TRI Fellows Research Projects, 2004

South America

 Rafael Bernardi, MEM 2005

Land use change in the buffer zone of Cordillera Azul National Park.

Rafael Bernadi at the border of Cordilla Azul National Park.

Location: South America, Peru

In trying to determine how “development” process can lead to environmental degradation and resource loss, I conducted my research in the Huallaga valley in Peru. This is a place where the Andes meet the Amazon rainforest, and where agricultural frontier expansion is occurring in the buffer zone of the Cordillera Azul National Park. Previous studies have evidenced the link between road development and deforestation for this particular region, and understanding the socio-economic dynamics of this change remains crucial to avoid deforestation and land degradation.

Patterns of clearing with remaining patches of forests. Community zoning is being considered as a regional management alternative to avoid complete deforestation.

My research was focused on agricultural frontier expansion dynamics. I studied changes in a particular community and analyzed the drivers in land use change following road opening. Current hypothesis that explain agricultural practices in Peru were tested by conducting surveys and land use mapping, and integrated in a conceptual model of land use change for the area of study. An analytical policy framework will be utilized to apply findings of this research to the ongoing planning and zoning work being done in the area by local communities and NGOs.

 Laura Cuoco, MESc 2005

Effect of Shrimp Farms and Mangrove Deforestation on Local Communities: Participation, Behaviors, and Knowledge

Mangrove Restoration: Project on Isla Corazon — Manabi Province, Ecuador.

Location: South America, Ecuador

Mangroves have been destroyed at an alarming rate for the past thirty years. While the causes of destruction vary by country, in Ecuador, the installation of shrimp ponds for aquaculture development has contributed most to the rate of deforestation. Laws have been enacted to prevent further deterioration of this productive ecosystem; however, there has been little enforcement of existing regulations.

Numerous international, national and regional organizations have joined forces with local communities as a means of protecting mangroves and focusing international attention on these forests. They have been successful in the adoption of a new, integrated, adaptive coastal management program that aims to incorporate all stakeholders, promote community participation and improve sustainable aquaculture. The establishment of the Coastal Zone Management Program (PMRC) has served to increase local participation and collaborations between aquaculture groups and local communities. Future tasks include increasing the capacities of municipal governments and expanding the coastal program to function nationwide as a way to achieve their goals and reverse the trend of deforestation.

Shrimp Farm— Manabi Province, Ecuador

 Andrea Johnson, MESc 2005

Participation Through the Pipeline: Civil Society and the Camisea Project, Peru

Andrea Johnson “at work": setting up interviews in Lima, Peru.

Location: South America, Peru

I am using the ongoing conflict surrounding Peru’s Camisea Natural Gas Pipeline Project as a case study for investigating the role that civil society – operating on local, national and international levels – plays in governance and monitoring efforts of development projects, and the perceptions stakeholders have about the success of these efforts.

In 2000 the Peruvian government granted licenses for exploration and exploitation to the Camisea gasfields, in the Lower Urubamba River valley of southeastern Peru, to two multinational consortiums. The pipeline, which went on-line in August 2004, originates in “pristine” rainforest within the indigenous Nahua Kugapakori Reserve, traverses over 500 kilometers, and emerges on the coast at a fractionation plant and offshore transport facilities in the buffer zone of the world-renowned Paracas Marine Reserve near Pisco. President Alejandro Toledo’s government and Camisea’s corporate backers assert that this project is central to Peru’s national economic growth, and that its combined benefits add up to some $10 billion in net present value. Opposition to Camisea, meanwhile, has mobilized around a host of environmental and social externalities.

"On the pipeline": the pipeline's Right of Way passing through the high sierra, Ayacucho

I spent two months in Peru conducting interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. By studying Camisea I hope to contribute to ongoing discussions about the influence of civil society in decision-making over large-scale development projects and the potential role that civil society can play in ensuring the accountability of the business sector to environmental and social standards. Better understanding of these issues is part of crafting more ethical, sustainable, and democratic development processes.

 David Kneas, MESc 2005

Everyday forms of Neo-liberal State Formation: Mining, the World Bank and the Reconstruction of Environmental Authority in Ecuador

Location: South America, Ecuador

Afternoon in Intag, view from Carlos’s house.

