Making ends meet in Esmeraldas, Ecuador: economic implications of environmental injustice

Undergraduate: Daniela Lopez

Faculty Advisor: Gabriela Valdivia
Department: Geography

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Latin America possesses some of the earth¿¿¿s largest deposits of natural resources and oil reserves. In Ecuador, the petrochemical state grew with promises of oil investment helping the impoverished. Esmeraldas has Ecuador¿¿¿s largest state-owned oil refinery, it is home to a primarily Afro-descendent population. Despite the promises of economic well being from the refinery, the city lives in economic precarity (Valdivia, 2017). The residents of Esmeraldas deal with their precarity through many different ways, whether it¿¿¿s through dependence on the state for cash transfers or informally selling food and other products, the community struggles to make ends meet. By looking at 2014 household economic survey data, this research investigates the variability by which individuals in Esmeraldas make ends meet, and assesses whether oil-related policies of social investment affect income generation. Environmental injustices from extractive industries such as Esmeraldas¿¿¿ oil refinery can play out in number of direct and indirect ways, including through economic externalities. This research aims to explore the precarious conditions of employment in the city contrary to the proposed economic opportunity that the refinery is perceived to bring.

Citation:

2017 Valdivia, G. ¿¿¿At the Margins of Citizenship: Uneven Development and the Revoluci¿¿n Ciudadana in Esmeraldas, Ecuador.¿¿¿ In Race and Rurality in the Global Political Economy, Michaeline Critchlow, ed., Fernand Braudel Center for the