Ecuador Reading List

Laura Jean and I are heading off to Ecuador for 10 days right after Christmas (Quinn is staying with my parents). We're going as part of a Global Exchange trip to learn about environmental and social justice issues in that country - particularly involving disputes between Amazonian communities and foreign oil companies. Should be an interesting trip.

To prepare for the trip, I've been doing some reading on the issues and the country in general. (A good intro to the Chevron dispute is here; a defense of Chevron is here.) Here are some links:

Biodiversity and Conservation

• Finer et al. Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples. PLoS ONE. 3(8), 2008. (see also westernamazon.org)
  
• Kraft et al. Functional traits reveal niche-based community assembly in an Amazonian Forest. Science. 24 October, 2008.
• Ecuador's Choco under siege, but hope remains: An interview with UCLA conservationist Dr. Jordan Karubian (mongabay.com)
• The Harpy Eagle - King of the Canopy (Childrens Tropical Forests)
• Mangroves of Majagual, Ecuador are dying (Mangrove Action Project)
• Yasuni Scientific Research Station
• Research in Yasuni National Park
• Ecuador's plan to protect rainforest from oil drilling looks doomed (mongabay.com)
• Ecuador seeks to commercialize rainforest (Spiegel), 11/20/08
• Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development
• When chocolate is a way of life (NY Times, 11/4/08)
  

Oil Company Disputes

• Crude Reflections - Photo Exhibit (review here)
  
• Amazon Defense Coalition :: texacotoxico.org
• Clean Up Ecuador Campaign :: chevrontoxico.org
• Amazon Watch
  
• Texaco in Ecuador official site
  
• Jungle Law (Vanity Fair)
  
• A $16 billion problem (Newsweek)
• Ecuador keeps up oil cleanup fight against Chevron (Los Angeles Times)
• Ecuador ordered to pay $1.6B to Chevron (Economic Times)
  
• Amazonian Swindle (Wall Street Journal)
  
• Soy defensor de la selva [part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - short - via]
  
• Oil Exploration in Yasuni National Park
• Texaco goes on trial in Ecuador pollution case (NY Times)
• Seeking Balance: Growth vs. Culture in Amazon (NY Times, 12/10/03)
  
• Texaco in Ecuador (Oxfam America)
• Amazon activists win Goldman Environmental Prize (LA Times)
• Drilling for Oil Way, Way Offshore (Time, 8/18/08)
  
• 'Crude' forthcoming documentary by Joe Berlinger
• Chevron urges U.S. to revoke Ecuador trade (Washington Times, 2/5/09)
• Ecuador's Tribes Fight Big Oil (useful maps! Mariri Magazine, 6/4/07)
  

Recent Ecuador Politics

• Voters in Ecuador Approve Constitution (Washington Post, 11/29/08)
• Ecuador constitution would grant inalienable rights to nature (includes text; CS Monitor, 9/3/08)
  
• Rights of nature news links via CELDF
• Ecuador Rising blog
  
• Ecuador maintains bond default threat (Financial Times, 12/11/08)
• How green is the Latin American left? A look at Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia (Upside Down World, 4/3/08)

[Updated 3/1/09]