Plantations,Resistance and the Greening of the Agrarian Question in Coastal Ecuador |
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Authors: | JULIEN‐FRANÇOIS GERBER SANDRA VEUTHEY |
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Affiliation: | Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (ICTA), Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain |
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Abstract: | Worldwide, industrial tree plantations are at the origin of a growing number of conflicts between local populations and commercial planters. Such conflicts – which often turn out to be ‘environmental’– have largely remained understudied. By focusing on the establishment of an industrial eucalypt monoculture in a coastal Ecuadorian canton, this paper investigates the effects of the penetration of capital into the rural sphere, emphasizing the resulting resistance campaign of a local NGO originating from a peasant organization. We analyse the evolution of land conflicts in the region – historically as well as operationally during the latest eucalypt campaign. We find that displacement of local peasants is a recurrent theme, while environmental issues have recently been incorporated into the resistance to landowners. We thus argue that the agrarian question also includes – now perhaps more than ever – an environmental dimension, thereby providing space for a fruitful dialogue between political ecologists and students of agrarian conflicts. |
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Keywords: | tree plantations environmental conflict NGOs agrarian question political ecology |
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