CO₂lonialism and the “Unintended Consequences” of Commoditizing Climate Change: Geographies of Hope Amid a Sea of Oil Palms in the Northwest Ecuadorian Pacific Region

Abstract

Reduction of greenhouse gases as prescribed by the Kyoto Protocol encourages substituting fossil fuels with biofuels. Ecuador's engagement with such climate change policy frameworks and subsequent biofuel production plans have led to drastic landscape transformation. Since the implementation of the first large-scale oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantation in the Canton of San Lorenzo, Esmeraldas province in 1998, palm monoculture has replaced 22, 242 ha of Ecuador's coastal Chocó rainforest. The recent and rapid expansion of oil palm plantations has serious and detrimental socio-ecological repercussions for the local Afro-Ecuadorian and indigenous communities. This article highlights both the agro-ecological and cultural practices and the inter-ethnic networks through which these communities construct and sustain “geographies of hope” amid landscapes characterized by fallen forests, poisoned rivers, social conflicts, and a sea of oil palms. Drawing on the theoretical linkages between climate change, colonialism, and capitalism, this study investigates San Lorenzo as an agricultural frontier where “CO₂lonialism” is articulated through biofuel (oil palm) production. Expounding on the ecological debt of the Global North to the Global South, this article critically examines actions and discourses that bulldoze rainforests, livelihoods, and constructive discussions regarding the global warning of global warming.

Keywords:

• oil palm
• Afro-descendents
• biofuel
• climate change mitigation
• Ecuador
• Esmeraldas
• geographies of hope
• indigenous peoples (Chachi and Awá)
• sumak kawsay (vivir bien living well)
• rights of Nature

Acknowledgments

This article is the result of collaboration on all levels, for which I am deeply appreciative and would like to express my sincere gratitude. I dedicate this article to the San Lorenzo communities, whose friendship, strength, and positivity I carry with me and to whom I feel indebted for all they have shared with me over the years. I am also very thankful to my dissertation advisor, Susan M. Roberts, for her inspiration and guidance in organizing my current doctoral research project. Additionally, I extend much appreciation to my colleagues Daniel Ortega-Pacheco, Emily Billo, and especially, Allison Harnish, as well as to my mentors, Morgan M. Robertson, and again, Sue Roberts, for their direction and comments on earlier drafts of this article. I would then like to profoundly thank Chisato Tomimura as well as the anonymous reviewers' for their hard work and patience during the article's publication process in the JSF. Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge the Inter-American Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and University of Kentucky's Geography and Latin American Studies Departments for financial support. Finally, I am grateful to FLACSO-Ecuador and particularly the Altropico Foundation for their institutional support and assistance during my research period in always lively, and most certainly lovely Ecuador.

Notes

1. Names in personal communications throughout document are withheld for privacy reasons.