Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador

Denisse Elizabeth Rodriguez Quinonez

ORCID Identifier: 0000-0003-2278-8989

Doctor of Philosophy

February, 2019

School of Geography

Faculty of Science

Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Geography, The University of Melbourne

Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 2

Abstract

The Ecuadorian government has defined extractivism as the basis of the “strategy for accumulation, distribution and redistribution” to alleviate poverty and to secure development since 2013. The expansion of extractive activities, mining in this case, and the mechanisms adopted to translate extractive rents into development is called neoextractivism. This thesis examines an ongoing conflict in Kimsakocha, province of Azuay, ignited by neoextractivism and the incursion of mining in a life-sustaining and sensitive socio-ecosystem called the páramo (Andean wetlands).

I argue that neoextractivism is not only a development model, but it also has the power to reconfigure existing socionatural configurations—conceived as

‘hydrosocial territories’—through asymmetrical power relations, legitimizing discourses and knowledge systems; while undervaluing its impacts on the interdependencies between peasant lifeways and the páramo. This has occurred when ‘other kinds of knowledges’ are neglected and demands for participation in environmental decision-making, or protest, are perceived by government officials as a threat to their authority over exploitation of natural resources as a means to support Ecuador’s economic growth.

In consequence, development strategies based on large-scale exploitation of Nature cannot be analyzed independently from the potential modifications of the relationships between the state, Nature, society and the new actors it brings at play, in this case the mining industry. With this purpose, this thesis proposes an analytical framework informed by relational ontologies and political ecology (PE) for the study

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 3 of socio-ecological conflicts derived from resource-based development. It is based on the following premises:

i) The territories of influence of resource extraction projects are socionatures:

The territories where ‘resources’ are located are spaces where Nature and

communities have developed in close interdependence, thus, extractivist

projects are not bounded by physical limits of the mine site but these expand

as far as society and Nature are engaged in those socionatures in general.

ii) Development strategies based on resource-extraction are (hydro)territorial

projects that reconfigure the relationships within socionatures: Extractivism is

a political, economic, social and environmental project that interacts, even

overlaps, with other projects lived and envisioned in the same territory.

(Hydro)territorial projects reproduce the interests and values of all the

actors or groups of actors involved; while discourses and knowledge systems

are used to legitimize and impose dominant projects.

iii) Impacts on socionatures cannot be understood if relational epistemologies are

disregarded: The people actively co-producing socionatural configurations

feel their actual or potential modifications. Only by being sensitive to the

embodied knowledge emerging from the engagements between people and

their socionatures, which are threatened to be modified by extractivism, can

a PE approach get a deeper understanding of socio-ecological conflicts.

I conclude that resource conflicts are not only struggles over control of, access to and decision-making over resources, or only over meanings and knowledges either, but they are also struggles over different relationships co-producing different

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 4 worlds. Relational ontologies offer insights over these multiple ways of living in and co-producing plural worlds and PE as an epistemological and analytical approach is sensitive of these understandings.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 5

Declaration

I, Denisse Elizabeth Rodriguez Quinonez declare that, i) The thesis comprises only my original work towards the degree of Doctor of

Philosophy, ii) Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; and iii) The thesis is fewer than the maximum word limit of 100.000 in length, exclusive

of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 6

Preface

This research was supported by the Melbourne Research Scholarship Program of the University of Melbourne

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 7

Acknowledgments

This thesis would not have been possible without the inspiration of the hombres y mujeres luchadores of Kimsakocha, who against all odds continue defending the

Yaku mamita. More than participants of this research, they have been ‘maestros’ teaching me of different ways of seeing and experiencing the world.

I am truly grateful to Professor Simon Batterbury, the main supervisor of this thesis, for allowing me to be independent and to explore every approach I found suitable for my analyses; but overall, for giving me the peacefulness of knowing that I always counted with the unconditional support of a great human being. I am also indebted to Dr. Erin Fitz-Henry and Dr. Lisa Palmer for their co-supervision and insightful comments. I wish also to extend my gratitude to cartographers Chandra Jayasuriya and Diego Andrade for their contribution.

This roughly four years’ journey was enlivened by the inspiration, support and joy brought by Dr. Paula Satizábal, Dr. Julia Loginova and Dr. Marcela Chávez. Thank you my doctoritas.

Finally, I dedicate this work to my family: Beatriz, Tom and Tommy, who are the sources of the infinite love and energy that keeps me in motion, always searching for new challenges.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 8

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 12 Problem statement ...... 12 Research questions ...... 15 Relevance of the study ...... 17 Description of the area of study ...... 17 The population in the areas of influence, and peasant lifeworlds ...... 18 Páramos and peasant communities in Kimsakocha: relationships of reciprocity ...... 22 The páramo of Kimsakocha ...... 29 The mining conflict in Kimsakocha ...... 37 Literature review ...... 43 Kimsakocha in the literature ...... 44 Theoretical framework ...... 50 Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: Introduction of the chapters ..... 56 Chapter 2: Methods ...... 59 Introduction ...... 59 Fieldwork ...... 63 Methodology ...... 66 Research design ...... 67 Methods ...... 68 Interviews...... 68 Informal group discussions ...... 72 Participant observation ...... 72 Document analysis ...... 73 Data handling ...... 74 Analysis ...... 75 Narrative inquiry (Wells, 2011) ...... 77 Quality ...... 81 Positionality, reflexibility and ethics ...... 83 Chapter 3: Neoextractivism and the paradoxes of an extractive rent- dependent state: the Ecuadorian case ...... 90 Abstract ...... 90 Introduction ...... 91 Neoextractivism: resource-based development and post-neoliberal resource governance ...... 95 Extractivist neo-developmentalism ...... 99 Extractive rent-seeking pathway: coupling resource exploitation with development ...... 100 Disciplining society: social organization and participation redefined ...... 102 Post-neoliberal resource governance ...... 106

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 9

Discussion: The paradoxes of an extractive rent-dependent state ...... 108 Paradox 1: The generation of extractive rents depends on negotiations with the extractive industry sector ...... 108 Paradox 2: Social control depends on the capacity of the state to redistribute extractive rents ...... 111 Paradox 3: The reproduction of extractive rents from the exploitation of Nature is constrained by socionatural limits and those who are aware of these limits are marginalized from decision-making ...... 115 Implications for further theorization of resource governance ...... 118 Conclusion ...... 123 Chapter 4: Socionatural construction of a socio-ecosystem: The páramo of Kimsakocha ...... 126 Abstract ...... 126 Introduction ...... 127 Political ecology of socionatures ...... 128 Páramos as socio-ecosystems: Scientific and historical perspectives ...... 130 The Scientific perspective ...... 130 Historical perspective on the co-production of the páramo of Kimsakocha ...... 136 Páramos as spaces of worship ...... 139 Incorporation of páramos as productive spaces ...... 139 Conquering the páramo ...... 141 Exploitation of the páramo ...... 148 Discussion and conclusion: Understanding mining as a driver for the reconfiguration of páramos as hydrosocial territories ...... 151 Chapter 5: Neoextractivism in the hydrosocial territories: Unequal valuation languages in the páramo of Kimsakocha ...... 154 Abstract ...... 154 Introduction ...... 155 Neoextractivism in the hydrosocial territories ...... 157 Unequal power of contested languages of valuation ...... 161 Narratives and plurality of hydrosocial territories in the páramo of Kimsakocha: extractivism for development, responsible mining and peasant lifeworlds ...... 162 1. “Water is more important than gold. Fake! Gold can help us to save the water”: Ecuadorian government’s vision of natural ‘resources’ for development...... 163 2. “For a responsible mining we need synergy of the actors”: INV Minerales’ vision ...... 171 3. “We are at least surviving from nature, we have land, we have animals, we are healthy, what would we want mining for?” Extractivism and peasant lifeworlds ..... 177 Discussion and conclusion: Overlapping of hydrosocial territories, legitimizing discourses and disruption of socionatural relations ...... 183 Chapter 6: Relational epistemologies and emotional geographies of fear facing impending exploitation of the páramo socio-ecosystem ...... 192

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 10

Abstract ...... 192 Introduction ...... 193 The existence of groundwater in Kimsakocha: the apple of discord ...... 199 Political ecology, emotions and the extractive industry: A review of the literature ...... 203 Emotions and the extractive industry ...... 203 Political ecology and emotions ...... 208 Knowing through emotions ...... 211 Relational epistemologies ...... 211 Engagements with socionature ...... 214 Emotions and mining: impacts and risks of a forthcoming activity ...... 219 Emotional geographies of fear in Kimsakocha ...... 220 “They do not live here, they do not know, they do not feel these realities”: Diverging definition of socio-environmental impacts ...... 222 “The risk is that the terrain is left worthless and we live from livestock and farming”: threats to peasant lifeways and intergenerational risks ...... 228 Discussion and conclusion ...... 232 Discussion: Emotional political ecology of resource extraction ...... 236 Introduction ...... 236 Overview of findings: Neoextractivism and the reconfiguration of hydrosocial territories ...... 237 Denial of territories-in-territories ...... 239 Fair mining for development and areas of influence of strategic projects ...... 240 Maneuvering of knowledge systems...... 242 Contribution to knowledge ...... 245 PE and knowledge ...... 245 PE and relational ontologies ...... 247 The nature of local knowledge ...... 248 PE and relational epistemologies ...... 251 Emotional political ecology as epistemological and analytical approach: emotions and relational epistemologies ...... 253 Limitations ...... 256 Areas of further research ...... 257 Recommendations ...... 258 Conclusion: emotional political ecology of neoextractivism in Kimsakocha ...... 261 Appendix ...... 266 References...... 271

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 11

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Location of the Loma Larga deposit in the Quiguahuayco Creek – Páramo of Kimsakocha ...... 15 Figure 2: Areas of influence of the Loma Larga project...... 20 Figure 3: Community assembly of the Tarqui-Victoria del Portete community. .... 26 Figure 4: Ritual of purification at the páramo of Kimsakocha ...... 28 Figure 5: Map of Hato de Sombrederas...... 30 Figure 6: Natural protected areas in the páramo of Kimsakocha ...... 33 Figure 7: Hydrology system in the area of study...... 35 Figure 8: Overlapping of the community territory of Kimsakocha and mining concessions...... 39 Figure 9: Area of study-Zones of social influence Loma Larga mining Project ...... 60 Figure 10: Common landscape at the parish Victoria del Portete ...... 61 Figure 11: Office of the Community Water System Victoria del Portete-Tarqui .... 62 Figure 13: Distribution of interviews among parishes ...... 69 Figure 14: Distribution of interviews according to gender ...... 70 Figure 15: Distribution of interviews according to age ...... 70 Figure 16: Rationale of the interviews ...... 71 Figure 17: Informal group discussions conducted ...... 72 Figure 19: Tussocks and cushion plants in the páramo of Kimsakocha ...... 132 Figure 20: Páramo landscape in Kimskocha located at 3,780 meters above sea level...... 135 Figure 21: Páramo of Kimsakocha or Kimsakucha ...... 138 Figure 22: Páramo of Kimsakocha, another of the Tres Lagunas (Three lagoons) ...... 138 Figure 23: “San Fernando Livestock Zone”. Sculpture located at the entrance of the city showing their pride of being one the best livestock areas of the country ...... 145 Figure 24: Rite of purification in Kimsakocha ...... 147 Figure 25: Pampamesa, May 21st 2016 ...... 147 Figure 26: Areas of páramo ecosystem under mining concessions ...... 150 Figure 27: Mining conflicts in Latin America and Ecuador ...... 158 Figure 28: Governmental propaganda and information brochures associating mining and Buen Vivir ...... 167 Figure 29: Local government of San Gerardo...... 174 Figure 30 Landscapes of Tarqui and Victoria del Portete ...... 182

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 12

Chapter 1: Introduction

Problem statement

The páramo is an Andean neotropical wetland ecosystem located between the upper forest line and the permanent snow line, between 3,200 and 4,500 meters above the sea level (Buytaert, Célleri, De Bièvre, & Cisneros, 2006). Páramos supply thousands of urban and rural water systems and are valued for their endemism and provision of ecosystem services for the storage and regulation of water. They are also an important cultural landscape (Carpio, Ochoa, Flores, & Mena, 2010; Cuesta, Sevink,

Llambí, De Bièvre, & Posner, 2013; Hofstede, Segarra, & Mena, 2003; Pérez, 2012).

For these reasons, Mena and Hofstede (2006) claim that páramos are not conventional ecosystems but instead, they are products of human history, exhibiting the co-production of socionatures. Páramos then, can be defined as “socio- ecosystems” (Hofstede et al., 2014, p. 44) and “hydrosocial territories” (Manosalvas,

2014, p. 208).

Páramos are also great mineral deposits, something acknowledged in traditional local knowledge. According to community leader Carlos Pérez and president of the

Confederation of Peoples of Kichwa Nationality (ECUARUNARI)

In the Andean mountain range, where there is water there is gold. The

Pachamama (Mother Earth) or the Creator tested human wisdom: choose gold

or water? (2012, p. 45).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 13

In the Ecuadorian case, the government has chosen on behalf of local inhabitants, mostly peasant populations, and páramos have been included in the new geographies of resource extraction. The justification for allowing the expansion of the mining frontier into these territories is the pressing need to alleviate poverty and promote development. In the governmental discourse, this exploitation is meant to benefit the whole nation and local communities are compensated, becoming the first in receiving the benefits from resource extraction (Presidential

Decree 753, 2015). This strategy of generation of extractive rents that are turned into compensations is conceived under the “new model of accumulation, distribution and redistribution,” which since 2013 has been the development strategy of the country (SENPLADES, 2013, p. 37).

Nevertheless, there is an inherent contradiction in ensuring development through the expansion of extractivism in a country whose political constitution demands a development model based on harmonious coexistence within society and between society and nature—this is Buen Vivir (Good living). The breach of the national agreement for this development regime has become contentious, triggering strong responses and opposition from civil society. Responding to these critiques, extractivism has been legitimized by the government as a temporary stage that is necessary to:

Finance the emergence of a new, sustainable socio-economic configuration,

which will assure a steady, sustainable improvement and Good Living for all

Ecuadorians (National Secretary of Planning and Development (SENPLADES),

2013, 38).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 14

In the literature, this model is understood as neoextractivism. To pursue the strategy of accumulation, distribution and redistribution the government has selected “strategic sectors” for development, which include hydrocarbons and mining (SENPLADES 2013). Five “strategic mining projects” have been defined in the latter, one being the Loma Larga gold mining project. The Canadian company

INV Metals has owned it since 2012. The Loma Larga deposit comprises gold, silver and copper, and is located in the páramo of Kimsakocha, close to headwaters of the

Quiguahuayco creek (see Figure 1). Kimsakocha, which means three lagoons in

Kichwa language, is located in the southern Andean highlands, 30 km southwest from Cuenca (Province of Azuay), the third most important city in Ecuador. The surrounding areas of the project are inhabited by peasant communities living mostly from dairy farming. Azuay is one of the most important dairy producers of the country.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 15

Figure 1: Location of the Loma Larga deposit in the Quiguahuayco Creek – Páramo of Kimsakocha

Research questions

The experience in Kimsakocha is contentious not only for the sensitive location of the mine, but because understood in the broader sense, páramos are territories where different uses, meanings and relationships are in constant interplay generating particular socionatures, defined throughout this thesis as hydrosocial territories (Boelens, Hoogesteger, Swyngedouw, Vos & Wester, 2016). These reproduce diverse political and territorial interests as well as the values and worldviews of different actors interrelating in these socionatural configurations.

Under neoextractivism, these actors multiply. This thesis focuses on the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 16 implications of the model in hydrosocial territories, especially when the páramo becomes the source of the natural resources needed for the reproduction of neoextractivism.

Since 2003, resistance to the mining project has emerged from the water users of the community water systems supplied by Kimsakocha. Nevertheless, I do not aim to analyze the opposition to the project but instead, to understand how the relationships between society and socionatures are reconfigured by development policies based on the expansion of resource extraction and consequent dependence on international commodity markets and foreign investments for its achievement.

In consequence, this thesis asks why, faced with impending extraction for development, do the inhabitants of the areas of influence of the Loma Larga project fear the reconfiguration of their socionatural engagements with the páramo of

Kimsakocha? The subsidiary questions are:

i) How does extractivism as a development model modify the relationships

between the state, Nature, society and the mining industry?

ii) How is the páramo constructed as a socio-ecosystem?

iii) How do different hydrosocial territories interact and overlap responding to

the neoextractivist policy?

iv) Why do different knowledges about the páramo collide when defining

possible impacts and risks of mining in this socio-ecosystem?

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 17

Relevance of the study

Scholarship in political ecology has done ample work analyzing meanings and discourses deployed in resource struggles, informed by constructivist approaches.

Nevertheless, conflicts do not only arise because diverse groups define ‘resources’ differently but because they are different. I agree with Escobar (2010b, 2015a) that it is necessary to push the field towards “postconstructivist political ecologies” that do not only acknowledge the existence of different worldviews but of different worlds, without denying matters of materiality. This research is relevant because it follows this relatively new direction aiming at politicizing relational ontologies, socionature approaches and emotions and affects (Escobar 2010a; Singh, 2018;

Sultana, 2015; Ulloa, 2015).

Description of the area of study

The study area comprises the areas of direct and indirect influence defined around the Loma Larga mining project. This is congruent with the aim of this research, which is to understand the experiences of the inhabitants directly affected by a

“strategic project for development”. From the government’s perspective, these populations are fortunate because they will be the first beneficiaries from resource exploitation (speech of ex-President Rafael Correa, October 20, 2015), and mining can become the driver of development for these forgotten rural parishes.

INV Metals is the Canadian company that has owned the Loma Larga project since

2012 and INV Minerales Ecuador (INVMINEC) was created to carry on with the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 18 project in Ecuador, located in the province of Azuay. The areas of influence of the project include the cantons of Cuenca, Girón and San Fernando. According to the

2015 Annual report of Social Responsibility by INVMINEC, the zone of direct social influence of the Loma Larga project includes the rural parishes of San Gerardo (4 kms from the mine, canton of Girón) and Chumblín (3 kms from the mine, canton of

San Fernando), and the rural parishes of Tarqui and Victoria del Portete (canton of

Cuenca) are considered in the zone of secondary social influence. The urban centers of San Fernando, Girón and Cuenca are not included as zones of influence but it is acknowledged that they are influenced to some degree. According to this political- administrative delimitation the area of direct influence of the project comprises

76.77 km2, 339.94 km2 being indirect, and the other areas, excluding the city of

Cuenca, 356.44 km2. Figure 2 maps the study-areas of influence of the mining project.

The population in the areas of influence, and peasant lifeworlds

According to the latest Population and Housing Census in Azuay the rate of poverty in the urban areas was 9.13% and 18.31% in the rural sectors (INEC, 2010).

