Abstract
Due to its wealth of renewable natural resources, the Ecuadorian Amazonian region is both a strategic place for the country's economy and a territory in tension. Here are three of the five large-scale mining projects considered strategic for the country's economy. Their location coincides with spaces of informal, small-scale extraction, which have been taking place since the pre-Hispanic era. The coexistence of these two extraction processes in the same territory is triggering socio-spatial processes that are economically and spatially intertwined.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
According to Ecuadorian law, “artisanal” mining is that carried out through the individual, family or association work of those who carry out mining activities authorized by the state; It is characterized by the use of tools, and simple and portable machines intended for obtaining minerals whose marketing in general only allows to cover the primary needs of the person or family group that performs them (Ley de minería 2018, art.134). Likewise, it defines “small-scale mining” as that which, due to its geological characteristics and conditions as well as its technical and economic parameters, can be exploited directly. (Ley de minería 2018, article 138). From a quantitative point of view, small-scale mining is considered to be that where it produces up to 10 tons per day, in underground mines, and 120 cubic meters per day in alluvial mines. Therefore, small-scale extraction is synonymous with artisanal extraction.
- 2.
To show these relationships, diagrams and maps were produced and collected through and testimonies of local administrators, politicians, settlers and miners.
- 3.
Source: Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Minero (2016).
- 4.
Source: Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas (2019).
- 5.
According to the projection of the Ministerio de Minería for the three-year period 2018–2021, small mining businesses will generate $ 162 million in turnover (Ministerio de Minería 2017). According to the Agencia de Regulación y Control Minero, the Amazon region produced 231,800 g of gold per year, of which 79% is concentrated in the province of Zamora Chinchipe, and 21% is registered in the Canton of Napo (ARCOM 2015).
- 6.
According to the Environmental Code of Practice for Metal Mines (2009), there are four phases of a mining project: feasibility, construction, exploitation and closure. In each phase, various physical-spatial, social and economic transformations of the territory take place.
- 7.
In the case of the “Proyecto Mirador” mine, a community of Shuar indigenous people has been removed from their original locations (Van Teijlingen 2016).
- 8.
The construction of this artery was financed and carried out by the state through the economic resources obtained from mining royalties.
- 9.
The extraction of gold, during the crushing process of minerals, requires the use of mercury subsequently released into the hydrogeological system.
- 10.
The term incrementalism refers to John Turner's studies on the so-called barriadas or informal settlements of Lima, conducted between the 1950s and 1960s, maturing a critique of modernist planning and housing policies “from above” (Turner 1972).
- 11.
In Pratt's terms, the “contact zone” is a space crossed by various types of conflicts, in which powers and imaginaries confront each other and where linguistic and cultural exchanges occur, social places where cultures meet or clash. Although conceived within literary and humanistic studies, this spatial concept was readily appropriate by scholars in the field of social disciplines, feminist theory, critical race theory and postcolonial studies. The “contact zone” belongs to that set of concepts produced in the post-modern era, used to address the issues of relationality and contiguity between multiple subjects, collectives and social groups, such as positionality, the theory of point of view, perspectivism, intersectionality and relationality.