In the early 90s Ecuador began an overhaul of its mining laws and the institutions that govern them, towards the end of increasing foreign investment in its mineral sector. The World Bank provided the financial and institutional support for this project, which slated over a quarter of Ecuador’s surface for mineral exploration. My research looks at the role of the World Bank in this process, examining the project’s development and environmental rhetoric as compared to the project’s outcomes. One of the areas targeted for large scale mining is a region known as the Intag, whose inhabitants have resisted mining for over a decade. Using Intag as a case study, I argue that the development project attempts to de-politicize the environment in mining projects, easing resource extraction for global markets.

In concert with my research, I filmed public engagements between people of Intag and Ascendant Exploration, a mining company present in the region. I have an interest in the role of documentary film as a tool of research and resistance.

• View the film.

 Cesar Moran-Cahusac, MEM 2005

Analyzing a community based ecotourism project in Manu National Park, hosted and implemented by Pantiacolla Tours, Cusco, Peru

Location: South America, Peru

Cesar Moran Cahusac with Rafael Ochoa arriving at the sun gate "Intihuatana" after an Inca trail evaluation trip.

This situation confused the Yine natives and created an aura of distrust towards the project. While I was in the region, a battle for power between the founders of the project was taking place. The uncertainty of this status quo led to one of the founders offering natives alcohol and pornographic movies to have them on his side. Eventually, my presence in the area was causing diverse expectations and I subsequently left the area , agreeing to coordinate with the other project founder and assist him in finding a solution to engage the community with the project. This proposition was offered to the native association lawyer, who thought the plan a good idea. This remediation is currently under process.

The Machu Picchu Inca citadel

To gather more information on CBEP I visited 5 different CBEP in order to prepare a comparative analysis of them. The results of my observations have shown me the diverse manner in which tour operators engage with these communities and their strategies for implementation. I was also interested in determining what benefits ecotourism can offer to achieve local sustainability or conservation objectives. The results will be utilised to develop a template or a framework for the responsible implementation of ecotourism projects and to help local communities maximise their benefits, for example, by improving sanitation services, a major issue in many of these communities. I expect to complete the template design within a PhD program.

Internship in dry sanitation in Turku, Finland hosted by the company PikkuVihrea. This internship was about learning the diverse methods for dry sanitation in Finland. Why dry sanitation? Dry sanitation saves and protects water resources, prevents pollution of water sources, returns valuable nutrients to and humus to the soils (food security), offers a safe organic fertilizer for food production, reforestation and ecological rehabilitation projects, requires less implementation and maintenance costs that sewer systems, and is a crucial component in ensuring that many urban, semi rural and rural settlements have access to safe water. However users must maintain the system and it requires attention to the composting process.

Working in PikkuVihrea exposed me to the different companies and institutions that are implementing dry sanitation in Finland and I was able to develop a network for this issue. Taking advantage of my presence in Finland I also engaged: NGO’s related to dry sanitation and deep solid waste management and the Environmental Faculties of the Turku University and the Turku polytechnic Institute. Dry Sanitation could be a potential benefit from CBEP since many rural and semi rural communities in developing countries lack sanitary sewage systems.

 Rebecca Reider, MESc 2005

Barrels of Oil, Bowls of Chicha: Making the Connection Between Building Social Movements and Subsistence Strategies in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Rebecca Reider contributing to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Location: South America, Ecuador

This research was conducted in Napo province, an area which the Ecuadorian government is now attempting to license for future oil exploration, and which is also the territory of Kichwa communities spread along the Napo river. Research was conducted through participant observation as a volunteer for RECOKA, a newly developing network of Kichwa communities, and through community surveys on RECOKA’s behalf to assess member communities’ economic subsistence strategies and opinions about oil development. The survey’s goal was to help RECOKA to develop future community development projects.

Defending the amazon in the streets — RECOKA at an indigenous march.

The process of movement-building depends on the success of community education efforts about the negative impacts of oil extraction. However, surveys found that local people’s main subsistence concern is their difficulty in generating a cash income; a particular problem is forest-dwellers’ lack of access to fair markets to sell their crops. Cash income is necessary for families to provide their children with formal education, which in turn is a necessary foundation for future community organizing efforts. Oil companies frequently promise economic rewards to indigenous communities; therefore any movement which opposes oil development in the rainforest must also seek alternative forms of economic development for its residents if the movement is to receive broad-based support. Local people base their participation in such movements on the movement’s relevance to their own survival.