Nevertheless, at provincial level Azuay has one of the lowest poverty rates in the country. In 2014, out of 24 provinces, it had the fourth lowest poverty rate (20,9%)

(Life Conditions Poll (ECV), INEC). In terms of education, 94% of the population in the urban areas and 91% in the rural sectors have access to basic education.

However access to middle-school education is lower (urban 72% and rural 47%).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 19

The areas of direct influence of the mining project are inhabited by 1,868 people, the areas of secondary or indirect influence by 15,741 and 11,681 inhabit the other areas of influence, excluding Cuenca. Appendix 1 summarizes the main demographic and socioeconomic information specifically for the population in the study area.

Their main economic activity is agriculture and cattle breeding for dairy production.

According to the Agricultural Poll (ESPAC), the province of Azuay is the second largest breeder of dairy cattle and the third largest producer by liter of milk (INEC,

2016). For this reason, the population mainly define themselves as campesinos

(inhabitants of the countryside and/or peasant farmers).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 20

Source: INV Minerales Ecuador (2015), Social Responsibility Annual report, Project Loma Larga Figure 2: Areas of influence of the Loma Larga project.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 21

The matter of identity in the Ecuadorian Andean highlands is complex. There is no homogenous self-acknowledgement of indigeneity and mestizaje (mixed ethnicity).

On the contrary, the non-ethnicity based category of campesinos is deep-rooted in the population of the rural areas. In the province of Azuay, less than 1% of the population self-recognizes as indigenous but 100% of the rural people that participated in this study self-define as campesino. Therefore, the common association of peasantry and indigeneity is invalid. In addition, peasants cannot be defined in terms of a class-based condition either. While marginalization is a reality, peasants’ place in society is not determined only in terms of their economic integration. Without romanticizing it, generally “peasants find pride in being farmers and want to continue being so” (Rodríguez-de-Francisco & Boelens, 2016, p. 150).

In this sense, this thesis conceives campesino as a place-based cultural category derived from the Andean worldview, which is understood as “an agrocentric vision built around farming activities in the Andes” that maintains a collective sense of community embracing principles of reciprocity, cooperation and equity (Guti rrez

& Gerbrandy, 1998, p. 244; C. Pérez, personal communication, June 8, 2016). Peasanté culture is determined by visceral connections to the land that sustains their lives but that at the same time needs to be worked upon and to be protected. Accordingly, campesinos feel compelled to be reciprocal with Nature, not only as a form of gratitude but in order to protect their own lives because Nature is perceived as an interdependent system of which people are part. In consequence, “rural landscapes

[are] humanly co-produced environments” and the peasants´ lifeworlds are co-

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 22 produced by the daily interaction with Nature (Rodríguez de Francisco, 2013, p.

117-118).

In the area of study, a special relationship is developed between peasants and the páramo socio-ecosystem. The páramo is embedded in the social, cultural and productive life of the surrounding communities and has traditionally been used for grazing livestock and with less frequency lately, for hunting and fishing. These interdependencies between the páramo of Kimsakocha and peasant communities are explained below.

Páramos and peasant communities in Kimsakocha1: relationships of reciprocity

The páramo has multiple and overlapping definitions.

Páramo is an ecosystem, a biome, a landscape, a geographic area, a zone of life,

a productive space and even a climate state (Hofstede et al., 2014, p. 14, own

translation).

For this reason, I avoid limiting discussion of such a comprehensive ecosystem by narrowly defining it. Instead, following Hofstede et al. (2014) páramos are socio- ecosystems. This conception fully embodies the co-production of páramos and

Andean societies; hence, páramos are spaces for the socioeconomic, cultural and

1 In Spanish the term 'comunidad' corresponds to the smallest territorial division for administrative purposes; the same as 'commune' in French. In Ecuador, communities form parishes, and parishes form cantons. Thus, when I refer to the communities of the areas of influence of the mining project I refer to the inhabitants of these rural territorial units. I use communities mostly with the qualifier 'peasants' or campesinos to further explain their condition of inhabitants of the countryside.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 23 identity development of Andean people but they have also shaped and have evolved as product of human history (Mena & Hofstede, 2006; S. White, 2013).

To understand what the páramo is, it is necessary to comprehend what it means to different people according to their relationships with it. For campesinos in the areas of influence of project Loma Larga, páramo simultaneously describes the cerros

(hills) where water is captured, the light rain that nurtures their fields, a peaceful and astonishing landscape, the pastures where the cattle are grazed, and the springs that feed the rivers and their water systems for irrigation and human consumption

(various personal communications).

Kimsakocha’s páramos are mostly uninhabited, unlike the páramos of the central

Ecuadorian Andes.2 There, indigenous and peasant poor communities have been forced to live up in the less productive cerros while the productive valleys have been appropriated since colonial times by powerful hacendados (owners of big estates).

This is not the case in the south, where páramos have even remained as hatos comunales (community land).

In a lively conversation with one elder and historian of Victoria del Portete—a parish in the secondary area of influence of the mining project—he explained how ancient peoples were in contact with the páramo. Páramos were mostly used to graze the cattle of the community, a practice that exists today. The need for fresh pasture led to a practice that is commonly criticized by environmental authorities:

2 Extensive community mapping conducted by Torres (2015) concluded that "[i]n Quimsacocha there are no records of human settlements; nevertheless, land ownership [regime] is characterized as communitarian" (p.18)"

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 24 the use of fire to stimulate the regrowth of pastures. He also recalled a time where the páramo was a space for hunting deer and condors, and fishing for trout in the lakes. This non-native fish was introduced in the 1950s by a governmental policy that promoted aquaculture.

The parishes in the areas of influence of the Loma Larga mining project, especially

Tarqui, Victoria del Portete and the canton of San Fernando are known as some of the best dairy producers in the country, as previously mentioned. The majority of families raise at least one cow to sustain their economies through dairy sales; but market conditions are precarious. The intermediaries benefit the most while the producers receive minimum prices of USD 0.42 per liter—a price that is not even enforced by local authorities. Despite this, the respondents were proud of being able to raise their animals and grow their vegetables for subsistence. Also they commonly remarked the need to take care of the páramo in order to keep benefiting from the land. As stated by one campesina from Victoria del Portete when asked who should protect the páramo:

We [all] have to protect [the páramo], to sow, to take care of our Mother Earth

that gives us everything to eat. Imagine that mining happens, how are we going

to have a vaquita (little cow) with milk? How are we going to sow some colcitas

(little cauliflowers)? How are we going to sow maize?

Mining was perceived as an activity that threatens the health of the páramo and thus the health of livestock, plants and the community because it nurtures the ecosystem and supplies thousands of water systems for consumption and irrigation. For many

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 25 rural inhabitants, their first interaction with the páramo of Kimsakocha was through the communal construction of those systems. In Ecuador, the focus of water management has been the provision of potable water for urban centers while rural areas have generally been neglected. In this context, peasant communities have been forced to build their own piped water systems with the financial support of

NGOs and the Church. That is the experience of the Tarqui-Victoria del Portete community water system, built through mingas (compulsory labor reciprocated across the community) in 1975. Many of the respondents were children at that time, and told heartfelt stories about the hardship endured to build the tanks, dig the tunnels and carry the pipes that would allow them to bring water directly from the páramo to their houses. Others remembered the mingas with nostalgia, yearning the times where the community worked together by conviction not by obligation.

Reciprocity with the whole community was present and after long working days they shared pampamesas (community-shared meals). Community water management did not cease with the construction of the system. All the water users are compelled to participate in different assemblies for decision-making, maintenance and protection of the water sources (Figure 3). The latter has lately entailed campaigns for reforesting the catchments with native species and participation in mobilizations against mining. The aim has been to empower the water users in managing water resources and to encourage reciprocity in protecting the water sources.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 26

Figure 3: Community assembly of the Tarqui-Victoria del Portete community water system, August 27, 2016. Water users exercising their right to vote and participate in decision-making.

Other segments of the population have never been in the páramo; however, it remains in their imaginaries and they feel they depend on it. For some, Kimsakocha is an unknown name, and they keep naming the area Sombrederas (Hato de

Sombrederas)—the name under which the community páramo was called since ancient times. The name ‘Kimsakocha’ was popularized as a consequence of the mining project, whose original name was Quimsacocha. Now it is associated with the resistance to the mining project. In one of the interviews, one respondent was convinced that the only way to grasp and ‘feel’ what Kimsakocha means in all its dimensions is to visit it, and she encouraged the community to do so. A new

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 27 communal practice emerged as consequence of the defense of the páramo of

Kimsakocha against mining operations. It is known as inspecciones comunitarias

(community inspections) of the páramo, in which active guardianes de las aguas de

Kimsakocha (guardians of the waters of Kimsakocha) invite members of different social movements, foreign researchers and authorities to walk in the páramo towards the main three lagoons and the water sources of the Irquis River to observe and connect with the landscape. The experience is complemented with a syncretic ritual of purification with the water of Kimsakocha that assembles elements of the

Andean cosmovision, including the reverence of Pachamama (Mother Nature) and the blessings of a catholic priest (see figure 4). The inspections always conclude with the traditional pampamesa where produce of Andean food like mellocos, mote and cuy (guinea pig) are shared by the participants and made as a ritual offering to the lagoons as well.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 28

Figure 4: Ritual of purification at the páramo of Kimsakocha (May 21, 2016). Kimsakocha means three lagoons in Kichwa language

In sum, páramos and peasant lifeways are connected in myriad ways. They sustain livelihoods, provide water and their management has allowed the maintenance of several community practices. It is possible to conclude that the relationships between peasant communities and the páramo in Kimsakocha are governed by a sense of reciprocity. This determines the need to protect Nature and to take on responsibilities within the community. According to Carlos Pérez, this reciprocity principle derives from the Andean philosophy,

Mother Earth raises us and we raise her too. She raises us with the heat of the

sun; at night the moon guards our dreams; the rain purifies us, and she

encourages us with the wind. And [Mother Earth] brings our brothers and sisters,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 29

trees and plants, to dialogue and live in community. From this cosmic connection

with Pachamama emerges a relationship of reciprocity that goes back and forth.

And how do we raise her? When we plant, when we do our rituals prior to sowing.

We are giving and receiving (personal communication, June 8, 2016).

The páramo of Kimsakocha

The territory where the páramo of Kimsakocha is located is known as Hato de

Sombrederas (Figure 5). Community members acquired it with their own resources according to property deeds of 1891 and 1905. Kimsakocha has remained as communal property since then. According to a historian from Victoria del Portete, the community agreed not to parcel the land for individual property; on the contrary, the territory would belong to the community for the benefit of everyone

(S. Calle, personal communication, August 30, 2016). However, a dispute emerged in 2016 when one of the communal owners of Sombrederas reclaimed private property with intentions of profiting from the mining interest in the area. The dispute is still in litigation.

Community mapping conducted by Nataly Torres (2015a) shows that the communal territory of Kimsakocha extends to 10,226.85 hectares, of which 75% is páramo vegetation and 13% is Andean forest. Kimsakocha is politically divided between the parishes of Baños (22%) and Victoria del Portete (34%) of the canton of Cuenca;

Girón (9%) and San Gerardo (12%) of canton of Girón; and, San Fernando (10%) and Chumblín (13%) of canton of San Fernando (see figure 8).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 30

Source: Drawn by historian Salvador Calle Figure 5: Map of Hato de Sombrederas. In the top of the map two of the three lagoons from which the páramo of Kimsakocha acquired its name are illustrated: Quimsacocha (Kimsakocha) and Cuycocha. The map includes all the rivers that are born in the páramo as well as the community-built irrigation canals and catchments of the community water system.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 31

Kimsakocha is located within the 2013 UNESCO-declared Biosphere Reserve Macizo

El Cajas, which in total comprises approximately one million hectares along four provinces: Azuay, Cañar, El Oro and Guayas. The Reserve possesses a lake system of

235 glacial lakes within 213,083 hectares of páramo. Since the creation of the

National Recreation Area Quimsacocha in 2012, 3,217 hectares of the páramo are under protection of the Ministry of Environment and a further area is protected as part of Áreas de Bosque y Vegetación Protectoras (Protection Forest and Vegetation

Areas), safeguarded by the same institution (Figure 6).

In a material sense, Kimsakocha is essentially valued as a source of water. To recognize this, since 2014 community leaders struggling to protect the páramo have more accurately characterized the wetlands ecosystem as the “hydrologic system of

Kimsakocha” (Figure 7 shows the extent of this hydrologic system). The system is important because it contributes to the maintenance of the ecological integrity of the whole ecosystem and also for its strategic location in the continental divide, where water heads to the Pacific Ocean through Jubones river watershed and to the

Atlantic, through Paute river watershed. Also the wellbeing of surrounding communities is dependent on the ecosystem services—storage and regulation of water—provided by the páramo, which supplies roughly 58 community water systems for drinking water and irrigation (Torres, 2015a).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 32

Cartographer: Diego Andrade, Drone & GIS

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 33

Figure 6: Natural protected areas in the páramo of Kimsakocha: Patrimonio de Áreas Naturales del Estado-PANE (Patrimony of Natural Areas of the State) and Bosques Protectores (Protection Forests)

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 34

The need to adapt to the ecological context of the highlands and the limited support received from central governments have forced the majority of communities in the

Andes to organize water users´ associations, water boards or community water systems to build and manage their own piped or potable water systems for drinking and irrigation (Boelens, 2003, 2008). Ecuador’s Law 3327 of 1979 allows the constitution of these Juntas Administradoras (water boards), which are conceived as local organizations that operate, finance and plan water use in rural areas, including the protection of headwaters (Cisneros, 2011). This is the case of the Tarqui-Victoria del Portete community water system constituted in 1975 to provide water to the inhabitants of both parishes. By 2016, it had 1,910 water users (ARCA, 2016).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 35

Cartographer: Diego Andrade, Drone & GIS

Figure 7: Hydrology system in the area of study. The páramo area can be distinguished by its elevation (3,166 to 4,200 meters above sea level. Grey and light brown areas)

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 36

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 37

In addition to these traditional uses, the government has sanctioned minerals exploitation in the páramo, justified by its neoextractivist policies described above.

Community water management bodies have argued for preserving water sources, leading to the current resistance to mining in the páramo headwaters and associated opposition to resource-based development. A reason for dissent in the highlands has much to do with the changing attitudes of the Ecuadorian state to mining, which threatens to modify the socionatural relationships between local communities and the páramo. Besides colonial mining exploitation, the country does not have a large- scale mining history and the proposed mining project is located in a socially and environmentally sensitive area, raising local concerns about the impacts of that activity. Mining is perceived as a threat to local livelihoods, which are conceived in a broader sense as the means by which people satisfy basic needs, including culture and 'ways of life'.

The mining conflict in Kimsakocha

In the case of Kimsakocha, 60% of the community territory in the páramo has been conceded to the Canadian company INV Metals, represented in Ecuador by INV

Minerales Ecuador (INVMINEC). Since 2012, it owns the Loma Larga mining project that comprises the concessions Cerro Casco, Río Falso and Cristal (Figure 8). The concessions also overlap with Protection Forest areas. Out of the 8,040.57 hectares conceded for mining exploration, 56% of the concessions occupy the Yanuncay

Irquis Protection and Vegetation Forest, 20% El Chorro, 16% El Jeco and 8% the Sun

Sun Yanasacha Forests (Torres, 2015b). According to the Preliminary Feasibility

Study (PFS) of INV Metals, the Ministry of Environment “designated two Special

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 38

Mining Areas within these […] Forestry Reserves that allow mining development.”

(RPA, 2016, p. 1-19). This was done in 2010. Figure 8 shows the overlapping of the community páramo and INVMINEC mining concessions and Figure 6 illustrates how they are fully located within the protected areas mentioned.

The mining threat did not arise with the former government. Prospecting and exploration activities started in the early 1990s, without the awareness of the population. The mining project has a complicated history. It was initially run by

IAMGOLD, a Canadian company that acquired it in 1999 from a French company,

COGEMA, now AREVA. The agreement included the concessions of Cerro Casco, Río

Falso, Cristal and San Martín. IAMGOLD’s concessions were issued in 2003 by the mining authority of Azuay, triggering local concerns about the effects of mining development in the province and encouraging public protests demanding the revocation of those concessions. INV Metals acquired the Quimsacocha project in

2012 and renamed it the Loma Larga project.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 39

Source: Community mapping conducted by Nataly Torres (2015a), Paola Maldonado and FIAN.

Figure 8: Overlapping of the community territory of Kimsakocha and mining concessions.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 40

The PFS establishes the conditions of the mine, which has a scheduled life of 12 years. It is estimated there will be an average gold production of 150,000 oz. annually. The expected total production of Loma Larga is 1.68 million oz. of gold,

9.83 million oz. of silver and 71.30 million lbs. of copper

(https://www.invmetals.com/projects/loma-larga/). It will be an underground mine, not open pit as was initially proposed, exploited by the longhole stoping and drift and fill mining methods. Its design was chosen based on optimization of capital and costs, without reference to environmental considerations. Nevertheless,

INVMINEC’s social promoters argue that the choice was based entirely on the need to preserve the páramo soils, which as will be explained in the chapter 3, are crucial for the provision of páramos valued ecosystem services.

Mining is a risky industry. Even the so-called ‘sustainable mining’ cannot avoid environmental and social impacts, and the location of this mine in the páramo socio- ecosystem is prone to increase those risks. The project is also placed near headwaters of three river systems draining to the north (Bermejos river), southeast

(Irquis and Portete rivers), and the south (Zhurucay river and Falso and Jordanita creeks) (Figure 8). Expert studies mostly agree that mining should be banned or highly restricted in Andean páramos given the high fragility of the ecosystem, risks of irreversible degradation, and the low resilience and indispensability in terms of water supply and interdependence of Andean peasant livelihoods (Crespo et al.,

2014; Guerrero, 2009a, 2009b; Velástegui & López, 2011).

A community movement in defense of water in Kimsakocha started in 2003 when news about the mining concession nearby in the páramo circulated among the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 41 inhabitants. “More than anti-mining, we are pro-nature, pro-sumak kawsay (good living), pro-life and pro-community,” says community leader Carlos Pérez when asked to define the nature of the resistance movement known as the water guardians of Kimsakocha (personal communication, November 2014). It was born from the water users of the Community Water System Tarqui-Victoria del Portete.

The water guardians have been affiliated with various peasant and indigenous organisations. At a local level, water users are organised through the Union of

Community Water Systems of Azuay (UNAGUA). This Union is related at a provincial level to the Federation of Indigenous and Peasant Organisations of Azuay (FOA).

Regionally, it is linked to the Confederation of Peoples of Kichwa Nationality

(ECUARUNARI) and at the national level, to the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador (CONAIE). Furthermore, their role of water guardians has broadened through the adoption of a holistic vision of defending the hydrologic system—not only the water sources for community water systems. This created affinities with urban, environmental and youth movements, most prominently Yasunidos that demands the protection of Macizo El Cajas as a whole. In addition, the framing of environmental defense not only as a local, but as a national struggle, has favoured networking with national social movements as Asamblea de los Pueblos del Sur and international ones from Central America and Peru, NGOs (Acción Ecológica,

Fundación Savia Roja, FIAN and Miningwatch Canada), foreign experts and researchers.

