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The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Resources > Global Issues > Ecuador and Oil > Background on Oil...

Background on Oil and the Amazon

For thirty years, one of the richest bioregions on the planet has been under assault from international oil companies. In the Amazonian region that makes up the eastern half of Ecuador, catastrophic damage has already taken place. Not only have rivers, jungles, and wildlife been despoiled, but the health and culture of the indigenous and Mestizo communities of the Amazon are in critical danger.

The grassroots human rights organizations of the Oriente (Ecuador’s Amazon) have resisted the destruction of their land by the oil companies. But in 2002 they face a heightened threat. The Ecuadorian government is preparing to lease off huge new tracts of pristine rain forest, for a new round of oil exploration. And construction of a new pipeline is underway across the country and through a dozen environmentally "protected zones." A new chapter is unfolding in the continuing corporate onslaught against the Amazon.

This campaign section tells the story of the poisoning of the jungle at the hands of Texaco and other oil companies; of the contamination of the waters; and of the resulting sickness in indigenous communities. Some of these communities are even threatened with cultural extinction.

At the present rate of deforestation, in 40 years there will be no more jungle in Ecuador. The oil reserves are not even expected to last that long. And there appears to be no plan to replace oil as the foundation of Ecuador’s economy. This model of development is a catastrophe - an energy policy gone awry. Yet the Ecuadorian government still promotes oil as the key to Ecuador’s development.

Demonstrations in Quito organized with help from the Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales.




Throughout Ecuador, organized grassroots communities have proposed alternatives, including sustainable development programs that are friendly to the environment. They are educating and galvanizing their people. They are resisting. Often this means putting themselves, quite literally, in harm’s way.

They appear to be having an impact. The new round of oil leasing has been delayed, and the Ecuadorian government must tread carefully to avoid provoking massive protests. There is hope that a healthy way of life in the Amazon may be saved.

The destruction of the world's rainforests is driven by a complex web of social and economic forces, many of these a logical result of modern society's worldview. It is a view guided by maximum short-term financial gain while disregarding the long-term costs of ecological degradation. It is a worldview in which tropical forests can show up as a cash crop to be harvested rather than as an irreplaceable ecosystem to be protected. Pachamama Alliance

At the same time, it is far too soon for optimism. The oil companies may no longer practice the grotesque pollution that marked their first assault in the 1970s and 1980s, but they are as determined as ever to continue extracting oil. The rights of Ecuador’s indigenous peoples have been laid out clearly in international and national law – but these rights have been consistently violated. One key legal challenge on their behalf, in a US court, is in danger of being rejected.

Meanwhile, the indigenous peoples themselves face a dilemma. Some communities are committed to absolute resistance to oil, but others feel that oil exploration is inevitable and that they have to compromise with the companies. The question is how to compromise from a position of strength with some of the most powerful corporations in the world.

Whatever the outcome of the next round of block leasing, the battle will continue. The stakes are high – for Ecuador, for the environment, and for indigenous rights. This is a story with vast global implications.

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