Extractivism and the rights of nature: governmentality, ‘convenient communities’ and epistemic pacts in Ecuador

ABSTRACT

Ecuador’s recently adopted conflict resolution techniques have aggravated the always tense encounters between Amazonian indigenous communities, oil companies and the state. The state’s governmentality project portrays these socio-environmental conflicts as mere technical–managerial issues while societal coalitions re-politicize them through territorial defense struggles. The Cofán Dureno case highlights how the self-proclaimed ‘Citizen’s Revolution’ government seeks to redefine socio-natural relationships and territorial identities, devising ‘communities of convenience’. These correspond to the state’s own images, political structure and ideology, promoting ‘community participation’ to facilitate oil extraction. Ecuador’s constitutionally recognized Rights of Nature (paradoxically installed by the same government) are analyzed with a focus on their potential for resisting socio-environmental injustice. The internationally celebrated inclusion of these rights in the Constitution was advocated by nonindigenous intellectual activists but influenced and supported by the indigenous movement. Beyond legal implications, these rights might foster an epistemic pact between indigenous and nonindigenous society to defend territories from extractive industries.

KEYWORDS:

• Governmentality
• cultural politics
• epistemologies
• Rights of Nature
• extractivism
• Ecuadorian Amazon region

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador.

2. Indigenous Cofán Organization Ecuador.

3. Dureno Central, Uperito, Bavoroé, Pisurié Canque and Totoa Nainqui.

4. Government of the Native Nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon Region.

5. Article 71 – Nature or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and realized, is entitled to respect for its existence, and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes. Any person, community, people or nationality may demand that the public authorities enforce and respect the Rights of Nature. The application and interpretation of these rights will observe the principles established in the Constitution. The state will encourage individuals and corporate bodies and collectives to protect nature, and will promote respect for all elements comprising an ecosystem.

6. http://therightsofnature.org/.

7. Report, United Nations Secretary-General, 2011.

8. ‘Nature against the Provincial Government of Loja’. Against the pollution of the Vilcabamba River due to the expansion of a highway. March 2011.