During the 1980s, many biologists and conservationists believed that mass extinctions would become increasingly more common throughout the world due to climate change and environmental destruction. In response to the growing environmental threat, the English ecologist Norman Myers began studying many areas in the Global South in order to determine the importance of their environments. Myers eventually deemed ten areas as “biological hotspots” in 1988. These hotspots are defined by having over 1,500 endemic species of vascular plants and losing over 70% of their original environments. In 1989, the organization Conservation International adopted the framework that Norman Myers created and used it classify fifteen more areas as biodiversity hotspots in 1996. By 2016, the total number of hotspots would increase to its current number of 36, with the vast majority still being located within the Southern Hemisphere. These 36 sites make up a miniscule 2.4% of the Earth’s total landmass, but account for 35% of all ecosystem services and over 50% of endemic species (What are Biodiversity Hotspots, n.d). For the purposes of her book, Tammy Lewis chose to use Ecuador as a case study due to three main factors, the primary one being that Ecuador’s economic conditions are shared by the majority of the countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. The second reason for Ecuador being the focus of the book is its status as one of the original ten biodiversity hotspots identified by Norman Myers. On its own, Ecuador contains 10% and 17% of the world’s plant and bird species respectively, despite only making up 0.2% of the Earth’s total landmass. This large amount of biodiversity is due to Ecuador’s diverse climates. These climates are split into four distinct regions, the Galapagos Islands, the coast, the Andes Mountains, and the Amazon rainforest. Each of these four regions face many challenges that can be derived from Ecuador’s final reason for being chosen for study, its unique combination of trade exports. What sets Ecuador apart from other Latin American counties in terms of trade is its huge reliance on oil exports to fuel its economy and manage the country’s growing debts. Oil deposits were originally discovered by the Texaco oil company in the Amazonian regions of the country in 1967. Based on current figures, Ecuador’s oil reserves are the third largest in South America, only falling behind Venezuela and the much larger Brazil. Since this original discovery, Ecuador became a member of OPEC and its rate of oil extraction has far exceeded any of the other eleven members of the organization, despite being the smallest member state. Ecuador’s reliance on oil exports has had a catastrophic effect on the Amazon regions within its borders. The necessary infrastructure needed to support Ecuador’s oil industry has resulted in the country having the highest rate of deforestation in all of South America in the 2000’s. In total, the country’s Amazon regions have lost nearly 500,000 hectares of rain forest since 1990 (Mainville, November 6, 2018). In addition to this, Chevron-Texaco has been found to have been dumping industrial waste into remote sections of the Ecuadorian Amazon for nearly thirty years. These dumps have infiltrated into aquifers and rivers, leading to adverse health effects in the communities whose only source of water is this these contaminated sources (The worst case of oil pollution on the planet, n.d). While petroleum production makes up slightly over half of Ecuador’s trade, the remaining half is based around the more common agricultural and fishing based exports that most Latin American countries share. The majority of this activity takes place in the coastal and Galapagos Islands regions of the country, which has seen increasing growth in the industry ever since the mid-1900s due to reforms and land redistribution. Ecuador’s agricultural industry is focused on bananas, flowers, cacao, and palm oil, which are grown in a combination of large plantations and small-scale farms. The fishing industry in Ecuador is primary concentrated on shrimp farming and canning fish. The activities of these two industries have had very detrimental effects on the sensitive environments of the Galapagos Islands on the coast. Agricultural processes have resulted in increases of dangerous algal blooms along Ecuador’s coast while illegal fishing has devastated the waters surrounding the Galapagos Islands (OEC-Ecuador, n,d + Ecuador – Agriculture, n.d + Environmental Issues of the Galapagos, n.d)). Given the sheer number of negative effects that Ecuador’s export industries cause, there are a lot of areas that country could pursue sustainable policy in. The heavy reliance on oil exports can only be addressed by debt-for-nature swaps like Yusani-ITT Incentive and large amounts of international investment in the country. This is due to the fact that the profits from oil exports are nearly equal to that of the country’s banana and crustacean exports, the next two largest categories. The issue of rampant deforestation would be slowed through lessening the importance of continued oil exploitation and eventually reversed through the actions of government incentives and NGOs/SMAs. Through the implementation of stricter fishing laws and increased patrols of the waters around the Galapagos Islands could help address the issue of illegal overfishing. Finally, further investment in the growing eco-tourism industry would greatly benefit all aspects of the Ecuadorian economy, as its status as a biological hotspot creates a huge tourism draw. Growing the tourism industry would draw more potential conservation investment and create new jobs that would allow citizens to move away from the more environmentally destructive industries.
Ecuador - Agriculture. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Ecuador-AGRICULTURE.html
Environmental Issues of the Galapagos. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.galapagosislands.com/info/environment.html
Mainville, N. (2018, November 6). Deforestation in the Ecuadorian Amazon: 50 years of oil-driven ancestral land invasion. Retrieved from https://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/deforestation-ecuador-amazon/
OEC-Ecuador. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://oec.world/en/profile/country/ecu/
The worst case of oil pollution on the planet. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sosyasuni.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106:the-worst-case-of-oil-pollution-on-the-planet&catid=17:general&Itemid=1
What Are Biodiversity Hotspots? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.conservation.org/priorities/biodiversity-hotspots