Plantations, resistance and the greening of the agrarian question in coastal Ecuador.

摘要

Worldwide, industrial tree plantations are at the origin of a growing number of conflicts between local populations and commercial planters. Such conflicts - which often turn out to be 'environmental' - have largely remained understudied. By focusing on the establishment of an industrial eucalypt monoculture in a coastal Ecuadorian canton, this paper investigates the effects of the penetration of capital into the rural sphere, emphasizing the resulting resistance campaign of a local NGO originating from a peasant organization. We analyse the evolution of land conflicts in the region - historically as well as operationally during the latest eucalypt campaign. We find that displacement of local peasants is a recurrent theme, while environmental issues have recently been incorporated into the resistance to landowners. We thus argue that the agrarian question also includes - now perhaps more than ever - an environmental dimension, thereby providing space for a fruitful dialogue between political ecologists and students of agrarian conflicts.Digital Object Identifier http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2010.00265.x