Initially, the aim of the movement was the rejection of a gold mining project that lacked consultation and threatened the health of their water and páramo (Pérez,

2012). Over the 16 years of their social mobilization, the demands as well as the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 42 discourses of the movement have evolved, showing on one hand, strategic adaptation to the changing context of the political and socio-economic conditions of the country and on the other hand, an evolution in the role of the socio- environmental movement (D. Rodríguez & Loginova, 2019). Demands started with claims for the revocation of the mining license of IAMGOLD. In 2008 the movement became proactive, presenting proposals to the Constitutional National Assembly to ban mining activities in water sources3 in alliance with CONAIE and ECUARUNARI.

Later, the strategy became more open resistance in addition to calls for international legal support. Most recently, the movement has been actively critiquing and opposing Correa´s neoextractivism and his authoritarian style of government that criminalizes social protest and dissident voices; and his Revolución Ciudadana, which in reality lacks citizens' participation. For a timeline of the different stages of the conflict see appendix no. 2.

Particularly, both neoextractivism and Correa’s governing style confront in this conflict the resisting communities with the government and vice versa––the confronting sides are commonly the opposition movements and the extractive companies in mining conflicts. Even if mining projects did not start under Correa’s rule, it is his Revolución Ciudadana that has promoted mining intensely as a strategic area for development within the Buen Vivir regime. The criticism is that large scale mining is not harmonious with nature, cannot be the base of the proposed social and solidarity economy, and violates the rights of communities, indigenous peoples and

3 This claim was materialized in Article 3 of the Constitutional Mandate No. 6, known as Mining Mandate, issued on April 28th 2008. The article declares the extinction, without economic compensation, of the mining concessions granted within natural protected areas, forestry reserves and buffer zones, and also those that threaten headwaters and water sources.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 43

Nature itself, especially because projects are mainly located in protected areas or community lands (Acosta, 2011a, 2012; Dávalos, 2013; C. Larrea, 2013; Sacher,

2012; Svampa, 2011; Zorilla, 2011). Correa has become the principal spokesman of extractive companies, highlighting the benefits of ‘responsible mining for development.’ At the same time, he personally has confronted activists and water defenders through moral attacks during his weekly report of activities called Enlace

Ciudadano. There has been criminalization of social protest, resulting in various social movements’ leaders facing criminal charges of sabotage and terrorism (Harris

& Roa-García, 2013; Hernández, 2013; Ospina Peralta, 2015).

The following section explains how this mining conflict in Kimsakocha has been addressed by various scholars and introduces the theoretical framework of this research.

Literature review

The struggles in Kimsakocha have been experienced for 15 years and have attracted the interest of multiple researchers, mostly Ecuadorians. In the first section of the literature review I summarize their main contributions with the purpose of locating my research among that literature and specifying how it advances the comprehension of state-led development based on mining in campesino territories.

In the second section I explain the literature I build upon to base my arguments, explained in the last section of this chapter.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 44

Kimsakocha in the literature

Various scholars have studied the dilemma of water or gold in the páramo of

Quimsacocha. 4 Bonilla (2013) explains the conflict as a contradiction between territorial projects. Torres (2015b) discusses the incompatibility of resource exploitation and the politics of conservation, and explores its implications for the fulfillment of the right to food (2015a). For Moore and Velásquez (2011) the struggle in Quimsacocha emerges out of distinct understandings of sustainability and development, while for Kuhn (2011) it originates from different visions of Nature:

Nature as a resource and Nature as a space of life. All these authors clearly identify two uneven forces in the mining conflict. On one side, the local population who generally resist mining —arguing the importance of the connection with Nature, water, spirituality and sustainability— and on the other side, a coalition between the Ecuadorian state and the transnational mining companies, whose arguments are backed by technical studies and predictions of economic benefits (Moulton, 2011).

Supporting the latter are also community members identified as pro-mining, especially from the parishes of San Gerardo and Chumblín that are located closer to the mining project. I develop their arguments below.

Bonilla understands this conflict as a contradiction between procreative productive forces (the communal management of water) and technical productive forces (the mining project). Both cannot coexist in Quimsacocha because they imply incompatible territorial projects. Whereas the identification of the páramo as a

4 I use the spelling in kichwa, Kimsakocha, but in general the literature has uses the spelling in Spanish, Quimsacocha.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 45 collective property and a territory of communal water management reaffirm the rights of the communities to territory, mining is perceived as an attempt to dispossess the population from these rights; in addition to its environmental and social degradation threats, which are inherent to mining itself. Accordingly, Bonilla argues that local resistance is activated in defense of those rights over territory and water against an increasingly violent response from the coalition formed between the state and the mining company (Bonilla, 2013). To complicate Bonilla’s analysis, peasant livelihoods based mostly on dairy farming must also be accounted as

‘procreative creative forces’. Alvarado and Rebaï (2018) find that developmentalist policies based on extractivism and the mining conflict have exacerbated conditions of vulnerability and dependence of peasant systems due to the lack of peasant collectives and a locally defined territorial project based on the improvement of traditional agrarian practices.

Torres (2015b) also finds an incompatibility between large-scale mining and the politics of conservation of the commons as territorial projects within the Biosphere

Reserve Macizo El Cajas, where the páramo of Quimsacocha is located. She concludes that the simultaneous development of large-scale mining projects— supported by the discourse of sustainable mining to allow its penetration in ecologically sensitive areas—and the implementation of protected areas are complementary activities that induce accumulation by dispossession (D. Harvey,

2003). In consequence, through the capitalist modernization of the territory implemented by Correa´s post-neoliberal government,5 the collective property of

5 Including:

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 46 the páramo and its natural resources have been limited to facilitate the incursion of the mining industry, threatening the ownership and use of natural resources by local communities (Torres, 2015b). In subsequent research, Torres (2015a) identifies that this territorial overlapping of protected areas, communal territories and subsoil mineral resources has led to processes of violation of rights in order to privilege mining exploitation, among them, the rights to be consulted and the human right to food.

Through two case studies of large-scale mining projects in Ecuador, Quimsacocha in

Azuay and Condor Mirador in Morona Santiago province, Kuhn argues that socio- environmental conflicts in Ecuador are commonly generated by the extractivist development model promoted by Correa´s government, in a context where the state has a weak presence in the territories where both projects are planned. Instead of acting as a mediator between civil society and the transnational mining companies, a defender of the rights of the population against the interests of the companies and acting as a regulator of its industrial activity, the state had become an ally of the mining companies and an enemy of society, increasing the level of conflict. Facing this weak role of the state, Kuhn concludes that Corporate Social Responsibility

(CSR) programs are not enough to deal with local conflicts and promote development but instead, have divided the communities and worsened internal conflicts (Kuhn, 2011). Velásquez also focuses on CSR programs, and interprets the

i) The establishment of a special mining zone as integral part of the Management Plan of the Yanuncay-Irquis Forestry Reserve (Ministerial Agreement No. 009, January 2010), originally created to protect the headwaters of Yanuncay river (Ministerial Agreement No. 292, August 1985). ii) The creation of the National Recreation Area Quimsacocha (Ministerial Agreement No. 007, January 2012) within the 3.217 hectares reverted from IAMGOLD´s concessions by the Ministry of Environment, to protect the area known as Las Tres Lagunas.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 47 production of scientific knowledge as a form of CSR implemented by IAMGOLD at the time of her study as shaping public opinion and debates over sustainability and the threat posed by mining for water resources. She claims that the relationship established by the mining company with local authorities and scientists from two provincial and local universities is part of this CSR approach (Velásquez, 2012b)

The clashes between the development vision of the government and the one from local communities were also studied by Moore and Velásquez. Through two case studies of commodity producers whose irrigation water supply is threatened by

Quimsacocha´s mining project, the authors interpret the resistance of the affected populations as the defense of a development model that even though is market- oriented, has an ethical component because it maintains local livelihoods and healthy communities, against small and large-scale mining that jeopardize community and environmental wellbeing. Their work is with dairy farmers in

Victoria del Portete, Azuay and banana farmers in Tenguel, Guayas province.

Exceptionally, the authors remark that this mobilization cannot be understood within the actions of traditional indigenous or agrarian movements appealing to indigeneity or cultural understandings, but instead they are campesinos “struggling for rights to market oriented livelihoods, rights to be heard, rights to access and produce technical information, and rights to clean and secure water” (Moore &

Velásquez, 2011, p. 141).

Velásquez’ ethnographic study (2012a) is revealing. While indeed, this is a campesino mobilization, she argues that various political and cultural transformations have occurred in the meantime. She examines the popular

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 48 environmental politics carried out by indigenous and mestizo dairy farmers in

Victoria del Portete and Tarqui in their contestation of sustainable mining development in their lands and watersheds. Local water disputes that have traditionally confronted small and large dairy farmers now unify both in a movement against the mining project. Also, this multi-ethnic and cross-class coalition has adopted a singular indigenous identity, based less on a shared cultural or ethnic affiliation but instead, in new ways of relating to the environment. In consequence, farmers, indigenous and urban people have embraced Andean practices and discourses from the new understandings of Nature that have risen from the mining conflict, including the emergence of the watershed as a spiritual entity, an earth-being named Kimsacocha.

Velásquez also points out that even with the new indigeneity resulting from the mobilization in Quimsacocha, the movement continues recreating gender hierarchies that exclude peasant women from community politics (Velásquez,

2012a). Solano´s analysis of the social impacts of mining in its exploration phase from a gender perspective supports this claim. She studies the experience of the women´s movement Frente de Mujeres Defensoras de la Pachamama (Mother Earth’s women defenders group) and argues that despite being especially vulnerable, women have a broader comprehension of mining conflicts, understanding them as threats to fundamental rights to life, water, healthy environment, work and in other ways, intrinsically linked to the rights of Mother Earth. Solano concludes that their mobilization and resistance against the mining projects Río Blanco and

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Quimsacocha in Azuay province have empowered peasant women as defenders of human, gender and Nature´s rights (Solano, 2013).

For my research the contribution of these authors is indispensable. Through the use of different frameworks they have defined the mobilization in Quimsacocha as a campesino movement instead of as a traditional indigenous or rural movement.

Pérez agrees that the “movement in defense of life” in Quimsacocha is not an indigenous protest but instead, that it is grounded on principles governing the relationship between community and Nature, based on the Andean worldview. In his words, the need to protect Nature and to be reciprocal is

Grounded in ancient community principles of reciprocity with Allpamama

(Mother Earth), Wiracocha (Essence of Water) and siblings air, fire, plant,

animal, which share a common habitat of respect and devotion (Pérez, 2012,

p. 40).

Far from being ethnicity-based (Velásquez, 2012a), their claims are based on broader understandings of the social contract between civil society and the state, of alternative views of development, and of the multidimensional relationships between Nature and society.

Common among this literature is also the conception of a community that understands the impacts of mining exploitation in a wider sense, as simultaneously social, economic, environmental and cultural. A community that faces a strong state that ultimately imposes a narrowly defined development project, through dispossession, marginalization from decision-making while violating rights.

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I build upon these contributions and focus my research not on the mining conflict per se or in the resistance to mining but instead on the whole experience of resource- based development in the rural areas conceived as the providers of the natural resources needed to secure national development, according to the government.

Extractivism for development—neoextractivism—is pursued by the coalition between the government and the mining company, with seemingly compatible interests. It conflicts with campesinos’ uses of and engagements with their spaces of life, producing “overlapping territories” that recreate the interests, values and knowledge systems of the multiple actors interacting in the same space. But it mostly disregards existing socionatural configurations. In the following section I explain the main concepts relevant to this argument.

Theoretical framework

This thesis is structured in a way in which each chapter develops its own literature review. Nevertheless, in this section I explain the theoretical framework that articulates the research. Mining struggles and disputes over water are commonly related, not only because the metal mining industry is water-intensive, but also because it has significant impacts on historical water rights, livelihoods and cultural practices (Perreault, 2013). Mining not only threatens water quality and quantity, but also rights to access and control water resources and simultaneously, rights to govern territories (Bebbington & Humphreys Bebbington, 2010). In consequence, a focus on water allows the analysis of the countless relationships potentially transformed by extractivism.

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Water: political, cultural and socionatural

Water links, shapes and is produced by the interactions between natural and human systems (Falkenmark & Folke, 2002; Rockstrom, 2013). This 'production' of water implies that it is defined and valued in ways that are not exempt from contestation

(Ioris, 2011, 2012). Water is political, as well as biopolitical. It is biopolitical because materially, water connects individuals to the collective and simultaneously, it links humans with the non-human world. (Bakker, 2010, 2012). Moreover, water is also

“a cultural product [d]ifferent people possess different knowledge of water, ascribe different meanings to water and appraise and engage with water in very different ways” (Linton, 2013, p. 53).

The pioneering concern of Wittfogel’s “hydraulic despotism” started a line of research focused on the interplay between politics, power and central authority in hydraulic societies (Wittfogel, 1963). This has been advanced with the use of concepts that have incorporated the socionature approach into water resources research from a political ecology (PE) perspective. Based on relational perspectives

(Latour, 1993; Linton, 2010, 2013), the socionature approach, developed by social scientists and particularly geographers (Castree & Braun, 2001; Swyngedouw,

1999) is based on the principle that there are no pre-given and pure social or natural entities (Whatmore, 2002); instead, Nature and society are intertwined.

Swyngedow explains “socionatures”, as follows.

The 'world' is a historical-geographical process of perpetual metabolism in

which social and natural processes combine in a historical-geographical

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 52

production process of socio-nature whose outcome (historical nature)

embodies chemical, physical, social, economic, political and cultural processes

in highly contradictory but inseparable manners (1999, p. 447).

To account for this co-constitution and to include the natural, social and political nature of water, in its material and discursive dimensions, hybrid concepts like

“waterscapes” (Swyngedouw, 1999), “hydraulic identity” (Boelens, 2003), “the social watershed” (Yañez & Poats, 2007), the hydrosocial cycle (Linton & Budds,

2014) and more recently “hydrosocial territories” (Boelens, et al. 2016), have been developed. I explain these below.

The term “waterscape” was coined by Erik Swyngedouw. It expands the notion of water landscapes, as the natural environments where water flows, to conceive them as socionatural spaces constructed by the interaction between water and society. It allows an understanding of how flows of water, power and capital produce certain socionatural systems (Swyngedouw, 1999, 2004). By analyzing rights of access, water flows, hydraulic infrastructure, norms, symbolic meanings and discourses, it should be possible to reveal the power relations shaping those systems (Budds &

Hinojosa, 2012b; Sultana 2013). Furthermore, according to Acharya, the concept of waterscape also allows an analysis of the intersections of culture and politics in

“water-produced landscapes” (201, p. 374).

The hydrosocial cycle (Bakker, 2002; Budds, Linton, & McDonnell, 2014; Schmidt,

2014; Swyngedouw, 2009) is defined as “the socio-natural process by which water and society make and remake each other over space and time” (Linton & Budds,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 53

2014, p. 170). As a framework to analyze the relationships between society and water, it conceives water as a hybrid (Budds & Sultana, 2011) and water and society in a dialectical/relational continuous co-constitution (Linton, 2010). It acknowledges the agency of water (Bear & Bull, 2001; Gellert, 2005), the role of power relations (Banister, 2014; Budds et al., 2014; Mollinga 2014; Swyngedouw,

2006, 2007) and the existence of different waters or water ontologies, materially, discursively and metaphysically (Palmer, 2015).

This literature has enriched the Political Ecology approach (PE), driving research that politicizes the society-water relationship (Boelens, Damonte & Seeman, 2014;

Gellert, 2005; D. F. White, 2006). Research on water-related issues has focused on: water rights, the allocation and distribution of the resource, governance, conflicts over its use, and particularly, matters of social and ecological justice (Bakker, 2002,

2003, 2010, 2013; Boelens, 2008, 2009; Boelens, Hoogesteger & Baud, 2013; Budds,

2004; Gelles, 1996, 2010; Guevara-Gil, 2010; Ioris, 2012; Linton, 2013; Loftus, 2014;

Sultana, 2011; Swyngedouw, 2005; Vos & Boelens, 2013; Zimmerer, 2000;

Zwarteveen & Boelens, 2014). PE has offered a powerful lens to understand conflicts around water as struggles over the access and control of the resource, in their material and discursive dimensions (Rodríguez-Labajos & Martínez-Alier, 2015). PE also allows a focus on matters of scale, which is essential in a flowing resource such as water, which cannot be limited by administrative boundaries and whose conflicts, despite being-place based, are connected to wider processes and power relations.

Finally, ‘political water' is analyzed not as an object of political contestation, but instead as the means through which politics are played out, internalized,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 54 reproduced and through which interests are pursued (Bear & Bull, 2011; Budds &

Sultana, 2013; Linton & Budds, 2014; Perreault, 2014).

Water cannot be abstracted from land (Bebbington & Humphreys Bebbington, 2010;

Yañez & Poats, 2007) therefore; the relationship between society and water also includes the social production of territories, as explained below.

Water and territories: from waterscapes to hydrosocial territories

Territories are understood as “living entities with memories where geographies of relations with nature are inscribed, territoriality is exercised, and various symbolic, political, economic and social relations are intertwined” (Ulloa, 2015, p. 322). Thus, the concept of “water territories” was initially proposed as socionatural or hydrosocial spatial networks of cultural belonging and production, that create and recreate livelihoods as well as a 'political community' (Boelens, Hoogesteger, &

Rodriguez de Francisco, 2014). This concept has evolved to define “hydrosocial territories” as

The contested imaginary and socio-environmental materialization of a

spatially bound multi-scalar network in which humans, water flows, ecological

relations, hydraulic infrastructure, financial means, legal-administrative

arrangements and cultural institutions and practices are interactively defined,

aligned and mobilized through epistemological belief systems, political

hierarchies and naturalizing discourses (Boelens, et al. 2016)

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 55

Interestingly, empirical work on hydrosocial territories has been mainly conducted in South America—with the exception of Perramond´s (2016) research on state adjudication of water rights in New Mexico. These studies have applied the concept of hydrosocial territories in struggles over payments for ecosystem services (PES) in Pimampiro, Ecuador (Rodríguez-de-Francisco & Boelens, 2016); transformations associated with the agro export sector in Ica, Peru (Damonte, 2015); conflicts between upland and lowland communities caused by their own and divergent visions of the hydrosocial territory and their interaction with the state´s inclusion recognition politics in Cochabamba, Bolivia (Seemann, 2016); and conflicting languages of valuation influencing the economic use of the páramo in Santander,

Colombia (Duarte-Abadía & Boelens, 2016). And, in the same Colombian department, Duarte-Abadía, Boelens and Roa-Avendaño (2015) have explored the consequences of the implementation of a mega-hydraulic project without acknowledging livelihood´s dependence on the Sogamoso river.

