Opening Pandora's Box: Oil Exploration in Ecuador

As the world becomes ever reliant on oil, and as oil becomes increasingly scarce, more and more untouched and once-protected areas are being opened up to oil exploration. GVN's Megan Tady interviewed Paula Palmer, executive director of Global Response, to discuss the environmental and social impacts of oil exploration in Ecuador, and how GVN volunteers should approach their work with respect and compassion. Global Response is an environmental action and education network that empowers people of all ages, cultures, and nationalities to protect the environment by creating partnerships for effective citizen action.

GVN: What is the biggest issue facing Ecuadorians?

Palmer: The biggest question for the people of Ecuador right now is how Ecuador chooses to develop it's oil reserves, or if it considers alternative modes of development that are more in keeping with the values and aspirations of indigenous people.

The Ecuadorian people are demanding from their government a change in the way they handle oil contracts. This is because of the environmental impacts of oil exploration and drilling. But it's also because of the social affects. Ecuadorians are seeing that the multinational companies are benefiting from these contracts at the expense of the local communities, whose environments are destroyed and whose cultures are disrupted. At the very least, there seems to be a very strong demand in Ecuador for a larger share of the benefits from the activities from extractive industries to be spent in the service of these local communities-their infrastructure, education, employment opportunities. These are things that are not entirely tied to the extractive industries, but which correspond to their own view of what development could mean from the perspective.

That's to say, if they want development at all. Many of the indigenous groups, primarily the ones whose territory has not yet been invaded, are saying, we demand the right to say no. The Ecuadorian government has not recognized their right to do so, but they also haven't permitted the oil companies into their territory so far.

GVN: What are the environmental impacts of oil exploration in Ecuador?

Palmer: Dead fish, contaminated water, noise contamination… just getting the equipment in where it is frightening and disruptive to indigenous peoples and the animals in the forests. By just putting a road in, they are disrupting the migratory patterns of animals. Once a road exists, not only can the oil company get in there, but people can get in there and hunt what shouldn't be hunted for their meat, feathers and skin. Poachers immediately appear on the scene when a road is cut into a new area. And then logging operations will follow immediately too. If you can get machinery in for oil development, you can get logging machinery in. It just opens a Pandora's box.

GVN: What are the social impacts on a community?

Palmer: Oil companies themselves send in fairly young, single, male workers into a traditional society that is primarily hunter/gathers or live in small clans or villages and have a very traditional social structure that has been theirs for many centuries. In that setting, when you inject a young male population, you are going to have problems of social and sexual interactions with the local population. That is going to have many repercussions. If they do hire local people, they may also be disrupting the barter economy so that suddenly a hand-full of people in the community have money. What are they going to use this money for? It's two worlds colliding. It challenges the economic base and the way the traditional people value what they have is challenged by the sudden presence of money, which is a different form of exchange than they may have encountered.

In order to try to wear down the resistance of the traditional communities, one thing the oil companies do is find someone that lives in those communities who has lived in the cities, who is more sophisticated and who is willing to challenge the leadership of the traditional people. They supply that person with goods to hand out. It's a sophisticated form of bribery and it can be done in many different ways. So you're challenging the authority of traditional leaders with material goods.

You can look into your own heart and ask yourself, how long would I resist that kind of temptation? I think it's very telling to ask yourself that kind of question. How long would I resist the temptation of whatever it is that might be tantalizing to me, whether it be cloth or jewelry or electronics?

GVN: What are the alternatives to this form of destructive development?

Palmer: There are middle ways. It's possible for communities to maintain their culture and just say no to everything. That's perfectly legitimate. And it does happen. There are alternative forms of change that can come within traditional societies and can link appropriately with segments of the rest of the world and other economies and cultures. Opportunities can be made available that aren't entirely destructive to the traditional way of life but that honor curiosity and interest and desire for something new. I think that is what many of the leaders in Ecuador, and around the world, are searching for. I think it's important that oil is not the only road to development.

GVN: Many of our volunteers work in Ecuador. Can you advise us on how volunteers should approach their time in the country?

Palmer: I met a lot of Peace Corp volunteers when I was living in Costa Rica. The volunteers who were not happy were the ones that came to Costa Rica with the idea that my job is to teach people to do something better. Those people became very frustrated.

The people who were happy being volunteers and got the most out of the experience and left the most goodwill in the hearts of the local people were those who went with the idea to very humbly learn and be of service if they could. So low expectations in themselves as change agents is important. I think the best thing a volunteer can do is to go with the idea that their role there is to learn as much as they can about living in this place, and if they can, be of service. And if they really don't know how to be of service, than be a friend. And when they go back to their country, get political. That's when the learning really pays off. It's when volunteers return and become an advocate for the interests of the people as they have come to understand them.

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