References
Acosta A (2013) Extractivism and neoextractivism: two sides of the same curse. In: Lang M, Mokrani D, (eds) Beyond development: alternative visions from Latin America- Rosa. Luxemburg Foundation and Amsterdam Transnational Institute, Quito, pp 61–86
ARCOM Agencia de Regulación y Control Minero (2015) Geoportal de Catastro Minero http://geo.controlminero.gob.ec:1026/geo_visor/. Accessed 23 Apr 2020
Castells M (1974) La cuestión urbana. Siglo XXI Editores, México
Correa F (2016) Beyond the city: resource extraction urbanism in South America. University of Texas Press, Austin
del Hierro S (2017) Plan ZIMM-S. Plan Estratégico Territorial para la Zona de Influencia del corredor Manta-Manaos en Sucumbíos. https://www.santiagodelhierro.com/app/uploads/2019/09/2017_del-Hierro-Plan-ZIMM-S.pdf. Accessed 13 Feb 2019
de minería L (2018) http://www.controlminero.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2018/08/Ley-de-Minería-21-mayo-2018.pdf. Accessed 13 Gen 2020
di Campli A (2016) Plan Nacional de Desarrollo del Sector minero. Disponibile al sito: http://www.competencias.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/04PPP2016-PLAN.pdf. Accesso 12 giugno 2020
Drobe J et al (2008) Mirador copper-gold project 30,000 TPD feasibilty study
Echeverría B (1998) La modernidad de lo barroco. D. F.: ERA, México
Environment Canada (2009) Environmental code of practice for metal mines. Disponibile al sito: https://www.ec.gc.ca/lcpe-cepa/documents/codes/mm/mm-eng.pdf. Accessed 5 Mar 2020
Gago V (2014) La razón neoliberal : economías barrocas y pragmática popular. Tinta limón, Buenos Aires
Gudynas E (2010) El nuevo extractivismo progresista. El Observador Del OBIE 8:1–10
Gudynas E (2013) Extracciones, Extractivismo y Extrahecciones. Un marco conceptual sobre la apropiacion de recursos naturales, Observatorio del Desarrollo 18/2013, p 18
Harvey D (2005) El “Nuevo” Imperialismo:Acumulación Por Desposesión. CLACSO, Buenos Aires http://www.corriente.com/media/PDFs/news/technical_reports/MIRADOR_30K_Report_FINAL_SEDAR.pdf. Accessed 4 Sep 2020
INEC (2020) Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010-Pobreza por Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas- NBI. https://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/pobreza-por-necesidades-basicas-insatisfechas/. Accessed 3 Feb 2020
Leary S et al (2016) Discovery, geology and origin of the fruta del norte epithermal gold-silver deposit, sourtheastern ecuador. Econ Geol 111:1043–1072
Lefebvre H (1970) The urban revolution. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, London
Massuh G (2014) El Robo de buenos aires: la trama de corrupción, ineficiencia y negocios que le arrebató la ciudad a sus habitantes. Sudamericana, Buenos Aires
Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas (2019) https://www.finanzas.gob.ec/usd-3-800-millones-de-inversion-minera-hasta-2021-daran-mas-prosperidad-al-ecuador/. Accessed 14 May 2020
Ministerio de Minería, Rendición de cuentas (2017) http://historico.mineria.gob.ec/rendicion-de-cuentas-2017/. Accessed 10 May 2020
Pratt ML (1992) Imperial eyes: travel writing and transculturation. Routledge, London and New York
Sacher W, Acosta A (2012) La minería a gran escala en ecuador: Análisis y Datos Estadísticos Sobre La Minería Industrial En El Ecuador. Abya-Yala, Quito
Sánchez L, Leifsen E, Verdú AM (2017) Minería a gran escala en ecuador: conflicto, resistencia y etnicidad». Rev De Antropología Iberoamericana 12(2):169–192
Sordi J, Valenzuela L, Vera F (2017) The camp and the city: Territories of extraction. LISt Lab, Rovereto-Italy
Svampa M, Viale E (2014) La argentina del extractivismo y El despojo. Katz, Buenos Aires
Topalov C (1979) La urbanización capitalista. Ed.Edicol, México
Turner J (1972) Housing as a Verb. In: Turner J, Fichter R (eds) Freedom to build; Dweller control of the housing process. Macmillan, New York
Van Teijlingen K (2016) The ‘Will to improve’ at the mining frontier: neo-extractivism, development and governmentality in the ecuadorian Amazon. Extractive Ind Soc 3(4):902–911
Zhang J et al (2011) Land use-based landscape planning and restoration in mine closure areas. Environ Manage 47(5):739–750
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Di Campli, A. (2021). Extractivism as a Field of Tensions. In: Vassallo, I., Cerruti But, M., Setti, G., Kercuku, A. (eds) Spatial Tensions in Urban Design. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84083-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84083-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-84082-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-84083-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)