My research fits into this literature through the analysis of the consequences of the incursion of extractive industries in hydrosocial territories. Budds and Hinojosa understand territories as social formations resulting from the interactions among different actors in certain spaces, mediated by institutions that are product of those social relations. They conclude that the involvement of the mining industry as a new actor within these territories shapes waterscapes, modifies the power balance and transforms livelihoods. Mining therefore, produces other type of territories, with dynamics of water use and land rights that compete directly with the agrarian and rural landscapes present in the Andes (Budds & Hinojosa, 2012b, 2012a). As a result,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 56 resistance to extractive industries emerges as contestation of the erosion of communities´ rights to water, to livelihood and to territory (Boelens et al., 2012). At the same time, threats to livelihood might also elicit mobilization motivated by the cultural and psychological losses that might arise when livelihoods are disarticulated (Bebbington et al., 2008).

I use the concept of hydrosocial territories to understand neoextractivism as a project with hydro-territorial implications that reconfigures through asymmetrical power relations, legitimizing discourses and knowledge systems, multiple interactions within the territories of influence, understood as imaginaries as well as delimited spaces. The neoextractivist project interplays and overlaps with the imaginaries of other actors interacting in the same territory. My argument and the structure of the thesis are explained as follows.

Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: Introduction of the chapters

I argue that neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories reveals an imposition of a development model that disrupts socionatural configurations product of infinity of interactions developed over space and time. It imposes hydro-territorial imaginaries commonly detached from and unaware of the existent interdependencies in those spaces. This might result in profound and dangerous threats to peasant lifeways and the ecological integrity of the páramo; specially when ‘other kinds of knowledge’ are neglected and demands of participation in

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 57 environmental decision-making, or protest, are perceived by government officials as a threat to their authority over exploitation of natural resources as a means to support Ecuador’s economic growth.

To develop my argument, the thesis is divided in seven chapters. The current chapter has introduced the aims, case study and theoretical framework of the research. Chapter two explains in detail the methodology and quality and ethics considerations for this social research. Chapter 3 follows with an explanation of the paradoxes of the neoextractivist model and how the dependence on extractive rents triggered a new set of dependencies brought about by eroding the relationships between the state, society and Nature. Current constrained commodity prices have shown the inherent flaws of the model, challenging not only its legitimacy but also the government itself.

To comprehend the implications of neoextractivism, it is necessary to unveil how páramos embody overlapping territories where different uses, meanings, relationships, natural ‘resources’ and actors are in constant interplay given páramos’ multiple perceptions and roles. Therefore, they are sites of clashing of multiple and conflicting interests. Chapter 4 focuses on understanding the diverse interactions that co-produce this socio-ecosystem, without ignoring the role of power relations, which is crucial to understand the processes that unfold when new actors emerge proposing diverse and sometimes overlapping territorial projects, namely neoextractivism. This is explained in chapter 5, which understand neoextractivism as a development strategy that reconfigures divergent hydrosocial territories not by physically altering landscapes and ecosystems, but through the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 58 reproduction of visions of natural resource governance and territorial development from certain actors while marginalizing others from decision-making.

Chapter 6 explores another implication of the definition of neoextractivism as an inevitable requirement for progress. This is the empowerment of certain actors to define what kind of knowledge is valuable and pertinent in the search of the legitimization of the model. This chapter attends to one of the paradoxes of neoextractivism, which is the alienation of local voices attuned with the voices of

Nature who warn of the socionatural limits for the reproduction of the model. The thesis concludes with chapter 7, discussing the main theoretical contributions of the research.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 59

Chapter 2: Methods

Introduction

This chapter aims at explaining the research methods used in my PhD project. Ethics application was approved on December 3th 2015, Project HREC 1545860. It fulfilled the requirements to conduct fieldwork for nine months in my study area. The rationale for its selection was the definition of the areas of direct and secondary social influence of the Loma Larga gold mining project, according to INVMINEC, which is the company that owns the project. According to it, the areas of influence comprise 3 cantons: Cuenca, Girón and San Fernando. Specifically, I worked with participants from the urban centers of San Fernando and Girón, and the rural parishes of Tarqui, Victoria del Portete, San Gerardo and Chumblín. According to the latest population census, the 6 parishes are inhabited by 29,290 people, in a combined extension of 774.15 km2 (INEC, 2010). Figure 9 shows the location of these parishes.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 60

Figure 9: Area of study-Zones of social influence Loma Larga mining Project

The population in the area of study is mainly mestizo from which, 5% self-identifies as indigenous. Common associations of indigeneity and peasantry (campesinado) are not applicable in the southern Ecuadorian Andes. I understand the category of campesino (peasant farmers) as a cultural condition more than a socioeconomic one, which relates to living in the countryside, working the land and breeding animals, not only for subsistence but as a way of life. Every rural inhabitant in the study area self-defines as campesino. People live from agriculture, especially dairy farming

(Figure 10).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 61

Figure 10: Common landscape at the parish Victoria del Portete

Rural inhabitants in Ecuador have commonly been neglected by the central government for the provision of public services. In consequence, community ties have been developed to organize and work together through mingas (reciprocal labor) for the provision of those services and the construction of community infrastructure, for instance, schools and community houses. Communities have built their own piped water systems to bring water from the cerros or páramos, and nowadays they also treat the water; such is the case of the Victoria del Portete-

Tarqui community water system.

When I learned from social media and the Internet about the resistance to the Loma

Larga mining project organized by the leaders of the Victoria del Portete-Tarqui

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 62 system I got interested in their experience and decided to study it as part of my PhD.

I visited the area in November 2014 before starting my PhD and contacted the main leader of the community resistance in Kimsakocha to get his support to develop my future research and fieldwork. This approach also allowed me to start building my database of contacts based on snowball sampling. Officially, I started fieldwork on

December 2015 and continued until September 2016.

Figure 11: Office of the Community Water System Victoria del Portete-Tarqui at

Victoria del Portete until 2016. In 2018, with the community support, the Yaku

Wasi (House of water in kichwa language) was built and became the permanent office of the water system and a symbol of the defense of water.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 63

This chapter is structured as follows. It starts with a brief description of fieldwork and the main challenge overcome. Then I present the methodology and the research design that guided the study. The methods applied are further explained and the chapter concludes with considerations of data handling and analysis, quality and ethical concerns that are fundamental in any social research.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork was conducted in my home country, Ecuador, specifically in the southern province of Azuay. The language used was Spanish, which is my native language and the one used by the respondents. I was in the country from December 14, 2015 to

September 14, 2016. I spent 3 months in the area of study (From February 14th to

March 20th, from May 18th to June 29th and from August 16th to September 5th,

2016). Due to the nature of my research, which aimed not only at understanding the views of the inhabitants of the surrounding areas of the mining project but the view from the majority of actors involved I divided my time in the country in a way that gives me enough time to contact community members and participate in the activities organized by them, but also authorities, mining representatives and experts living in the city of Quito—Ecuador’s capital, where I worked the rest of the time. During my visits to the area of study I decided to live in Cuenca and travel everyday by bus to the different towns, the closest one located 20 minutes from

Cuenca and the farthest, 2 hours from the city.

Having previously met the leaders of the resistance movement made much easier my contact with the people of the communities, however I preferred not to limit my

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 64 possibilities of speaking with all sorts of people. Therefore, I not only interviewed referred people but also participants selected randomly in the streets. This strategy guided me for the interviews with the inhabitants of the towns of the direct and indirect areas of influence of the projects. I approached people in the plazas, local businesses, in the courtyards of their houses and other public areas. I explained to them the purpose of the interviews and got their consent to participate and to record the interviews. I applied semi-structured interviews but mostly I tried to promote an honest and relaxed chat about their concerns.

On the other side, in order to get all the versions of the problem researched I also applied in-depth interviews to leaders of the resistance, mining supporters, pro and anti-mining officials and authorities, officials of INVMINEC and Ecuadorian academics. Some interviews were previously arranged and I got others by visiting the offices and speaking directly to the authorities, without prior appointments. I almost had access to all the authorities I planned, with the exception of representatives of the municipal water company of Cuenca, ETAPA, which did not answer my formal request for an interview despite the commitment for transparency and public information of all governmental entities. Also I tried to arrange a meeting with the women’s environmental movement Defensoras de la

Pachamama (Mother Earth defenders) by visiting their headquarters in Cuenca, but the meeting was not possible. I was asked to leave my contact details to be contacted by them but it did not happen. The woman who received me told me that at that time, the movement was actively involved in the resistance to another mining

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 65 project in Molleturo, the Río Blanco mining project, which had just inaugurated in

August 2016 and the leaders were not in Cuenca.

I also got clearance to participate in and record, meetings, assemblies, workshops, seminars and rituals organized in the parishes mentioned. In addition, when possible I gathered small groups of people to speak about specific topics, in the form of informal focus groups. I am grateful for how easy it was to encourage peoples´ participation in the research. I have training and experience in conducting interviews for TV programs; however, I would say that the interviews were successful because people were willing to expose their viewpoints. The few shy participants got more confident by chatting instead of being formally interviewed; and the ones who were initially mistrustful left their suspicion when I emphasized the objective of the research, the anonymity of the interview and my previous contact with the local leaders. Undoubtedly, the fact of being Ecuadorian eased my work with the people, who lately feel suspicious about foreigners asking questions about the mining conflict.

I would like to conclude this section with the main challenge I experienced during fieldwork. Researching about peoples’ worries and concerns was a very moving experience. I was lucky that people openly spoke with me and did not hold back any emotional reaction; but at a certain point, fieldwork became overwhelming.

Empathy was very useful to understand all the different viewpoints but also, I could not avoid feeling profoundly touched by the highly emotional stage of resistance, resignation and hope currently lived by the inhabitants influenced by this mining project. Such was the impact of this experience that I opted to reframe my project

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 66 from a research that focused on social movements’ resistance to the mining project to one that puts at the center of enquiry how impending mining impacts everyday life of the surrounding populations, even before it physically modifies the landscape.

I reflected on the ways I was being affected by the research in the journals I kept during fieldwork.

Methodology

I draw on the Crotty framework (1998) in selecting a methodology that articulates ontology, epistemology, theoretical perspective and methodology.

Epistemologically, I acknowledge a subjectivist position and ontologically, a realist perspective. I believe that real historical, ideological, political and economic forces, constrain negotiated meanings (L. Harvey, 1990), for this reason I do not fully adopt a constructivist vision of reality. Both positions subjectivity and realism make me turn to a Critical theory perspective, in which, I find Political Ecology as an appropriate lens to focus on socio-environmental conflicts, understanding them as struggles over power, justice, control and access over natural resources, knowledge and governance (Neumann, 2005; Robbins, 2012; Watts, 2000). My methodology is informed by ethnographic methods because I have not only chosen a theme that reflects on the concerns of people enduring a current problematic situation but also

I aim to critically analyze it based on those peoples’ inputs, understandings and experiences. This approach is pertinent because it recognizes the importance of including the views, diagnosis and alternatives of the people directly involved in the problem researched, which also involves certain quality and ethical concerns

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 67 discussed in the next sections. The following table summarized the research process:

Ontological position Historical realism

Epistemology Subjectivism

Critical Theory Theoretical perspective Approach: Political Ecology

Methodology Ethnographic methods

Participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups, Methods document analysis

Based on: (Crotty, 1998) Figure 12: Summary of the research process

Research design

The selection of methods was based on the need to understand the problem and analyze it based on peoples’ experiences and the specific needs of information to answer the research questions, expressed in the following objectives:

i) To critically analyze the rationale behind the selection of extractivism as

development model

ii) To explore how the páramo is constructed as a socio-ecosystem iii) To investigate how different hydrosocial territories interact and overlap

responding to the neoextractivist policy iv) To grasp why different knowledges about the páramo collide when defining

the possible impacts of mining in this socio-ecosystem

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 68

Methods

Various qualitative methods were used to answer the research questions and these include:

Interviews

Two types of interviews were applied. The first ones aim at elucidating the perceptions, opinions and emotions of the inhabitants of the communities in the direct and indirect areas of influence of the Loma Larga mining project, with regard to community water management, conservation of páramo and mining. The second type of interviews was designed to enable a deep understanding of specific topics.

Targeted population for the interviews

I did not previously recruit the participants because I valued spontaneity, which is not always guaranteed when an appointment is arranged with anticipation. The average duration of the interviews was 15 minutes and a total of 91 interviews were conducted under a semi-structured format. All the interviews were fully transcribed in Spanish. The following figure proportionally shows the origin of the interviewees.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 69

Cuenca 6%

Tarqui San Fernando 16% 17% Chumblín 13%

San Gerardo 13% Girón 16% Victoria de Portete 19%

Figure 13: Distribution of interviews among parishes

Demographic information

a. Gender

The initial aim was to have equal participation of men and women, nevertheless, in the field this was not possible for two reasons. First, a high level of migration characterizes the towns in which the research was conducted. In fact, Azuay is the province with the highest index of migration of the country, being men the ones who migrate, especially to the United States. It was evident how these towns were mostly inhabited by women, who run the local businesses, take care of cattle, and so on. The second reason is that women were more willing to express their viewpoint. Even within the resistance movement, it is acknowledged that women are the most passionate and active participants, and I through my experience I could corroborate this assertion too.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 70

Men 30%

Women 70%

Figure 14: Distribution of interviews according to gender

b. Age

In terms of the age of the participants, it was more or less well distributed, with fewer elder participants. However, I tried to contact at least one elder per parish.

10% 30%

18-30 32% 31-50 51-70 28% 70-90

Figure 15: Distribution of interviews according to age

Interviews targeted to experts and community leaders

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 71

In this case, I recruited the participants through snowball sampling. These interviews were designed to get in-depth knowledge of specific topics; therefore, they were semi-structured. They lasted one hour and a half in average. A total of 41 interviews were conducted as shown in the following tables that summarize the targeted respondents and the objectives of the interviews:

Target Objective No. Origin/Institutions Authorities of To know their official 13 Local decentralized governments of the areas of position on mining and Chumblín, San Gerardo, Victoria del Portete influence perceptions of the and Tarqui; Municipalities of Girón and San community resistance Fernando; Ministry of Environment, Ecuador Estratégico, Tenencia Política San Gerardo and Victoria del Portete; Agency of control and regulation of water (ARCA) Leaders of the To develop a deeper 8 Parishes of Tarqui and Victoria del Portete; community knowledge of the Urban centers of Cuenca and Girón resistance origin, history and strategies of the community resistance Institutions or To comprehend the 6 Church, NGO Savia Roja, NGO organizations institutional MiningWatch Canada, movement related to the interactions the power Yasunidos, movement Asamblea de los community structures among them Pueblos del Sur movement Academics To enrich the research 3 FLACSO and Andean University Simón researching on with the analyses and Bolívar Buen Vivir and expert knowledge from extractivism other scholars working in academia Experts To enrich the research 6 CAMAREN (Partnership focused on working on with the analyses of training for water resources management water experts working in on and promoters of the Forum of Water resources water and páramo Resources), PROMAS/University of management ecosystem Cuenca (Department specialized in soil and páramo management), University of Azuay, SENAGUA (National Secretary of Water), National University of Colombia. Experts from To know how the 5 Social responsibility manager, Social INV Minerales mining project has been promoters of San Gerardo and Chumblín Ecuador conceived and the and Environment, health and safety (INMINEC) corporate social manager responsibility practices defined

Figure 16: Rationale of the interviews

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 72

Informal group discussions

I had initially planned to organize focus groups to discuss specific topics, however, in the field I noticed that it was going to be complicated to arrange these meetings.

Peoples’ availability was constrained because they mostly spent their time farming or taking the cattle to graze twice a day. This would complicate the gathering of people at a fixed hour suitable for everyone. Instead, I took advantage of meetings, assemblies or gatherings of people and promoted group chats about the topics I was interested in, with the agreeable surprise of an active participation. I conducted three of these informal discussions:

Parish Number of Topics participants and gender San Fernando 4 elder men and one 50 years Mining in the páramo and old woman opposition of San Fernando Tarqui 12 women of different ages, Impact of non violent protests members of the Agroecology against mining in Kimsakocha group of Kimsakocha Cuenca (after a press 9 women and 6 men between Life in the páramo and stories conference to denounce land 50-80 years old from Girón and legends of the páramo and grabbing of communal páramo and Victoria del Portete the lagoons in Kimsakocha-Sombrederas)

Figure 17: Informal group discussions conducted

Participant observation

The study of socio-environmental conflicts is highly enriched by observation of the context and the everyday lives of people, allowing the documentation of unspoken language or otherwise unnoticed practices. Consequently, I got clearance to participate, observe and record the following activities:

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 73

• Expert forums jointly organized by Yasunidos, the water defenders of

Kimsakocha (FOA, UNAGUA, UNAGUA-Girón) and the NGO Acción Ecológica:

• Public audience: UNAGUA-Girón (Union of water systems of Girón) with the

vice mayor and the councilors of Girón

• 1 Community inspection including a water ritual and pampamesa (community

shared meal), promoted by Yasunidos and the water defenders of Kimsakocha,

which was also supported by Mining Watch Canada and Acción Ecológica

• 3 visits to Kimsakocha with different groups: 1) the promoter of INVMINEC, 2)

leaders of the community water system Victoria del Portete-Tarqui, and 3)

with technicians from ARCA (the agency of regulation and control of water

systems) during their inspection of the community system.

• 3 workshops of the Kimsakocha´s agroecology group

• 3 community assemblies

• 2 meetings of the people affected by the attempts of land grabbing of

communal páramo.

Document analysis

While in the country I gathered several legal and policy documentation as well as reports from INV Metals and INV Minerales Ecuador to be analyzed. In addition, I constantly updated my literature review and reviewing alternative views from other scholars to avoid confirmation of assumptions, which is useful as a mechanism of triangulation (Bowen, 2009).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 74

Data handling

All the meetings and interviews were conducted in Spanish and recorded with the approval of the participants. They were fully transcribed. I chose to keep the transcriptions in Spanish and literal. I think that by translating them to English I would lose the meaning and sense of some of them, therefore I prefer to translate only the parts that will be cited in the thesis.

The audio recordings are saved in MP3 format and coded based on the place of birth, gender, age and date of the interviewee. It was agreed total anonymity, therefore I did not ask for names nor keep any kind of identifiers. For example, a 30 years old woman born in Tarqui that I interviewed on July 30th would be coded as

TQ_F_30_30_07_2016.mp3. The same code applies for the transcriptions, which are kept in PDF format, to keep the link between both archives (Ex:

TQ_F_30_30_07_2016.pdf). Pictures are coded by place and date in which they were taken, and kept in JPEG format. Original pictures were not stored in the camera.

