Community-Based Monitoring of Oil Extraction: Lessons Learned in the Ecuadorian Amazon

This paper reports on an ongoing initiative that seeks to enhance the detection, monitoring, and reporting capabilities of local communities in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon through the introduction of hardware and digital tools, as a strategy to strengthen their ability to produce socio-environmen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Society & natural resources 2020-03, Vol.33 (3), p.406-417
Main Authors: Mena, Carlos F., Arsel, Murat, Pellegrini, Lorenzo, Orta-Martinez, Marti, Fajardo, Pablo, Chavez, Ermel, Guevara, Alexandra, Espín, Paola
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic staff
Amazon
Citizen Science
Community
community-based monitoring
Data collection
Ecuador
Environmental changes
Environmental justice
Environmental liability
Extraction
Liabilities
Local communities
Monitoring
Oil
Petroleum
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural environments
Social justice
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Summary:This paper reports on an ongoing initiative that seeks to enhance the detection, monitoring, and reporting capabilities of local communities in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon through the introduction of hardware and digital tools, as a strategy to strengthen their ability to produce socio-environmental evidence. A Community Based Monitoring (CBM) system has been created to link social organizations, fighting for environmental justice, and academics working on the region in topics related to oil extraction and environmental change. This paper first, conceptualize the need for rural participatory systems of data collection, analysis, and distribution of environmental liabilities in extractive frontiers. Second, the paper provides a description of this community monitoring system in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in a way that can be used by communities and researchers in different contexts. Finally, the paper reflects on lessons learned to understand the main challenges and opportunities of similar systems.
ISSN:0894-1920
1521-0723
DOI:10.1080/08941920.2019.1688441