Abstract

As recently as five decades ago, Ecuador was among the lowest ranking countries in the Western Hemisphere on the GNI per capita index. However, the discovery of oil in the Amazon provided an opportunity for the nation’s economic development. The Amazon region of Ecuador is an area of significant global value due to its biodiversity, cultural heritage, and largely intact rainforest providing species protection. Ecuador’s national development has brought recent, massive expansion to their petroleum industry, overlapping oil blocks with zones of dense species richness, protected areas, and Indigenous land. This paper aims to analyze the lasting socio-environmental impacts of petroleum extraction in the Amazon region of Ecuador. In doing so, it is crucial to integrate two of the knowledge systems that create the areas under review: local Indigenous knowledge and ecological knowledge based on institutional science. Within the framework of ethnoecology, a historical analysis and literature review were conducted to understand the implications and remediation strategies of petroleum extraction. The findings suggest that Ecuadorian policy has led extraction to deforestation and the disruption of native communities. The use of native organisms and community methods were found to be promising approaches to address oil-contaminated areas. This study concludes that mutual support between local, traditional, and institutional knowledge is necessary to assess the impacts of petroleum extraction and potential remedial strategies.

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