As established in the ethics application, I will keep audio recordings, notes, and pictures collected in digital version for 5 years after the submission of the PhD thesis. After that period, all the files will be deleted. During fieldwork, all the MP3 files of the interviews and pictures in JPEG were uploaded daily in the cloud storage

OneDrive. All the MP3 files, the transcriptions, the photographs and the documents gathered were stored in a password protected portable hard drive acquired for this purpose, as well as in my personal hard drive and desktop computer at the university. All the archives were deleted from my personal laptop.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 75

Data analysis was assisted by the software NVivo. During the transcription of the material, I identified theme nodes or categories that group material (videos, photos, voice recordings, transcriptions and documents). According to the topics of the different chapters of the thesis I created a coding system, which I detailed in memo notes.

Analysis

For the analysis of the rich qualitative data gathered I opted for ‘letting the data speak.’ During fieldwork, I sensed that the questions I was asking could not grasp what the participants really wanted to talk about. Thus, I adapted my interview and later my research objectives, to interrogate further about emerging topics; two that

I had not previously considered stood out: 1) the role of emotions, not only in the midst of a conflict as drivers of social mobilization, but as constitutive of the engagements between the inhabitants and the spaces where their lives are co- produced; and, 2) the nature of local ecological knowledge. Both were interrelated, as I came to realize later. Barbara Van Wijnendaele narrates a similar process of

“emotions and embodied knowledges evolv[ing] from fieldwork as crucial elements” (2014, p. 266).

What did it mean to let the data speak? That the hundreds of hours of conversations and my field notes from observation were telling a more complex story than communities resisting or passively complying with extractivism. That the frequent emotional accounts I gathered were not only reactions towards an impending project but that they were situated and contextual, implying a connection between

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 76 emotions and spaces; and, that my role as researcher was to “engage[] in understanding the relations between them” not to interpret (Hemer & Dundon,

2016, p. 2). Further, from a relational perspective that emotions and thoughts are not separated reproducing dualisms of body and mind and the role of the researcher is understanding them as “structures of experience [emphasis added]…not feeling against thought, but thought as felt and feeling as thought: practical consciousness of a present kind, in a living and interrelating continuity;” and this experience gives meaning to socionatures (Williams, 1977, p. 132). To clarify, I adopt from González-

Hidalgo and Zografos a perspective on emotions as

[A]n umbrella term, which includes affects, expressions, moods, feelings,

climates and non-representational ways…in which humans perform their

feelings and build their relationships to and in socio-natures [without delving]

deeper into the conceptual differences between emotions and affects” (2019,

p. 3) Emotions are ways of knowing, being and doing, mediated by socio-

spatial relationships ( 2019, p. 6).

All these realizations emerged during a re-reading of the transcripts for analytical purposes, but I became aware of the importance of considering emotions during the transcription process, which I did myself. It helped me to remember the particularities of each participant, where they were, what were they doing and how they felt when engaging in our conversations. I listened to the interviews as someone who transported back to the setting, the places, and the moods and feelings of the moment. I inadvertently began making additional notes about the person, the place and the tones and emotions expressed through the words as well as pauses

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 77 and non-verbal reactions. My advantage was that I did not carry out my interviews with any preconceptions, and I did not displace people to uncommon places like cafes or offices. Instead, I conducted them when people were performing their everyday activities. Interviews happened spontaneously with campesinos while they were cultivating the chakra (small plantation), with community members during visits to the páramo, with groups of concerned inhabitants after demanding legal protection for their lands at the court in Cuenca, after seminars organized in collaboration with NGOs, among other activities. Researching during these performances made a difference to the research process. Narratives, as well as unspoken expressions of the participants while looking at el cerro (páramo) with nostalgia, or sadly imagining that watercourses might be contaminated gave a more nuanced understanding 'in place and time'. Observations were key throughout, and while they are not always reflected in the thesis they were incorporated in the process of analysis. In this way, I began treating emotions as data as suggested by Flam,

Kleres and Bergman (2015) in the first edited volume devoted to methods for exploring emotions.

Narrative inquiry (Wells, 2011)

Seeking analytical approaches applicable to my research, three approaches emerged. First, psychotherapy practice was suggested by (Bondi, 2005) in her work of emotional geographies, mostly to reflect on the relationship between researcher and participant and the emergent engagements with the latter’s emotional experiences while they are being expressed (Pile, 2010). In the context of emotional

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 78 political ecology I found that only (González-Hidalgo, 2017) worked in this way with communities dealing with socio-ecological change. Second, non-representational geographies conceive affect as the capacity of the body to affect and be affected, privileging the non-cognitive, the inter-personal and everything that cannot be brought into representation (Anderson, 2013; Pile, 2010; Thrift, 2008). Beyond

Thien’s critique of the risks of counterposing “masculinist reason and feminized emotion […and] the false distinction between ‘personal’ and ‘political’” in the project of advancing transhuman geographies (Thien, 2005, p. 452), I did not use this perspective because I found very little development in methods applicable to my case, despite how promising the proposition was that

The unit of analysis becomes [‘representations-in-relation’]…the immanent,

relational configuration that the representation is entangled with, becomes

inseparable from, and acts through (a configuration that may itself come to act

and take on a force) (Anderson, 2018, pp. 1, 5-6)

Thus, I opted for a third approach: to analyze localizable and cognitive emotion expressed through rich narratives (Pile, 2010). Narrative analysis has been the choice in most of the works in emotional geography by authors acknowledging subjective epistemologies (McClinchey, 2016, Murrey 2016, Davidson, Bondi, &

Smith, 2005), without suffering from the criticized ‘discursive idealism’ (Dewsbury,

Harrison & Rose, 2002 cited in Anderson, 2018).

For emotional geography…[e]motions may take on social forms of expression,

but behind these forms of expression lie genuine personal experiences – that

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 79

are seeking representation. Indeed, it is the political imperative of emotional

geography to draw out these personal experiences, to bring them to

representation (Pile, 2010, p. 11).

Narratives are “relational explanation[s] for the way embodied actors in an environment make sense of the world” (Bixler, 2013; p. 276). Narratives collected through in-depth interviews do not only ‘report’ emotions, they reflect the everyday life of engagements with socionatures and are inspired by conditions of current or impending socio-ecological change (González-Hidalgo, 2017; Sultana, 2011).

Furthermore, they inform and result from situated knowledges (Bixler, 2013; Rose,

1997). This is congruent with the methods and aims of a ‘third generation political ecology’ in which post-structuralist discourse analysis sees narratives as constitutive of social reality always coupling power and knowledge (Escobar,

2010b). The recognition of the knowledge and power asymmetries reproduced in discourses also advances the project “towards social transformation, ending a long- standing reproduction of subalternity, and promoting environmental justice.”

(Hohenthal, Räsänen & Minoia, 2018, p. 1; Spivak, 1993). This is an ethical commitment.

I agree with Smith, Davidson, Cameron and Bondi “the fact that words cannot completely represent emotions is not necessarily a problem for representation”

(2009, p. 12); but representations and translations “make, remake and unmake worlds” (Anderson, 2018, p. 2). For this reason feminist and post-colonial geographers and anthropologists have insisted in questioning the power relations reproduced by speaking for others (Anderson, 2018, p. 1; de la Cadena, 2015;

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 80

Murrey, 2016). In my analysis I privileged verbatim quotations, much of which is lost in translation to English in the final product, but in the process they were maintained in the terms, language and sense originally expressed. This is a tendency in feminist geographies: to literally give voice to marginalized groups (Bondi, 2005), which emotional geographies maintain.

My aim is not to interpret and translate those different experiences, words and worlds—in reference to critiques of the limits, risks and ethical and political implications of translation widely across languages and across worlds (de la Cadena,

2015; Rabassa, 1974; Spivak, 1993)—but to bring those narratives to representation by locating them in the wider spectrum of power geometries, as should be the purpose of emotional political ecology (Rose, 1997; Tolia-Kelly, 2006).

This ‘representation’ is part of bringing the political and the emotional geographies together, and it inherently entails acknowledging that narratives recall intersubjective experiences and they are always permeated by inequality, gender, class and ethnicity concerns (González-Hidalgo, 2017; González-Hidalgo & Zografos,

2019; Pain, 2009; Rose, 1997). Neither, I presume that my findings represent full accounts of reality or that I have found ‘the truth’ in the participants accounts. I am aware that knowledge is situated, therefore, partial (Rose, 1996). I will discuss the implications of this representation in terms of positionality in the following sections.

Finally, I acknowledge that my analysis is also partial in considering relational ontologies as the object of inquiry in the political ontological project advanced by

Blaser (2009), de la Cadena (2005) and Escobar (2015a). This is fully explained in chapter 6. I have not attempted to develop a deeper conversation across worlds, and

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 81 nor would I have been able to do it as “it is a practice- based concept that calls for ethnographic attention to the distinctions and relations that …[Afro- descended and other communally oriented groups in South America] effect on the vast array of living and non-living entities” (Escobar, 2010b, p. 100). Such a project entails a longer-term commitment to ethnography and to the diverse forms these political ontological struggles take, promoted by diverse indigenous, peasants and community groups. My focus instead has been on the multiple knowledges emerging from ontological conflicts and my aim was to uncover how and why these offer more comprehensive ways of understanding resource extraction and its impacts

(Escobar, 2016). Political ontology in this sense, “radicalizes political ecology, which ceases to be a discourse about the other, to become a dialogue between different beings and their constitutional knowledge (own translation, Leff, 2017, p. 242).

Quality

Two quality criteria were met in this research: trustworthiness and authenticity.

These are essential in critical social research (Shields, 2012). In terms of trustworthiness (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) the procedures included:

• Detailed descriptions of the methods used

• Detailed description of the fieldwork and systematization of field notes

• Data organization and analysis assisted by NVIVO

• Record of coding system

• Detailed written transcriptions of interviews, saved in digital version

• Triangulation of methods: document analysis and fieldwork

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 82

• Respondents’ validity: When possible, I will require confirmation of accuracy

of the interviews that were cited.

• Reflexivity: During my stay in Cuenca I tried to keep a weekly learning

journal to reflect on my role as researcher. I looked at those notes and

reflected on how my relationship with the research changed during

fieldwork.

Whereas, in terms of authenticity (Lincoln & Guba, 1986), I tried to include all the perspectives: from the community, the central government, the local governments, environmental activists and representatives of the mining company. In this sense, from the beginning I made clear that my aim was to speak with the majority of people involved and luckily the other groups did not perceive it with suspicion; however, people would always try to enquire about what the other groups said about certain topics. I was wary of this tendency and tried to avoid disclosing that kind of information.

My aim at the end of my PhD is to organize a socialization workshop to present the results of the research, discuss and receive feedback from the participants once I get back to the country, hopefully at the Yaku Wasi (the house of water), whose construction was planned when I was conducting my fieldwork. In addition, the thesis will be sent via e-mail to all the respondents who indicated in the consent form that they want a copy of the research. I also plan to translate some of the chapters to Spanish to facilitate the distribution and further discussion within the members of the community movement.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 83

Positionality, reflexibility and ethics

This kind of research, which relies on collaboration with social actors involved in a conflict and that also includes differing moral positions and ideologies, poses various challenges in terms of ethical challenges, beyond the compliance with formal ethical requirements. Especially relevant are the principles of integrity, reciprocity of trust, do no harm, confidentiality and “respect for the persons, beneficence and justice” (Belmont Report cited in Kress 2011, p 132). All these principles were considered in the research design, which incorporates peoples' perspectives and understandings and gives voice to the communities to raise consciousness and to work on solutions appropriate to their problems and context.

The ultimate objective of the research is consequently, addressing social and environmental injustice.

Additionally, the research design included procedures to check the accuracy in the interpretation of participants’ perspectives through respondents’ validity, when possible. And finally, to maintain confidentiality and ensure consent, every participant signed a consent form that states that anonymity of the participants will be respected, with the exception of expressed consent to include their names in publications. With the aim of securing participants’ personal information also, all the data is kept in a password-protected digital archive.

A particular ethical concern related to the emotional political ecology approach is the need of reflecting on and acknowledging my positionality. The need to reflect on the power relations and their implications for the research process is a concern

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 84 raised by feminist scholars (Rose, 1997, Sultana, 2007). There is an established commitment to be aware of the asymmetries reproduced when speaking on behalf of others and trying to represent their understandings and knowledge.

During fieldwork, my journal registered how the research was affecting me. The idea of objective research where the researcher simply observes and reports ‘reality’ was impossible. Research does not happen in a void detached from the participants, the space and the moments in which it is being conducted. I have already mentioned how emotionally demanding it was to engage in conversations with people mostly in a state of distress in the midst of a planned project that would change their lives and socionatures. Many times I was being asked for help to ‘make government understand’ and my impotence overwhelmed me: I became an emotional political ecologist. Aware of this, I opted to make some distance from interviewing on certain occasions and focus on other research activities but not to emotionally disengage from the research. That was impossible, since feminist geographies “committed to the production of situated knowledges, [emotional geography] does not locate emotions in ‘others’ from whom researchers remain detached” (Bondi, 2005, p.

437). Situated knowledges imply also the acknowledgement that knowledge claims are partial (Bondi, 2005, Haraway, 1988; Moss, 2002, Rose, 1997).

In terms of my positionality, I shared similar experiences to those of Farhana Sultana when she narrates how

Returning to Bangladesh to conduct fieldwork posed several dilemmas

for…[her]. What constitutes the ‘field’ versus ‘home’ is a problematic

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 85

distinction, as returning to Bangladesh to do fieldwork was by no means

returning ‘home’ (2007, p. 377).

Similarly, I was going back to my home country but not ‘home’ and I honestly did not think much about that before starting fieldwork. Life in rural areas of Cuenca is different from my life in the Ecuadorian capital, not only geographically but also socio-economically. The whole experience of a peasant lifeway so close to the third biggest city of the country—my fieldwork was conducted in parishes located 15-30 minutes from Cuenca—was new to me. In retrospect, however I believe that was an advantage. I did not have any pre-conceptions of what should I expect from the field site and the cuencanos (people from Cuenca), just the certainty that speaking the same language, being a student, a woman and Ecuadorian would be an advantage.

Much research has focused on the challenges of being a young woman doing fieldwork. In my case, beyond the normal safety concerns I also address when traveling alone, I did not face similar experiences to those in the literature.

Colombian colleagues traveling to their home countries for PhD fieldwork told the same story. Being a woman is actually advantageous in the Latin American context because people are keener to chat. Perhaps 1 percent of respondents refused to talk or be interviewed, including my interviews with government officials, academics and scientific experts. Nevertheless, more than my gender I think that nationality and a student status more important when I reflect on the reasons why people accepted to converse with me. ¿Para qué es y de dónde es usted? (What is it for and where are you from?) were the most common questions from participants when I approached them. They have had unpleasant previous experiences with NGO’s,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 86 some researchers and people from the government collecting signatures and information without disclosing their future use.

The literature also focuses on ethnicity. ‘Western white’ women doing feminist geographies are reflexive about their position, but I am somewhat critical of emphasizing the differences that separate us from our participants before beginning research, instead of our the commonalities—we actually need to be aware of both

(Kobayashi, 2003; Rose, 1997). I have similar concerns with the direction taken by

‘authors of color,’ but this is not the space to discuss those. I am afro-descendant born and living most of my life in a city where Afro-Ecuadorians are a minority.

Nevertheless, I was not raised to see differences in skin color but to recognize, respect and value differences in behavior and culture. Accordingly, I have never felt

‘different.’ My experience researching peasant lifeways in the Ecuadorian south also reinforced that self-perception. There was never a mention of my ethnic background and its difference from my participants. Never. If I had started reflecting on my positionality from an ethnic or racial background, it could have derailed my confidence in the project. If I can contribute to the literature in terms of positionality, it is to query how our participants perceive us and what they define as ‘different’— if they do so. We need to be coherent if we are committed to representing our participants’ words and worlds.

My ‘difference’ was most visibly defined by being a young woman from the capital city privileged to be doing postgraduate studies—point also made by Sultana

(2007). Despite my age being contemporaneous with most of the female participants I was perceived as younger by my student status and looks. Hardship

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 87 in the countryside indeed makes people age faster as I came to realize during fieldwork, when I could not really tell the age of my participants and always had to ask. Repeated phrases like of ustedes la gente de la ciudad (you, the people from the city) allowed me to understand how was I different. Similarly, there was a subtle complaint from a very charismatic campesina with whom I shared many laughs, who contrasted her hardship with my easy student life

Here we are running, only running. [Running] to attend the cattle, always

running to attend the cuy, the pig, feeding the dog. Instead you are tranquilita

(quiet) only in the computer (personal communication, May 5, 2016).

“Relations do not only connect through similarities; differences also connect” (de la

Cadena, 2015, 27). Acknowledging my common nationality and spoken language and my situated difference I could position myself in-between; “I was simultaneously an insider, outsider, both and neither” (Sultana, 2007, p. 377). This is important because positions are always in negotiation, as I experienced when dealing with different groups. For instance, while interviewing mining representatives I was still a student, but one from the University of Melbourne; for local inhabitants the affiliation with a foreign university raised suspicion so I was simply a student working to get her degree; and, with members of the resistance movement I was a student committed to promote ecological justice through her research.

My research was conducted in interaction with, but not about the people I worked with. This is also fundamental when approaching research from an emotional political ecology perspective. What I have analyzed and written is a product of the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 88 relationships engendered between the research, my participants, and myself and the knowledge produced is specific to the spatio-temporal conditions in which it was developed (Sultana, 2007).

Finally, reflections on the power relations reproduced in research are necessarily based on the challenges that representations pose as I explained in the Analysis section. Nevertheless, I depart from Rose (1997) who argues asymmetries cannot be dealt with simply through reflexivity and positionality. According to her, there are serious problems with putting ourselves in a position where we aim at managing a “landscape of power” from outside by making it visible and being reflexive about how power can be dealt with across scales and by re-distributing it (Rose 1997, p.

310). Most of the assumptions made about agency and context are more complex than reflexivity can cover, and also the term somehow betrays the purpose of the type of research I was engaged in. Reflexivity suggests an outsider’s position, even distancing ourselves from research to be able to critically analyze (Rose, 1997). Rose suggests and I agree, that more fruitful analyses come from what I previously mentioned, adopting an in-between position—she cites England (1994), Katz (1994) and Nast (1994) to explain the analytical position of ‘betweenness’. Relationality of our positions and co-construction of situated knowledges the become the objective of a more engaged reflexivity.

The interpretation of narratives, another research agenda in the humanities and social sciences, has also been criticized for its potential to reproduce the subjugation of already marginalized knowledges (de la Cadena, 2015). Nevertheless, if we acknowledge that knowledge is being co-created—as is my case, the task is to make

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 89 it visible while being truthful to the actors involved and the processes through which it was co-produced.

Thus the authority of the researcher can be problematized by rendering her

agency as a performative effect of her relations with her researched others.

She is situated, not by what she knows, but by what she uncertainly performs

(Rose, 1997, p. 316).

In this way, my role was not to try to speak on behalf of my participants and interpret this through my position of outsider researcher; instead, to co-create knowledge based on the constant interactions with them and with the research

(Gibson-Graham, 1994). When possible, I have maintained verbatim quotations to give my participants voice—in an uncommon language to them—and tried to be truthful to what they meant to share—which required asking for clarifications in the moment. The final product though, shows most of my expressions and partial understanding of the theme researched. I cannot claim that I have been able to redistribute asymmetrical power relationships in the research process because I do not believe that the researcher has such authority—or that it can be done being reflexive—but I have been aware of those power geometries in each step of my relationships with the participants, and in the analysis and writing of the thesis.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 90

Chapter 3: Neoextractivism and the paradoxes of an extractive

rent-dependent state: the Ecuadorian case

Abstract

Progressive and conservative governments in Latin America seem to converge in supporting neoextractivism. This is a new way to depict and conduct large-scale resource extraction as a way to support development policies and to profit from global commodity markets. On one hand, it implies that extractive rents are redistributed to the population in the form of expanded social programs: conditional cash transfers (CCTs) and improvements in health, education and water and sanitation infrastructures. This coupling of resource extraction and development is used as a justification to return economies to reliance on primary exports. On the other hand, it relies on a post-neoliberal model of resource governance designed to guarantee the reproduction and capture of extractive rents by the state, as the undisputed authority over the use of national natural resources.

This chapter looks at this approach under the 10 years of the so-called revolutionary and progressive government of former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa (2007-

2017). It argues that the dependence on extractive rents triggered a new set of dependencies brought about by eroding the relationships between the state, society and Nature. Furthermore, when commodity prices contracted, the legitimacy of the model and of the government itself was challenged. Austerity measures reduce the state's ability to provide society with the benefits promised. The government also

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 91 lost its negotiation advantage with extractive industries. And finally, civil society questioned the need to sacrifice socio-ecosystems and lifeways of rural communities in the name of a development model that resembles the much criticized neoliberal development model based on notions of infinite growth in a world of finite resources.

Keywords

Neoextractivism, natural resource governance, Ecuador

Introduction

Development theorists have been attracted to the novel ways in which nation states are being transformed and how development is conceived by progressive governments in Latin America—particularly Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia.

However, after a decade of what has been called the 'pink tide' in the region and the emergence of ‘compensatory states’ (Gudynas, 2016), there are many similarities in the social and economic policies pursued by conservative and progressive governments (Bebbington, 2011; Humphreys Bebbington & Bebbington, 2012; C.

Larrea, personal communication, August 17, 2016). They converge around support for neoextractivism.

Whether in the form of conventional—often brutal—neoliberal extractivist

policies in countries like Colombia, Perú or México, or following the neo-

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 92

extractivism of the center-Left regimes, these are legitimized as efficient

growth strategies (Escobar, 2016, p. 26).

This strategy in progressive or center-Left regimes has been characterized as

‘extractive distribution’ (Webber, 2016) or ‘extractivist neo-developmentalism’ (A.

Acosta, personal communication, August 17, 2016; Ávila, 2013; Muñoz Jaramillo,

2013; Svampa, 2012a). The common features include:

i) Governmental efforts to regain command over natural resources and to

ensure that a higher percentage of the rents produced by their

exploitation feeds the state budgets.

ii) A state-led development vision that is still ingrained in notions of

economic growth, but with greater intervention in the economy with

redistributive aims through conditional cash transfers (CCTs)6 and social

programs (Gudynas, 2009); and,

iii) The deepening of extractivism as an engine of development, legitimized

by discourses linking social welfare with extractive rents (Cuvi, Machado,

Oviedo, & Sierra, 2013).

Ecuador and Bolivia appropriated the concepts of Buen Vivir (Good Living) and Vivir

Bien (Living Well) respectively, to propel extractivist government projects despite

Constitutional mandates requiring them to pursue development in harmonious coexistence with Nature (Escobar, 2015b).

6 CCTs have been a mechanism adopted by neoliberal governments (since 1990) and progressive governments as well. In the literature this is one of the reasons to conclude that neoextractivism is implemented by both types of governments and redistribution through CCTs is not a novelty, as 'pink-tide' governments discursively remark.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 93

In retrospect, in Ecuador these political choices were a consequence of a new boom in primary exports given China's geopolitical rise and its resource demands (Acosta,

2013; Veltmeyer, 2012). Ideology aside, the Ecuadorian state followed a modernization path to take advantage of the opportunities offered by capitalism

(Unda, 2013). Modernization does not transform the model of accumulation, which has involved the intensification of natural resource extraction. The state has strengthened its role in the economy, using the market to deliver social policies funded by oil revenues and mining in the future, but it has not redistributed wealth only the surplus of oil revenues. Therefore inequality remains, and the government legitimates its social control and intensification of extractivism (Cuvi et al., 2013;

Ospina, 2008, 2013a). Ironically, despite its socialist leanings, the government of

Ecuador under former president Correa (2007-2017) restructured the economy towards reliance on mining revenues to hasten the insertion of the country in the global economy under new conditions. This still entailed economic fragility, as it has remained vulnerable to the volatility of global commodity prices (Ávila, 2013;

Ospina, 2013b)

In the process, power structures have been reconfigured to allow the state to impose its will on society, though detaching from it (Andrade & Nicholls, 2017). The

Ecuadorian state has adopted a tutelary role in which extractive rents are distributed in the form of 'compensations' or CCTs to provide what the government defines as wellbeing; and at the same time, reinforcing patron-client relationships

(Cuvi, 2013; Dávalos, 2013). A disciplinary regime has been implemented to normalize society towards efficiency and obedience, fighting any societal initiative

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 94 that might challenge the “majesty of authority’” (Ospina, 2013b, p. 29). As consequence, social movements are discouraged and participation has been redefined away from constitutionally recognized rights to participate in decision- making towards ‘participation’ in the benefits of resource extraction (De Castro,

Hogenboom, & Baud, 2015).

Using a political economy perspective and an environmental governance lens

(Bridge & Perreault, 2009), my aim is to expand the discussion of neo-extractivism by highlighting the forms that the state-society-Nature relationship acquire in a context of dependence on extractive rents. I the Ecuadorian case to argue that extractivist neo-developmentalism engenders a model of resource governance combined with mechanisms of social control that give rise to three paradoxes affecting the relationship between the state, Nature and society and threatening the reproduction of the development model itself.

The chapter is based on documentary analysis of Ecuadorian literature, complemented by interviews conducted with three leading Latin American academics. Published material and interviews were translated from Spanish to

English by the author. I begin by introducing the debate over neoextractivism, viewed as the convergence of resource-based development and resource governance. The two elements of the approach given above are explained in turn.

First I address how neoextractivism is defined by historical settings and the inherent characteristics of the dependency on rents from resource extraction. The second element, redistributive economic growth, is explained through the three- layered model of post-neoliberal resource governance developed by Pablo Andrade

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 95

(2015) to understand how society and Nature are governed when extractive rent- seeking is prioritized. Thirdly I show how social welfare became linked to extractive rents, generating a paradoxical relationship between the state and extractive industries, society in general, and social movements and local communities aiming at defending their socio-ecosystems. The chapter concludes by exploring how those paradoxes interplay in the Ecuadorian case in the current context of low commodity prices.

Neoextractivism: resource-based development and post- neoliberal resource governance

The term ’ neoextractivism' was coined by Eduardo Gudynas to account for the new wave of large-scale exploitation of natural resources like oil, soya and gas by the progressive governments or the new left regimes in Latin America (Gudynas, 2009,

2012; Gudynas & Acosta, 2010; A. Acosta; C. Larrea; personal communications,

August 17, 2016) 7 The economic model is quite simple - use national resources to redress development gaps by nationalizing resources and heavy taxation of corporate activity. Analysts have looked beyond the ideological drivers of the governments to point out the increasing similarities in the economic and social policies applied by these regimes, and by conservative ones supporting free markets

(Bebbington, 2011; Svampa, 2012b). According to Henry Veltmeyer, “this strategy of resource extraction and governance (the new extractivism) has been pursued

7 It includes a strong presence of the state in projects that are praised as engines for development. The governments demand higher taxes and royalties aiming at using them as sources of revenue for the redistribution of wealth (Gudynas, 2009, 2012; Gudynas & Acosta, 2010).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 96 within the framework of the post-Washington Consensus (PWC), and its emphasis on socially inclusive growth to stabilize the neoliberal capitalist development”

(2012, p. 70). Expanding Veltmeyer’s argument, I suggest that neoextractivism is a new way of bringing about development, but it also enables the reinsertion of Latin

America in the global economy as supplier of commodities, but with greater control by the national governments than during the Washington consensus and liberalization measures. Neoextractivism requires on one hand a model of ‘post- neoliberal governance’ designed to ensure command over natural resources and to strengthen the role of the state as redistributor of extractive rents (Andrade, 2015).

And, on the other hand, it requires a coupling of resource extraction with development—extractivist neo-developmentalism—in order to use primary resources to fuel development (Veltmeyer, 2012). These aims are not achieved without conflict.

In general the neo-extractivist model is supported by the middle classes and urban citizens but given the location of most natural resources, it is often opposed by rural people (Dávalos, 2013; De Castro et al., 2015). The formers comply with what

Svampa (2012b) calls the ‘commodities consensus.’ This is based on the reemergence of the comparative advantage principle that legitimates extractivism as an imperative to take advantage of the opportunities of the global market (Arsel,

Hogenboom, & Pellegrini, 2016a). But, as I discuss, resistance is being strengthened in the countryside due to deepening of urban-rural inequalities resulting from the incorporation of territories and their populations as sacrifice zones in which compensation can be offered for permission to extract. The extractivist neo-

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 97 developmentalism logic then offers an asymmetrical distribution of burdens and benefits.

In terms of the relationship with Nature, an obvious conclusion is that no development regime based on the respect of the rights of Nature is compatible with neoextractivism.8 Faced with greater societal awareness of the impacts of resource extraction for Nature and livelihoods, nation states have adopted a pivotal role in fostering the acceptance of neoextractivism. They have appropriated and spread the discourse of ecologically and socially responsible mining, which is a propensity in

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. These discourses support the compatibility of resource extraction with environmental protection and the improvement of local social welfare (De Castro et al., 2015; D. Rodríguez & Loginova,

2019). On one hand, there is constant observation of the outstanding investments made in cutting-edge technology that minimize the environmental impacts of large- scale resource extraction, even in fragile socio-ecosystems. On the other hand, supported by a neo-developmentalist logic, both state and extractive companies articulate their interventions with the aim of ‘bringing development’ to the areas of project influence (Svampa, 2013). The association between the state and foreign companies has also implied the intervention of governments in the mediation of socio-environmental conflicts, discouraging open resistance (Bebbington, 2011).

Arsel, Hogenboom and Pellegrini (2016) have argued that debates about the new extractivism or neo-extractivism tend to be reductive when analyzing extractivism

8 The 2018 Ecuadorian Political Constitution was the first in the world in recognizing Nature as bearer of rights (articles 71-74).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 98 as a development model, treating it only as an strategy of accumulation (Brand,

Dietz & Lang, 2016). I agree that “the current shape of extractivist development policy has taken over the logic of other state activities, reorienting policy objectives to further justify and advance the policy of extractivism.” (Arsel et al., 2016, p. 881).

For this reason, I adopt Henry Veltmeyer’s understanding of neo-extractivism as a model “based on postneoliberal governance in which renewed state activism is combined with a resource-based growth strategy in order to increase social inclusion” (Veltmeyer, 2012, p. 59). This definition suggests an expansion of the scope of neo-extractivist policies by incorporating governance in the analysis.

The dependence on renewable and non-renewable natural resources for the reproduction of resource-based development models entails a re-adjustment of the institutions, actors, social practices and spatial scope involved in environmental management; as well as a redefinition of ‘natural resources,’ both conceptually and discursively (Bridge & Perreault, 2009). Thus, socio-economic, environmental and development policies cannot be analyzed as disparate areas of decision-making. To look at the entwinement of these areas and the role of power relations I find pertinent the use of environmental or resource governance as conceptual framework, as understood by Gavin Bridge and Tom Perreault:

Environmental governance not as the ‘governance of nature’ but as

‘governance through nature’–that is, as the reflection and projection of

economic and political power via decisions about the design, manipulation and

control of socio-natural processes. (Bridge & Perreault, 2009, p. 492).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 99

Neo-extractivism analyzed through this lens shows that both post-neoliberal governance and resource-based development become entangled and I intend to contribute to the literature by proposing an analytical framework to unveil the different consequences of this intertwinement by focusing on how the relationship of the state with society and Nature tends to be modified since the adoption of the extractivist model. I define these as paradoxical relationships given that internal contradictions threaten the reproduction of the extractivist model itself and the legitimization of the government to conduct it. I discuss this in section 4. First it is necessary to explain how the two elements of neo-extractivism interact: extractivist neo-developmentalism (linking extractive rents with development), and post- neoliberal resource governance (ensuring access to extractive rents and their redistribution).

Extractivist neo-developmentalism

The common feature in the Latin American region, beyond left or right politics,

Is a combination of a reprimarization of the economy, a massive increase of the

importance of primary exports, and redistributive social policies, which do not

modify the structure of society and are basically a scheme based on transference

of benefits (C. Larrea, personal communication, August 17, 2016).

This current has been called extractivist neo-developmentalism in which, inserted in global capitalism, developmentalist States are strengthened to increase their participation in extractive rents, whose surpluses are redistributed (Ávila, 2013).

The basis of the development regime is still primary exports, but the model aims at

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 100 converting extractive rents into development rather than accumulation by elites.

The priorities of a rentier state are supplemented by institutions and mechanisms to ‘bring development’ to society. However, this vision of development privileges immediate compensation over ensuring long-term societal wellbeing in a broader sense. Also, as Orihuela and Thorp remark (2011), this is a conflict-ridden process given the nature of extractive rents, the distributive tensions created by resource- based development and widespread distrust of the state as a fair promoter of development.

Two sets of behaviors are evident in a rentier state pursuing a developmentalist path, which are derived from the dependency on extractive rents and the adoption of a paternalistic relationship with society. These are analyzed as follows.

Extractive rent-seeking pathway: coupling resource exploitation with development

Based on Collier (2010), Pablo Andrade claims that Ecuador has revived a rentier state—Gudynas (2016) would disagree but both authors start from different positions.9 I favor Andrade and characterize Ecuador as a rentier state. He presents a well-supported argument based on the proportion of state dependency on extractive rents and the legitimation of the government through redistributive policies of those rents (Andrade, 2013, 2015; Andrade, Ospina, & Larrea, 2012).

While tax collection has improved through the reinforcement of the SRI (Internal

Revenue Service), securing royalties and taxes from extractive activities has been

9 Based on Omeje (2008), Eduardo Gudynas (2016) argues that the progressive South American States are 'compensatory' but not rentier states because they are not authoritarian and they apply redistributive measures, unlike Omeje’s definition of rentier states.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 101 prioritized. An example of this is the new incorporation of anticipated royalties in oil and mining exploitation contracts.

To understand the forms in which the state-society-Nature relationship is modified by a rentier state requires examining the particularities of dependence on extractive rents. From a historical and political economy perspective, Andrade, Ospina and

Larrea (2012) have analyzed the convergence of an ‘unfinished’ process of state- building in Correa’s government in the context of the reemergence of Ecuador’s rentier state status. Their arguments are in line with Bebbington’s call to pay attention to the “political economy of subsurface natural resources” and Orihuela and Thorp’s analysis of the challenges of managing extractives (Bebbington, 2011, p. 3; Orihuela & Thorp, 2011). All these authors point out that as a consequence of the coupling of extractivism with development, the state is willing to accept trade- offs that end up eroding its relationship with society and strengthening alliances with foreign capital. The dependency on extractive rents stimulates particular rent- seeking behaviors. It

Induce[s] political behavior oriented towards capturing those rents rather

than governing well […] and the emergence of states whose primary pacts are

with extractive companies rather than their citizenries (Bebbington, 2011, p.

6)

In addition, this dependence also reinforces the ‘plunder of Nature’, borrowing

Shiva’s term (1997).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 102

According to Andrade (2015), governments have improved their capacities to manage extractive rents and distribute them to improve social conditions.

Nevertheless, this might be because revenues are abundant in times of prosperity, rather than the actual enhancement of those capacities. Since 2015, the decline of commodity prices and associated economic crises have been challenging the mechanisms for capturing and distributing extractive rents. Furthermore, in

Ecuador the ‘fight against corruption’ of current president Lenín Moreno unveils the lack of accountability in the management of public funds. The imprisonment of Jorge

Glas—Correa’s vice-president (2013-2017) and Moreno’s vice-president (2017-

2018) —due to his involvement in the Odebrecht scandal,10 offers insights into the corruption networks developed in the strategic sectors for development - he was their coordinator and supervisor. Nevertheless, Ecuador is not an exception. Schuldt

(2005) explains how rent- dependent states “achieve that the population does not demand transparency, justice, representation and efficiency in the expenditure [of public funds] from the government” through lower tax imposition on the population, in addition to the social benefits financed with the revenues from resource exploitation (cited in Acosta, 2011, p. 111).

Disciplining society: social organization and participation redefined

Three slogans used in electoral times, and repeated along Rafael Correa’s 10 years of government summarize how he aimed at portraying his government in relationship to society: “Mashi Rafael” (father Rafael in Kichwa language), “Dale

10 Odebrecht is a Brazilian construction company whose used bribes to secure multimillion dollar state contracts, as recent investigations have revealed. Government authorities throughout the Latin American region have been exposed and their corruption networks are currently under investigation.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 103

Correa” (whip them, see figure 18) and “Confíen en mi” (trust me). In Correa’s vision, he ‘knows best’ what society needs and the state should adopt a paternal role that guides, rewards and disciplines an immature society (P. Ospina, personal communication, September 6, 2016). Thus, the strengthening of and use of executive power to intervene in the other functions of the democratic system is justified and executed through the not-so-subtle control of legislative, judicial and electoral functions, including the newly created function of transparency and social control

(Acosta, 2013).

Source: Ecuador Noticias, July 23, 2017, https://www.ecuadornoticias.com/2017/07/ahora-es-cuando-se-viene-el- correazo.html?m=1

Figure 18: Dale Correa was the slogan used during the first presidential campaign of Rafael Correa in 2006. It implies the need to discipline the opposition and whoever ‘misbehaves’ by whipping them. In Spanish, the surname Correa also means belt.

The implications of this paternalistic role towards society are twofold. First, the state presents itself in a position of an “Exceptionalist State” (Andrade & Nicholls,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 104

2017). As such, it pretends to be ‘unique and irreplaceable', the only one with the authority, power and mechanisms to promote essential socioeconomic changes.

Decio Machado points out how detached that vision is from the real capacities of the state:

The illusion that the state can advance by itself a radical change in society

forgets that the state is no more than a form of social relationship rooted in

capitalist social relations, separating people from the control of their own

production conditions and at last, from their own lives (2013, p. 100).

This exceptionalism also entails that there is no room for challenging the “majesty of the authority” (Ospina, 2013b, p. 29). Correa exhibited contempt for social organization in general and governmental actions were directed towards dismantling trade unions and social organizations, threatening the dissolution of

NGOs and weakening social protest as a legitimate source of street politics (P.

Ospina, personal communication, September 6, 2016). There was a systematic project to deny social organizations a role in decision-making (Unda, 2013); instead, participation in Correa’s Revolución Ciudadana (Citizen’s Revolution) was distorted and limited to electoral processes (Andrade & Nicholls, 2017). But never before in

Ecuadorian history has the population voted and been consulted through referendums so often (Fitz-Henry & Rodríguez, forthcoming). This is what Conaghan and de la Torre (2008) call “plebiscitary democracy” in which the legitimacy of the government is confirmed through elections; thus, the former president campaigned throughout all his mandate (Machado, 2013). Correa’s electoral successes were taken as evidence of societal approval of his government. In addition, participation

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 105 has also been distorted to mean “social inclusion of marginal groups as co- beneficiaries through systems of compensation” (De Castro et al., 2015, p. 33). In other words, the poorest ‘participate’ by becoming beneficiaries of the CCTs and social programs.

Second, control of society is implemented through a disciplinary regime aiming at normalizing, disciplining and commanding society (Ospina, 2013b; Unda, 2013).

According to Pablo Ospina, normalization is conceived in a way that

Adjusts the citizenry to the behavior expected from them. Society obeys for fear

of punishment and as consequence of the continuous oversight from the State.

[But also] there is a contradictory position in the population towards this

disciplining project. There are sectors that resist, especially social organizations.

But there is also support of rule from the population. Faced with too much

disorder […] and corruption [in previous regimes], the actual system is a step

forward to modernization (personal communication, September 6, 2016).

This tolerance of authoritarian features is also related to the practices of a compensatory state, where the state is legitimized due to its ability to provide for society (Acosta, 2013; Andrade, 2013; Machado, 2013). Analyzing the sectors that benefited the most from neoextractivism, Dávalos (2013) notes that the praised socioeconomic improvements praised in Correa’s government are mostly associated with an increase in consumerism. Gudynas (2016) identifies the same tendency in all compensatory states: an increase in consumption is equated with an improvement of wellbeing. This mostly benefits the middle-classes, justifying their

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 106 passive acceptance of the neoextractivist development project, with the unintended result of the submission of society as a disciplined subject and a society of beneficiaries (Dávalos, 2013; Ospina, 2013b; Svampa, 2012b).

In the following section, the second component of neoextractivism is explained. In order to ensure greater participation in the benefits from Nature’s exploitation and the redistribution of those rents, the state has also needed to regain command over natural resources, to establish direct negotiations with extractive companies and to reconfigure its relationship with society. These aims are achieved through the post- neoliberal resource governance model analyzed below.

Post-neoliberal resource governance

Andrade (2013, 2015) argues that the Ecuadorian state has implemented a “model of post-neoliberal natural resource governance” appropriate to its status of a rentier state, whose priority is to secure access to rents and therefore, the reproduction of the activities it can profit from. Rents obtained from resource exploitation are prioritized, “this is explained by how relatively easy it is to take advantage of the generous Nature, without deepening in complex social and political processes for redistribution [of wealth]” (Acosta, 2011, p. 103). The 2018 Constitution already supports the state’s ownership or control over non-renewable natural resources, deemed to be strategic (Article 313). The resource governance model is designed to regulate the interactions between the state, the extractive companies and civil

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 107 society, and decision-making over access to, control of and profitability from resource extraction (Andrade, 2015).

Andrade (2015) suggests the post-neoliberal natural resource governance model can be understood as a three-layered model composed by a core, which governs resource extraction and the appropriation of extractive rents; a semi periphery that governs the redistribution of rents, compensation to the areas of influence of the projects and environmental management; and a periphery that governs the relationships state-society-Nature in general. The latter is defined by Andrade as the

“ideological or cultural layer” (2015, p. 163). It offers space of maneuver for socio- environmental movements and civil society, because it is more participatory and open to discussion over the relationships between society and Nature. The permeability of the other layers to societal concerns is constrained because of the power structures that the model configures.

The set of rules of natural resource governance aims at blocking the attempts

to compromise mineral extractive rents […] the peripheral level is radically

democratic, the semi periphery is susceptible of democratization and the core

is frankly authoritarian (Andrade, 2015, p. 144, own translation).

This model also regulates the conversion of extractive rents into development through a compensatory mechanism. On one hand, redistribution of rents is implemented through CCT’s called Bono de desarrollo humano (BDH) of USD 50, possibly increasing to USD 150 in 2018 under specific conditions. According to the

Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion, 411,748 people are beneficiaries of the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 108 bono. On the other hand, rents are redistributed through investments in health, education and water and sanitation infrastructure, executed by Ecuador Estratégico.

This is the public company created in 2011 to invest the revenues of strategic projects—oil extraction, mining and hydropower—in the areas of direct influence of the projects. It was previously explained how this compensatory approach impacts the relationships between the state and society redefining participation and disciplining society.

Discussion: The paradoxes of an extractive rent-dependent state

In this section I argue that the neoextractivist pathway of an extractive rent-seeking state with disciplining tendencies towards society sets in motion three interrelated conflictive relationships between extractive companies, society and Nature. These are what I call paradoxical state-society-Nature relationships derived from neoextractivism, under the particular conditions created by the Ecuadorian State.

Paradox 1: The generation of extractive rents depends on negotiations with the extractive industry sector

Discourses about sovereignty and defense of the national interest were initially used to justify the nationalization of resources in Venezuela and Bolivia, and in Ecuador they are used to allow exploitation in protected areas, intangible zones and indigenous and community territories (Perreault & Valdivia, 2010). Article 407 of the 2018 Political Constitution included an exception. It was applied to approve the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 109 exploitation of the Yasuní ITT oil blocks (Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini), located in the Yasuní National Park, which is also territory of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. The ITT case by itself, exemplifies the contradictions of a resource-led economy under a regime that initially proposed a development model in harmony with Nature (Pellegrini, Arsel, Falconí, & Muradian, 2014).

To foster the mining sector, the government designated strategic sectors for development under the exclusive command of the state (Political Constitution,

Article 313). Nevertheless, these nationalist positions are weakened by assigning the exploitation of these sensitive and conflictive projects to foreign companies under privileged conditions (Isch, 2013). In the mining and agribusiness sectors, foreign capital and extractivism are privileged as opposed to small-scale and artisanal production from which the government cannot profit because of its informality or scale (Hidalgo, 2013; P. Ospina, personal communication, September

6, 2016). This has been supported by government discourses praising the cutting- edge technology with high environmental standards that only foreign investments can fund, and the efficiency and productivity of large-scale endeavors (INVMINEC, personal communication, September 5, 2016; Isch, 2013).

The declared pursuit of the national interest raises additional contradictions when the dependency on extractive rents, especially in current times of low commodity prices, obliges the state to negotiate environmental regulations and offer tax incentives to attract foreign investments in the extractive sector. These are included in the Organic Law on Incentives for Public-Private Associations and Foreign

Investment and its Regulation (in force since 2015 and 2016 respectively), the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 110

General Regulation to the Mining Law (in force since 2009 and reformed in 2015) and the Organic Law of Internal Tax Regime (LORTI, reformed in 2015). According to political scientist Carlos Larrea,

It is a business of self-mutilation if to attract the companies we reduce the

participation of the state…We will profit less and [also] we do not have good

reserves. We are a marginal producer, which means that we do not have

comparative advantages [in the mining sector] (personal communication,

August 17, 2016).

An example is the concessions given for the exploitation of the Fruta del Norte gold mining project owned by the Canadian company Lundin Gold, which is now used as a benchmark for negotiations with other Canadian companies like INV Metals as it negotiates its Loma Larga gold mining project in Azuay (J. Moore, M. Quizhpe, personal communications, May 24, 2016).11

In the last instance, the government maintains an illusion of controlling the extractive sector whilst in reality, it is in the companies’ interest to maintain good relationships with it to expand the extractive frontier, to make incursions into territories where mining would otherwise be prohibited by law, or where opposition to mining needs to be contained (Dávalos, 2013; Martínez, 2013).

11 The agreed terms for the exploitation of the Loma Larga project can be read at https://www.invmetals.com/news/inv-metals-and-the-government-of-ecuador-agree-to-terms- of-exploitation-agreement/

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 111

Having ex-president Correa as the main spokesperson of extractive companies also erodes the legitimacy of the state at the local level. Rural territories, where the extractive projects are commonly located, are incorporated into the dynamics of global capital but the government shows more commitment to support these projects ‘at any cost’ more than fulfilling its obligation with the inhabitants that are potentially affected (Dávalos, 2013). This task falls to the companies that direct the relationship between communities and the state—which at the local level is represented by the Decentralized Autonomous Governments (GADs). The companies assume the role of a corporate “citizen with rights and obligations within the communities” and their social programs are aligned with the governmental aim of bringing development to the areas of influence of the projects (INVMINEC Social

Responsibility Manager, personal communication, September 5, 2016). It worth questioning how power structures are reconfigured around these Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) practices, and how the relationships of the government with those mostly rural inhabitants are modified by the involvement of the extractive companies as another community actor in the context of neoextractivism.

Paradox 2: Social control depends on the capacity of the state to redistribute extractive rents

There are four aspects of the state-society relationship under the neoextractivist model: a detachment from society, the disciplinary regime, redefinition of participation, and the compensatory approach. Their interplay is paradoxical because in the aim of exercising greater control of society, the legitimacy of the neoextractivist project and of the government itself lies in the capacity of the state

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 112 to redistribute the extractive rents generated. Therefore, the need to ensure extractive rents becomes a pressing issue not only for sustaining the extractivist neo-developmentalist project but also for insuring social control.

There is a vision here that the state imposes its will over society, rather than being rooted in it. In the aim of concentrating power,

The state has reconfigured its way of exercising authority. [Currently,] it is the

individual through his vote and not the organized society the counterpart of

the state in the process of decision-making over policies of economic

transformation (Andrade & Nicholls, 2017, p. 16).

Ironically, the success of Rafael Correa's run for president in 2006 was sustained in the support given by indigenous and environmental social movements that believed in the spaces of political participation offered by a new government that claimed to be revolutionary and participatory. Correa ended up fighting some of these social groups that had backed his campaign in 2006.

Currently, the Alianza País ruling party lacks power as a political force independent from the figure of its former leader. The government ignores the synergies needed between society and the state to promote the structural changes it once offered in the social and economic realms and instead, it tends to simply control and discipline society. But this is not only a consequence of the paternalistic style of government of Rafael Correa but it is also related to the rentier status of the state and its compensatory approach. There are two main strategies used as tools of social

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 113 control in the Citizen’s Revolution: extended social policies or compensations and dismantling of social organizations.

The compensatory state

CCTs and social policies have expanded patron-client relationships and guaranteed electoral support from the poorest members of society (Machado, 2013). They have also contributed to the erosion of the internal cohesion of indigenous communities, with greater numbers of beneficiaries from the BDH (Ávila, 2013; Ospina, 2011a).

But the neoextractivist discourse is also important here. Pablo Dávalos explains that

For the first time in decades, a government articulates in the same discourse

the rescue of national sovereignty, redistribution of income, and social justice

[as purposes of] oil extractive rents […]. The novelty of the discourse is that it

allows to translate the extractive rent into a social and political strategy that

allows […] to generate consensus over extractivism as an ineludible need for

development and equity (2013, p. 192).

However, the discourse is misleading because as Dávalos says, one of the “fallacies of the extractivist discourse” is that in practice, oil rents were not primarily destined to finance development and to improve the conditions of the poorest. Instead, extractive rents financed consumerism for the middle classes and the illusion of wellbeing mainly through the maintenance of subsidies—as the gas and petrol subsidies—that benefits this class more than the poorest (Dávalos, 2013). It is understandable then that among these mostly urban citizens the neoextractivist discourse has achieved consensus. In consequence, these urban beneficiaries are

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 114 willing to passively accept the sacrifice of rural territories, where the projects are located, for the ‘national good’ (Svampa, 2012a). Both client-patron relationships and consumerism focus on individual wellbeing—liberal individualism— discouraging solidarity and collective action (Acosta, 2013).

Discouragement of social organization

Ospina believes that the true nature of Rafael Correa’s animosity towards social movements “is not doctrinaire but political […]. The government is simply not willing to negotiate either power or its project with any social organized group”

(2011b, p. 142). In consequence, social organizations and NGOs that challenge exclusive governmental authority and centralized decision-making are constantly threatened and prosecuted, generating a process of self-censorship to avoid their persecution and closure (Cuvi, 2013; Machado, 2013; Unda, 2013). But not only are existing organizations discouraged; there is also an ongoing process to eliminate the incentives for further association and representation (Ospina, 2013a; Unda, 2013); and new organizations, aligned to the state vision, have been created to fill the void left by those that were dissolved (Vega, 2013).

The obvious question is what will happen when the basis of government power— its capacity to control society through fear but mostly via rewards—faces the reduction of extractive rents in a macro economic context of dependency on global markets and a micro economic reality characterized by an unsuccessful change of the productive matrix and a possible transition to a post extractive economy?

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 115

Paradox 3: The reproduction of extractive rents from the exploitation of

Nature is constrained by socionatural limits and those who are aware of these limits are marginalized from decision-making

Indigenous and peasant communities aware of their interdependencies with Nature have always warned against the illusion of unlimited growth, based on non- renewable resources. They have aimed at “respecting the rhythms and cycles of

Nature” and nowadays, scientific studies back them up (A. Acosta, personal communication, August 17, 2016). The deepening of extractivism not only revives that illusion but also tends to marginalize local voices that stand up for Nature.

If Nature protests, the communities also protest. If Nature is not silent, the

communities are not silent either, and they react and they talk and they demand

changes (A. Acosta, personal communication, August 17, 2016).

The intensification of social conflict associated with neoextractivism derives from the expansion of the mining frontier into fragile and strategic socio-ecosystems. The new projects are located in peasant and indigenous territories, biodiversity hotspots, and in aquifers and catchments, in the case of gold mining projects

(Martínez, 2013). But conflict is also exacerbated by the increased intervention of the governments that depend on extractive rents. If in the past local communities struggled with foreign extractive companies, currently they face the state, whose interests have aligned with corporations.

The contentious relationship between the government and coalitions of local communities and socio-environmental movements is derived on one hand from

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 116 their demands for participation in environmental decision-making, which challenge the state’s exclusive authority over Nature; and on the other hand, from their critiques of the discourses used to legitimize resource extraction. As a consequence, socio-environmental movements demand a rupture with the extractivist model that the state has already defined as a non-negotiable rent-seeking pathway, which also justifies the criminalization of social protest, the marginalization from decision- making and the privileged position of extractive companies in the communities, all in the pursue of the ‘national interest’. The post-neoliberal resource governance model explained above is also instrumental to those aims.

The concern is that the government interprets those demands as threats to its source of extractive rents when in general, they reflect legitimate concerns over socio-ecological justice (Gudynas, 2016). This opposition also points out the narrow understanding of the impacts of extractivism in socionatural territories and the inadequate praise of cutting-edge technology as the solution to manage them.

Peasant farmers and indigenous communities

Are the core [group] that are most fearful, and with reason from worldwide

experiences and their own, that they will become the casualties of development.

It is an authentic worry because they are dedicated to something that is not

compatible with mining (P. Ospina, personal communication, September 6,

2016).

Communities and socio-environmental movements demanding fairness for Nature and people have encountered many obstacles to making their voices heard. The

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 117 state is associated with extractive companies and intervenes to appease resistance.

It has even criminalized the communities’ traditional ways of expressing dissent: mobilization and demonstrations.

Social mobilization is in practice, the only effective way of participation for

multiple social sectors, the citizenry and its social representations. Without

mobilization, these sectors are left without effective mechanisms to intervene

in the issues from which they historically have been marginalized (Machado,

2013, p. 98).

Despite traditions and history of struggles in the streets, the Ecuadorian government has coopted mobilization by misunderstanding a legitimate tool of citizen participation. Social protest is now disproportionally associated with sabotage and terrorism (Ospina, 2011b). Defenders of Nature have been imprisoned or face prosecution and are labeled as obstacles for progress by the government

(Dávalos, 2013; Martínez, 2013) “This shows that extractivism requires institutionalized violence to appease the resistance of the peoples” (Isch, 2013, p.

168).

The declaration of extractivism as a matter of national interest has also led the state to favor extractive companies over the citizenry. Esperanza Martínez (2013) explains in detail how Presidential Decrees have been used to ease the incursion of the companies. For instance, the figure of local consultations was altered to interpret it as a process of participation, which in practice entails only informing the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 118 communities about the projects (Art. 1, Presidential Decree 1040, 2008). This disempowers the local communities to oppose the projects in their territories.

Alluding to Andrade’s model of post-neoliberal resource governance, a final question is how legitimate concerns over the expanded impacts of extractivism can permeate the core where decision-making over extractivism is centralized? If protest is silenced, consultation processes favor the extractive companies and the solidarity with rural struggles is eroded by the neoextractivist model and its discourse, there seems to be very little space for this endeavor.

Implications for further theorization of resource governance

Analyzed through the lens of environmental governance, the Ecuadorian experience sheds lights to further theorization of post-neoliberal resource governance. This chapter has contributed to these debates.

Beyond ideological tendencies, post-neoliberal governments in the Latin American region coincide in the exploitation of natural resources as engines for development–

–neo-extractivism. Thus, more fruitful debates could focus on how governance is exercised through Nature (Bridge & Perreault, 2009). Such analyses require focusing on the entanglement of development and socio-economic and environmental policies, despite government discourses avoiding these connections.

Progressive governments in Latin America will insist in separating environmental management from the accumulation model. This distinction justifies the discourse of [neo]extractivism as a “technical system for processing nature” (Bolivian vice-

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 119 president Álvaro García Linera, cited in Lander, 2014, p. 8), which is instrumental in exalting it as a poverty-reduction strategy without deepening the implications for governance. On one hand, attention is directed towards the benefits of “using science, technology and industry to generate wealth” (García Linera, cited in Lander,

2014, p. 7) , displacing debates over the costs of pursuing development through the indiscriminate exploitation of Nature. On the other hand, [neo]extractivism is differentiated as a socio-economic matter to pursue the ‘national interest’, and as technical matter assigned to be managed by the extractive companies ensure the command of the state over natural resources, constraining the participation of civil society in decision making. After all, according to ex-president Rafael Correa opposition groups just “politicize issues that are technical and fundamental for development” (weekly report to the nation Enlace Ciudadano No. 262, March 10,

2012).

Another mechanism of ‘governance through Nature’ is the redefinition of participation. In Ecuador, environmental regulations were the first in requiring that communities potentially affected by projects prone to generating socio- environmental impacts have a say in the projects developed in their localities. This was defined as “citizen participation in environmental management” in the Unified

Text of Environmental Legislation (TULAS), with the purpose of incorporating the views of local communities “whenever technically and economically viable” to minimize and/or compensate those impacts, ruled by principles of legitimacy and representation (Art. 20, Book VI of Environmental Quality, Ministry of Environment,

2003). The 2008 Constitution recognizes as an environmental principle the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 120 participation of communities affected by any activity that generates environmental impacts (Art. 395) and establishes “prior consultation” and “citizen participation” as obligatory consultation, and information to the communities over state decisions that can affect the environment (Art. 398).

Nevertheless, further legal developments modified participation in two senses: participation as information and participation as compensation. Firstly, the regulation for the mechanisms of social participation in environmental management redefined social participation as “the mechanisms to introduce [emphasis added] to an affected/interested community the projects that may entail environmental risk, as well as their studies of impacts, possible mitigation measures and environmental management plans” (Article 1). Secondly, for the first time the concept of compensation articulated to social participation emerges (De Castro, Hogenboom,

& Baud, 2015). Article 21 states that

The resolutions or consensus that could emerge from the process of social

participation […] could include mechanisms of socio-environmental

compensation [emphasis added], which should refer with priority to the areas

of education and health […] coordinated with the local development plans

(Presidential Decree 1040, 2008).

These modifications exhibit a legal constraint on the obligatory enforcement of the

Constitutional requirement of citizens’ consultation facing extractive projects that might impact their communities to ease the implementation of the projects (Acosta

& Hurtado, 2016; Martínez, 2013; Ospina, 2013). At the same time, new policies and

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 121 laws were developed aiming at linking extractive rents, development and the territories where natural resources were located, defined as the first beneficiaries of economic compensation. This was especially done through the redistributive polices that aim at compensating the inhabitants of the surrounding areas of the projects.

The role assumed by Ecuador Estratégico (EE) is fundamental to this aim for

“equitable redistribution of the revenues generated from the responsible and sustainable exploitation of the natural resources” (Ecuador Estratégico, 2017, p. 14) and to “bring development closer to the citizens [emphasis added] through the execution of programs and projects to provide infrastructure, equipment and services to the zones in whose territories non-renewable resources are located”

(Presidential Decree 870, 2011).

Before the creation of EE the extractive companies were already establishing relationships with the communities that host the projects, as a product of corporate practices of social responsibility (CSR). These, as explained above, have also been expanded by the commitment [by who] to bringing development to their communities of influence. The expansion of ‘agents of development’ and the redefinition of participation as compensation need to be explored more in the literature on post-neoliberalism. This is because of the linkages that 'extractivism for development' creates between territories where resources are located, strengthened states, extractive industries and the ‘first beneficiaries of development.’ The latter can soon become the ‘casualties of development’ if the full costs of extraction are taken into account.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 122

To summarize, among the characteristics of post-neoliberal resource governance are: 1) the resurgence of the developmentalist state, dependent on the strong states/extractive industry synergy to appease opposition to the strategic projects and link extraction with development (Moore & Velásquez, 2011; van Teijlingen,

2016); 2) reinforcement of “uneven territoriality of resource extraction” in terms of asymmetrical distribution of costs and benefits, even with implementation of

‘development as compensation’ (Fitz-Henry & Rodríguez, forthcoming; Riofrancos,

2017, p. 682); 3) constrained space for opposition and participation of civil society, despite political constitutions granting rights to Nature to be defended and rights to be consulted in matters of resource exploitation in indigenous and community territories 12 (Burchardt, 2017; Lalander & Merimaa, 2018); and, 4) absence of political will to reinvent and diversify the national economy by searching for alternatives less reliant on resource exploitation. In Ecuador at least, there are no structural barriers to a more rapid transit to a post-extractive economy, just lack of

“imagination or a huge international pressure to pay foreign debts” using natural resources (C. Larrea, P. Ospina, personal communications).

12 In this point I disagree with Yates & Bakker, who define one of the aims of post-neoliberalism as “reviving citizenship via a new politics of participation and alliances across sociocultural sectors and groups” (2014, p. 64). Ethnographic studies have provided evidence that in terms of resource governance, the deepening of extractivism is on the contrary, associated with limited participation or redefined participation as I explain in this chapter. Riofrancos (2017) and Conaghan and de la Torre (2008) also interpret participation in this context as a mere technocratic and legitimizing exercise.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 123

Conclusion

This chapter offers more questions than answers. The aim, however, has been to critically assemble the different pieces of the puzzle of neoextractivism concerning the relationships of the state with society and Nature. I looked closely at how power structures are modified by the incorporation of extractive industries as powerful actors linked to global markets and at the highly paradoxical behaviors that dependency on extractive rents induce in the government.

Prosperity and abundance of resources supported a government with authoritarian features, and high commodity prices attracted the interests of foreign investors that in Ecuador were willing to work in conflictive areas and negotiate exploitation conditions. In addition, consumerism was boosted among a part of the population that did not demand transparency in the management of funds, nor socio-ecological justice and rigorous environmental regulations. In times of crisis, the conditions are diametrically opposed.

Lower commodity prices imply fewer incentives for extractive companies to cope with costs associated to appeasing resistance in the territories of influence of their projects, and to support local development. For instance, INV Metals, a Canadian company that owns the Loma Larga gold mining project in the southern Ecuadorian highlands [see chapter 5], has already reduced its budget for social responsibility programs but tries to remain in the community by optimizing its limited resources.

The favorable position of the government in the negotiation of mining contracts is eroded when it is not that profitable for companies and so they are less willing to

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 124 comply. This means lowered or no standards and fewer royalties for the government. In consequence, the government is forced to cede and offer more attractive conditions despite the rhetoric of the defense of the national interest, giving priority to the ‘need’ for those resources. This is the case for negotiations over its gold mine in the province of Zamora Chinchipe, where Lundin Gold obtained a more convenient deal.

Socioeconomic improvements resulting from the redistribution of extractive rents also prove to be unsustainable in contexts of low commodity prices. The Ecuadorian economy has lost its dynamism, supported by an increase in levels of consumption and public expenditure—sustained mostly on debt—and currently austerity measures are being implemented. Coincidentally, the massive support to former president Rafael Correa and the Alianza País party has fallen. An example of this is

Correa’s unsuccessful campaign to vote No in a referendum proposed in February this year by his successor Lenín Moreno, which aimed at consulting the population on 7 different issues including the indefinite reelection of authorities. Differences between Correa and Moreno have fragmented support for Alianza País and now even former correístas (followers of Rafael Correa and his political project) are demanding greater accountability and the disclosure of the corruption networks involving the closest circle of Correa’s collaborators.

To conclude, in the pathway towards neoextractivism, ‘the casualties of development’—borrowing Ospina’s phrase—for Ecuador have been an economy that was not diversified when resources were abundant to make investments in post extractive alternatives, a self-censored civil society whose ability to mobilize has

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 125 been coopted by fear and prosecution, a citizenry with a high tolerance for corruption because there were visible investments in roads, health and education centers, and rural communities that fear the loss of their lifeways and suffer profound wounds to their socionatural territories.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 126

Chapter 4: Socionatural construction of a socio-ecosystem: The

páramo of Kimsakocha

Abstract

Páramos—neotropical wetlands ecosystems located at high altitude in the Andes— are territories where different uses, meanings and relationships are in constant interplay, generating particular socionatural configurations. These reproduce the values, interests and worldviews of different actors interacting in these socionatural spaces. This chapter adopts a historical and scientific perspective to elucidate how the present day páramo of Kimsakocha has been constructed across space and time.

Understanding the diverse interactions that co-produce this socio-ecosystem, without ignoring the role of power relations, is crucial to understand the processes that unfold when new actors emerge proposing diverse and sometimes overlapping territorial projects. Specifically, chapter 5 explores the implications of the incursion of mining in the páramo through the concept of hydrosocial territories.

Keywords

Political ecology, socio-ecosystems, socionatures, páramo, Latin America, mining

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 127

Introduction

It is in rural areas where the configuration of socionatural spaces is most clearly illustrated. In Nature, there is nothing purely natural or social (Whatmore, 2002).

Nature and rural societies interact at a daily basis and peasant lifeworlds are produced through working the land. Here, we see the “framework of the relationships between Nature, society and culture because men as a social being respond to Nature, and build through labor an own universe, in which Nature is transformed in a cultural world” (Moreno, 1996, p. 21, own translation)

Páramos, which are high altitude wetland ecosystems that sustain agro-pastoral livelihoods, contribute to the construction of the lifeworlds of peasant Andean communities but at the same time, are produced by those interdependencies. This claim is explained in the third section of this chapter that discusses the scientific approaches to understand the páramo ecosystem, or more accurately, the páramo socio-ecosystem (Hofstede et al., 2014). Nevertheless, certain patterns among these interdependencies have also been produced by historical processes. Three moments can be characterized as drivers of major changes in the interactions between páramos and society, namely the conquest of the Incas, which subsumed aboriginal

Cañari people (XV century), the Spanish conquest and colonization (XVI century) and independence from Spain (XIX century). This is explained in the fourth section of the chapter, showing that the ecological, cultural and socioeconomic realms are always entwined. Physical changes of the páramo landscape are entangled with the patterns of occupation of the territory, social organization and resource

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 128 exploitation. A political ecology view of the configuration of socionatures allows the comprehension of these entanglements.

Political ecology of socionatures

The vision of a society separated from Nature has been highly contested in the study of human-Nature interactions (Latour, 1993). According to principles of ecological solidarity or ecological interdependence, there is in fact a natural interdependence between society and the environment, in which every component of the system interacts with the others, and with human beings as part of the system, not dominating it (Mathevet et al., 2010; Thompson et al., 2011). But this relationship is not only biophysical; it is cultural, emotional, social and economic. Furthermore, humans and Nature do not only interact with each other; they are interdependent.

Geographical research, drawing on relational ontologies, has argued that the natural and the social cannot be detached from each other (Castree, 2001; Whatmore,

2002). They are indivisible and in constant interaction, co-producing socionatures

(Braun, 2004; Castree, 2001; Haraway, 1991; Latour, 1993; Lefebvre, 1991; N.

Smith, 1984; Swyngedouw, 1999; D. F. White, 2006). Therefore, “existing socionatural conditions are always the result of intricate transformations of preexisting configurations that are themselves inherently natural and social”

(Swyngedouw, 1999, p. 445).

Nevertheless, this continuous production of socionatures determines and is determined by economic and political trade-offs, thus, apolitical approaches to their analysis are insufficient. A political ecology (PE) approach to the study of

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 129 socionatures has exposed the ‘politicization’ of the co-production of society and

Nature. In water-related research, PE understands water as co-produced and political, not simply as an object of contestation, but instead as the means through which politics are played out, internalized, reproduced and through which interests are pursued (Bear & Bull, 2011; Budds & Sultana, 2013; Perreault, 2014). Hybrid concepts like waterscapes (Swyngedouw, 1999) and the hydrosocial cycle (Linton

& Budds, 2014) have been developed to understand the socionatural processes of co-production of water and society as contested, embedded in asymmetrical power relations, and involving different water ontologies (Acharya, 2015; Budds &

Hinojosa, 2012; Boelens, 2014; Palmer, 2015; Swyngedouw, 2004).

Research on Andean páramos has advanced in the understanding of these socionatural spaces as co-produced by the interaction with society (Hofstede et al.,

2014; S. White, 2013); thus, Hofstede et al. refer to páramos as “socio-ecosystems”

(2014, p. 44). However, the politicization of this co-production has been less explored with the exception of Manosalvas (2014), who advocates for a comprehension of páramos as ‘hydrosocial territories’ in order to govern and manage them through public policies that acknowledge the plural uses of and relations with the páramo. The aim of this chapter is to address this gap. To this purpose, through a political ecology lens I compile and revise the usual perspectives used to the analysis of páramo socio-ecosystems, namely scientific and historical perspectives. In the following section I show how major changes in the interactions of páramos and Andean societies cannot be fully understood without being attentive

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 130 to the contested power structures that support the reconfiguration of territories and the relationships within them.

Páramos as socio-ecosystems: Scientific and historical perspectives

The páramo is the ecosystem of paradoxes: it is located very high, nevertheless, its biodiversity is amazing; it is really cold, notwithstanding, the sun up there reddens the skin in minutes; it is in certain ways very rich, but it is inhabited by some of the poorest people in the country; it is tremendously important, but few people know and appreciate it (Mena, 2010, p. 97, own translation)

The Scientific perspective

I do not assume that scientific and technical knowledge is neutral or apolitical. It is not value-free and it is selectively interpreted and used by various actors (Bryant,

1998; Budds, 2009; Cortner, 2000; Forsyth, 2003; Linton, 2008). However, understanding it is a starting point for unraveling the interdependencies between mostly peasant communities and the páramo.

Páramos are socionatural, rather than natural, wild places. These wetlands ecosystems located at great altitude—3,200 to 4,500 meters above sea level

(m.a.s.l)13—in the tropical Andes from Costa Rica to Peru, are commonly perceived

13 The altitudinal limits of páramo vary according to the particularities of each country. In Ecuador, according to Hofstede, Segarra and Mena (2003), the páramos located above parallel 3 latitude south are located over 3.500 m.a.s.l. and the ones below, over the 3.000 m.a.s.l. The páramo of Kimsakocha is located at 3°02 S latitude and 3.780 m.a.s.l. altitude (S. White, 2014, p. 901).

′

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 131 to be inhospitable given their coldness and remoteness. On the contrary, evidence suggests that since their origin páramos have been closely associated with humans.

A point of debate among scientists is whether páramos are ‘natural’ ecosystems or created by humans.

On one hand, the definition of what páramos are, based on altitudinal criteria, suggests that these grassland ecosystems are products of the climate conditions in tropical zones where it is too cold for forest to develop (Hofstede et al., 2003). Stuart

White (2013) explains that this definition—what he calls the ‘zonal paradigm’— dates to Alexander von Humboldt, who concluded after primary observation in the

Andes that their alpine grass vegetation is linked to altitude (von Humboldt &

Bonpland, 2009 [1807], cited in S. White, 2013), and defined páramos as the vegetation zones located between the Andean forest and the perpetual snows

(Buytaert et al., 2006; Carpio et al., 2010; Cuesta et al., 2013; Hofstede et al., 2003;

Llambí et al., 2012). This definition acknowledges páramos as natural or primary vegetation that developed before human colonization (Cuesta et al., 2013). Figure

19 shows the landscapes of tussock grass páramo.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 132

Figure 19: Tussocks and cushion plants in the páramo of Kimsakocha, located approximately at two-hours drive from Cuenca.

On the other hand, others see páramos “not [as a] zonal vegetation, but rather a hunter-gatherer landscape” (S. White, 2013, p. 898). Based on recent scientific research combined with the study of human presence in the páramo, this paradigm argues that grasslands ecosystems were created by the use of periodic fire by early hunter-gatherer societies, characterized by taming and modifying their landscapes for survival. Stuart White (2013) warns of the risks of using this evidence to characterize páramos as secondary or forest replacement vegetation, but proposes that páramos are productive zones and have vegetation that co-evolved with societies.

In addition, Hofstede et al. present an argument that reconciles both visions. Based on studies conducted in Ecuador, they suggest that over the 3.600 m.a.s.l. páramo is

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 133 a natural undisturbed ecosystem, and below this altitudinal limit, it is feasible that a process of “paramización" occurred. In other words, a process in which páramos have been produced by anthropic intervention through the use of fire and deforestation of the upper montane vegetation (2014; pp. 35-36).

I use White's (2013) analysis giving priority to understanding the interdependence of society and páramos and emphasizing the importance of water and power structures in this co-production. Similarly, Mena and Hofstede (2006) claim that páramos are not conventional ecosystems but instead, they are product of human history, exhibiting indeed, a process of co-production of socionatures, namely socio- ecosystems (Hofstede et al., 2014, p. 44) and hydrosocial territories (Manosalvas,

2014, p. 208).

Scientific research on páramos generally adopts an ecosystem approach in which societies are integral parts of existing ecosystems. The analysis of the four basic ecosystem services or Nature’s gifts provided by páramo highlights the myriad ways in which Andean societies are interdependent with páramos. 14 These include: water storage and regulation, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation and cultural landscape or spaces of life (Hofstede, 2003, Buytaert et al., 2006; Manosalvas, 2014).

Firstly, commonly perceived as ‘producers’ of water, páramos actually store water and regulate its flow. This hydrologic function is enabled by particular interactions between páramo soils, climate, vegetation and topography;

14 Ecosystem services are commonly associated with monetary valuation of Nature. To overcome that association, I prefer the term ‘Nature’s gifts’ to refer to ecosystem services in a non-commodifying way.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 134

i) Volcanic eruptions were key for the formation of páramo soils, known as

andisols or andosols (Hofstede et al., 2014). A high content of organic

matter, lightness and porous structure allow these volcanic soils to act as

sponges capable of storing twice as their weight in water retained from

precipitation and fog (Buytaert et al., 2006; Mena, 2010). As a

consequence, surface runoff is very limited and water is slowly and

permanently released into rivers and creeks born in these uplands

(Buytaert et al., 2006; Hofstede et al., 2003).

ii) The properties of andosols are maintained due to the humid and cold

weather, as well as low atmospheric pressure, which permit the

accumulation and restricted decomposition of organic matter (Buytaert

et al., 2006; Hofstede et al., 2014).

iii) The effects of high solar radiation at altitude are controlled by the páramo

grasslands, which protect the soils from desiccation and have a minimal

consumption of water and low evapotranspiration (Buytaert et al., 2006;

Hofstede et al., 2014).

iv) And the irregular topography of páramos is characterized by depressions

that allow the formation of lakes that characterize páramo landscapes

(Buytaert et al., 2006) (see Figure 20).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 135

Figure 20: Páramo landscape in Kimskocha located at 3,780 meters above sea level.

Secondly, the composition of andosols assigns them a role in mitigating climate change. Páramos are important carbon reservoirs because they accumulate organic matter—half of which is atmospheric carbon—in their deep soils, which barely decompose if weather conditions are maintained (Hofstede et al., 2014; G. Chacón, personal communication, March 15, 2016). Thirdly páramos are biodiversity hotspots given their high endemism (Beltrán, 2009; Cuesta et al. 2013; Mena, 2010).

It is estimated that 6 out of 10 species of flora are only present in these alpine neotropical grasslands (Luteyn, 1999 cited in Josse, Mena & Medina 2000). Finally, páramos are active cultural landscapes (Carpio, Maldonado, Mena, & