View source for ASI:Applying the WDF to Oil Production in Ecuador: Lost Opportunities and Endless Litigation

{{ASI
|First Contributor=Mark Williams
|Case Study=Oil Extraction and the Rights of Indigenous People in Ecuador
|Reflection Text Summary=This ASI discusses some specific elements of the WDF (Stakeholder Identification, Joint Fact Finding, Value Creation) where opportunities were missed, and ignoring these aspects have contributed significantly to the ongoing litigation. 
|Reflection Text='''''Were the appropriate stakeholders and network interests identified and adequately represented in water management efforts, so that the full range of perspectives and all available local knowledge could be tapped?'''''
  
The only parties to the original agreement to allow oil exploration and development were the Ecuadorian government and Texaco.  None of the communities affected by oil development plans were allowed to participate in the design, execution and monitoring of projects in their territories.  During the over 28 years that Texaco, along with Petroecuador  (the Ecuadorian Government owned petroleum company) extracted oil and 	created the excessive contamination to the Amazon, no input from the indigenous peoples was sought or considered.  Furthermore, when the Ecuadorian Government and Texaco negotiated the $40 million US clean up and release agreement, neither the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon, nor local or international NGO input was obtained.


'''''Did the parties engage in joint fact-finding to generate a shared understanding of how the key variables in the NSPD (Natural and Societal Process within a Political Domain) interact in their particular settings?'''''

Texaco, especially in the early days of oil exploration, placed limited value on the surrounding environment and the communities who lived in them.  Texaco’s focus and motivation was oil extraction in the least expensive (short term) way. 

Human rights norms require a government to make information about 	potentially hazardous activities publicly available. Such information is necessary to allow citizens to participate in policy decisions and to hold those who violate rights accountable for their actions. According to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, "each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is 	held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities... States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available."<ref name="CFESR">THE CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS, Rights Violations in the Ecuadorian Amazon The Human Consequences of Oil Development </ref>
  

The Indigenous people affected by oil development in the Oriente were severely handicapped by the lack of consultation and lack of available information on initial plans for development and on the extent of the contamination in their environment. While Ecuador requires oil companies to provide environmental impact statements to state environmental agencies, the companies and agencies are not obliged to make the statements public. It is reported that without incentive to do so, companies and agencies frequently refuse to release the environmental statements, leaving affected communities with no access to information regarding development plans, quantity and types of chemicals used and discharged during production and potential health hazards from exposure to oil ad related toxic wastes. For example, the unprecedented two-year audit of Texaco's environmental damages, commissioned by Texaco and Petroecuador, has been withheld from communities in the Oriente and private organizations.  Without such basic information people are left ignorant of potential risks and cannot participate meaningfully in public policy a hold companies accountable for their actions.<ref name="CFESR"/>

Now, because of the seemingly endless litigations, it is difficult to determine what the true facts are:  both sides “In have spent so many years contesting one another that the controversy can resemble a vituperative political campaign—a constant volley of talking points and rebuttals. No scientific or historical assertion goes undisputed by the other side.”<ref name ="Keefe"> Patrick Radden Keefe, “Reversal of Fortune:  A Crusading Lawyer Helped Ecaudoreans Secure a Huge Environmental Judgment against Chevron.  But Did He Go Too Far?,” The New Yorker, January 9, 2012, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/09/120109fa_fact_keefe?currentPage=all </ref>
  


'''''Did the parties attempt to create as much value as possible for both the companies involved in oil extraction, the nearby communities and the environment?'''''  

:''“Value creation is most likely to be accomplished if the parties consider ways of meeting their own interests while simultaneously meeting the interests of others.”<ref name="Islam and Susskind">Islam and Susskind, Water Diplomacy, Routledge, 2000. </ref>''

On the whole, oil development has failed to improve the economic situation of the indigenous people in the Oriente.   Few of the profits from oil revenues have been reinvested in the Oriente. Furthermore, the adverse consequences of the oil boom have been most severe on the indigenous populations, whose way of life is vitally linked to the environment.<ref name="CFESR"/>   Oil 	development and colonization of the Amazon have brought diseases, contamination of land and water, loss of fish and game, deforestation, and encroachment on traditional lands. Moreover, contact with outsiders and the introduction of a cash economy has undermined traditional cultures and subjected indigenous peoples to racism and discrimination. As one of Ecuador's foremost judges has noted, "Ecuador is a country characterized by deep racism against its own indigenous people... This reality supercedes, all constitutional declarations and international conventions on human rights, and there is constant discrimination and unequal application of the law.” These various factors have driven some indigenous nations to the point of extinction. 

Oil contamination has damaged people's health, poisoned their water, and deprived them of fish, game and crops have been supported by observations made by health workers in the region. have reported substantial increases in the occurrence of birth defects, child diseases, and skin rashes. 




|Perspective=Academic
|ASI Type=Analysis
|ASI Keyword={{Add Keyword
|ASI Keyword=Water Diplomacy Framework
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|User=Mark Williams
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