Deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, water pollution, land clearing for shrimp aquaculture, and pollution from oil production wastes are some of the more pressing issues in Ecuador. Some of the environmental issues facing the country are common to numerous other South American countries, notably the destruction of rainforest. While in Brazil this is being done to clear land cattle grazing, in Ecuador the rainforest and its inhabitants are threatened by the extraction of oil and the associated pollution. Oil earnings fund fifty percent of Ecuador's national budget. International corporations, notably Texaco, are pandered to by the Ecuadorian government and given free-reign in ecologically sensitive areas of the Amazon Basin. Ecuador’s own national petroleum company, PetroEcuador, is also notorious for its destructive practices in indigenous people’s territory. While the Amazon region provides the country with the majority of its wealth, it is also the home of indigenous tribes and 300,000 colonists. Peoples like the Shuar, the Cofan and the Huaroani are threatened by extraction practices and the building of pipelines in their native lands. The Indians of Ecuador, located overwhelmingly in the Oriente, have joined forces for the past twenty years to resist oil exploration and demand rights to their ancestral lands.

Another extremely endangered ecosystem is that of the mangrove swamps of the  western coastal lowlands. These habitats have been historically inhabited by an abundance of fish and birds, but deforestation has altered the coast dramatically. Many of these important ecosystems have been cleared of their tree species to make way for large shrimp farms.

Another fast-disappearing habitat, is the tropical dry forest, also found on the western coastal lowlands. Once again, these areas have been cleared for aquaculture facilities. It is estimated that less than one percent of tropical dry forest remains undisturbed.

Related Links

• Einnews
• The Nature Conservancy