ancestral Lands and Natural Resources: Norms and Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System, Organisation of American States (OAS) OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 56/09 (2009), http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/indigenous/docs/pdf/ancestrallands.pdf.

230. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Follow Up Report on Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Participate in Decision Making, With a Focus on Extractive Industries. A/HRC/ 21/55 (2012), para. 13, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session21/A-HRC-21-55_en.pdf.

231. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 32.

232. Ibid.

233. Zuckerman (2016), cited in I. Riofrio, ‘Oil Extraction Threatens to Expand Further into Ecuadorean Rainforest under New 20-Year Contract’, Mongabay News, 3 February 2016, https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/oil-extraction-threatens-to-expand-further-into-ecuadorean-rainforest-under-new-20-year-contract/.

234. Melo (2014), cited in Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 33.

235. Christopher Moseley, ed., Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, 3rd edn (Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 2010).

236. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), ‘Oral Heritage and Cultural Manifestations of the Zápara People’, Intangible Cultural Heritage (2008), http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/00007.

237. Riofrio, ‘Oil Extraction Threatens to Expand Further into Ecuadorean Rainforest under New 20-Year Contract’.

238. The Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua (Judgment of 31 August 2001), (Ser. C) No. 79. Inter-American Court of Human Rights [Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua].

239. Organisation of American States, American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), ‘Pact of San Jose, Costa Rica’ (1969), art. 21.

240. IACHR, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples’ Rights over their Ancestral Lands and Natural Resources: Norms and Jurisprudence of the Inter- American Human Rights System. Organisation of American States (OAS) OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 56/09 (2009), para. 2, http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/indigenous/docs/pdf/ancestrallands.pdf.

241. Kaiman, ‘Controversial Ecuador Oil Deal Lets China Stake an $80-Million Claim to Pristine Amazon Rainforest’.

242. Republic of Ecuador, Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, art. 66.

243. Ray, ‘China in Latin America Seeking a Path Toward Sustainable Development’.

244. ANDES, ‘Ecuador and Chinese Consortium Andes Petroleum Sign Two Exploration Contracts in the Amazon’.

245. Ray et al., China in Latin America, 11.

246. SHE (2012), cited in Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 30.

247. Ray et al., China in Latin America, 11.

248. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 31.

249. See also Republic of Ecuador, Citizens Participation Law (2010), art. 83.

250. International Labour Organisation (ILO), C169 – Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID,P12100_LANG_CODE:312314,en.

251. IACHR, Case of the Saramaka v. Suriname, Judgment of August 12, 2008 (Interpretation of the Judgement on Preliminary Objections, Merits and Reparations, and Costs (2008), para. 17, http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_185_ing.pdf.

252. Saramaka People v. Suriname. Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations, and Costs, Judgment of 28 November 2007, Series C No. 172 [Saramaka]. http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_172_ing.pdf para.137

253. U. Khatri, ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in the Context of State-Sponsored Development: The New Standard Set by Sarayaku v. Ecuador and its Potential to Delegitimize the Belo Monte Dam’, American University International Law Review 29, no. 1 (2013): 165–207, 184.

254. United Nations, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, art. 32, para. 2.

255. Mikkelsen et al., The Indigenous World 2014, 154.

256. ANDES, ‘Ecuador and Chinese Consortium Andes Petroleum Sign Two Exploration Contracts in the Amazon’.

257. Melo (2014), cited in Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 33.

258. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 27.

259. In November 2006, 300 local residents entered, occupied and stopped production for Andes Petroleum, demanding 400 local jobs. In July 2007 community members, transit workers and municipal staff from the town of Nueva Loja blocked a major road to demand more local jobs and other local investment. Andes Petroleum and PetroOriental also faced a series of lawsuits that forced them to make additional payments to a total of 307 former contract workers after original profits were shared among too few workers. As a result, the companies had to pay an additional $16 million to the originally excluded workers. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 22.

260. Ibid., 23.

261. Extraction supports just one direct job and 16 indirect jobs per million dollars of output, compared to 25 direct and 22 indirect jobs for manufacturing. Overall, exports to China support just 30 jobs per million dollars, compared to 70 jobs per million dollars supported by Ecuadoran exports overall. Ray, ‘China in Latin America Seeking a Path Toward Sustainable Development’.

262. Ibid.

263. Silvestre (2014) and Obando (2014), cited in Ray, and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 23.

264. Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 23.

265. Radcliffe (2012), cited in Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 28.

266. Guatemala (2010), cited in Arsel and Angel, ‘“Stating” Nature's Role in Ecuadorian Development’, 218.

267. A. Keyman, ‘Evaluating Ecuador's Decision to Abandon the Yasuni-ITT Initiative’ (Thesis, 22 February 2015, E International Relations Students Website), 9; Mikkelsen et al., The Indigenous World 2014, 150.

268. C. Lang, ‘Ecuador Plans to Drill for Oil in the Yasuní National Park’, REDD Monitor, 22 August 2013, http://www.redd-monitor.org/2013/08/22/ecuador-plans-to-drill-for-oil-in-the-yasuni-national-park/.

269. UNHRC, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Maina Kiai, para. 11.

270. Keyman, ‘Evaluating Ecuador's Decision to Abandon the Yasuni-ITT Initiative’.

271. UNHRC, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Maina Kiai, para. 40.

272. Ibid., para. 39.

273. Ibid., para. 11.

274. Keyman, ‘Evaluating Ecuador's Decision to Abandon the Yasuni-ITT Initiative’. See also K. Koenig, ‘Indigenous March Descends on Quito, as National Strike Presses for Major Reforms’, Amazon Watch, 13 August 2015, http://amazonwatch.org/news/2015/0813-indigenous-march-descends-on-quito-as-national-strike-presses-for-major-reforms.

275. Cholango (2012), cited in Becker, ‘The Stormy Relations between Rafael Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador’, 43.

276. J. Watts and D. Collyns, ‘Ecuador Indigenous Leader Found Dead Days Before Planned Lima Protest: Shuar Leader José Isidro Tendetza Antún Missing since 28 November. Activists Believe Death Linked to Opposition to State-Chinese Mine Project’, The Guardian, 6 December 2014.

277. Mikkelsen et al., The Indigenous World 2014, 155.

278. UNHRC, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Maina Kiai, para. 41.

279. Ibid., para. 34.

280. Decline of open debate was of particular concern in Latin America during 2015, according to The World Press Freedom Index. The report highlighted ‘institutional violence’ in Venezuela and Ecuador, organised crime in Honduras, impunity in Colombia, corruption in Brazil and media concentration in Argentina as the main obstacles to press freedom. The Guardian, ‘Era of Propaganda: Press Freedom in Decline, says Reporters Without Borders’, 20 April 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/20/era-of-propaganda-press-freedom-in-decline-says-reporters-without-borders. See also HRW, World Report 2015: Ecuador – Events of 2014 (2015), https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/ecuador; HRW, ‘Ecuador: Courts Stalling on Protester Appeals. Apply New Rules to Overturn Groundless Convictions’, HRW News, 21 July 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/07/21/ecuador-courts-stalling-protester-appeals.

281. Martinez (2012), cited in U. Brand, ‘Energy Policy and Resource Extractivism: Resistances and Alternatives’, in Energy Policy and Resource Extractivism: Resistances and Alternatives. Seminar Reader, 24–26 March 2013, ed. M. Gensler and M. Rosa (Brussels: Luxemburg Foundation, 2013), 6, http://www.rosalux.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/reader-en-extractivism-tunis2013.pdf.

282. Watts and Collyns, ‘Ecuador Indigenous Leader Found Dead Days before Planned Lima Protest’.

283. M. Kai, ‘Expert Essay: The Revolution May be Televised but Most Protests Aren’t’, in ISHR Annual Report 2015 (Geneva: International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), 2014), 30, http://www.ishr.ch/sites/default/files/article/files/c_-_2015_ishr_annualreport_web.pdf.

284. Universal Rights Group (URG), Report of the First Regional Consultation with Environmental Human Rights Defenders (EHRDs): African and European Regions (2014), para.11, http://www.universal-rights.org/events-detail/regional-consultation-with-environmental-human-rights-defenders/.

285. Ibid.

286. A. Perez, ‘Nicaragua is Not for Sale’, Cetri: Southern Social Movements Newswire, 9 July 2015, http://www.cetri.be/Nicaragua-is-Not-for-Sale?lang=fr.

287. Lu and Silva, ‘Imagined Borders’, 435.

288. Shade, ‘Sustainable Development or Sacrifice Zone?’, 773.

289. Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 9.

290. Kennemore and Weeks, ‘The Elusive Search for a Post-Neoliberal Development Model in Bolivia and Ecuador’, 279; Ray and Chimienti, A Line in the Equatorial Forests, 34.

291. Bull and Aguilar-Stoen, Environmental Politics in Latin America, 2.

292. Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 37.

293. Davidson and Kiff, ‘Global Carbon-and-Conservation Models, Global Eco-States?’, 5.

294. United Nations Agenda 2030, Transforming our World, Declaration, para. 18, para. 13.

295. Ibid., Declaration para. 18, para. 30.

296. Ibid., Declaration, para. 27.

297. S. Sawyer and T. Gomez, eds., The Politics of Resource Extraction: Indigenous Peoples, Multinational Corporations, and the State. United National Institute for Social Development (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 6.

298. Short et al., ‘Extreme Energy, “Fracking” and Human Rights’, 2.

299. Arsel and Angel, ‘“Stating” Nature's Role in Ecuadorian Development’, 208.

300. Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 37.

301. S.E. Merry, ‘Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism: Mapping the Middle’, American Anthropologist 108, no. 1 (2006): 38–51.

302. M. Goodale and S.E. Merry, The Practice of Human Rights Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), Introduction, 35, http://humanrights.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/767/2014/06/MarkGoodaleHumanRights.pdf.

303. Ibid.

304. Becker, ‘The Stormy Relations between Rafael Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador’, 50.

305. Kennemore and Weeks, ‘The Elusive Search for a Post-Neoliberal Development Model in Bolivia and Ecuador’, 278.

306. Becker, ‘The Stormy Relations between Rafael Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador’, 45.

307. The inclusion of the rights of indigenous peoples in the sustainable development agenda has been debated. See also ‘Why are Indigenous People Left Out of the Sustainable Development Goals?’ (Glennie, 2014); and ‘Indigenous Peoples Must Not Be Left Behind upon Launch of Sustainable Development Agenda says Secretary-General at International Day Commemoration’ (UN News, 2015).

308. United Nations Agenda 2030, Transforming our World, Declaration, para. 18, para. 23.

309. Ibid., para. 14.

310. World Bank, Ecuador Overview: Context.

See also United Nations, ‘UN Expert: Ecuador's Indigenous People Lack Adequate Access to Social Services’, UN News Centre, 5 May 2006, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18366&Cr=Ecuador&Cr1#.V7zfGmVlk_U.

311. UNDP, ‘Ecuador: HDI Values and Rank Changes in the 2014 Human Development Report’, Explanatory Note on the 2014 Human Development Report Composite Indices (2014), 3, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/ECU.pdf.

312. Ordóñez et al., Sharing the Fruits of Progress, 7.

313. United Nations Agenda 2030, Transforming our World, Declaration, para. 18.