Abstract:
Since the Spanish conquest, Ecuador's lowland indigenous groups have experienced two
major periods of development: faith-based initiatives and petroleum exploitation. The early
1990s marked the beginning of a third, considerably more heterogeneous phase. In this
current stage, which has followed missionary health and education services since the
seventeenth century and petroleum exploration and exploitation since the 1930s,
indigenous peoples have become increasingly organized politically. Though markedly
distinct from and meant to be more sustainable than past efforts, how viable are the
alternatives presented in this "post-petroleum" era of conservation-based development?
This paper contextualizes sustainable development within the history of Ecuadonan
Amazonian development in order to highlight the relatively sudden involvement of
indigenous organizations and confederations, both regionally and internationally, in the
political arena of economic, sociocultural and environmental development.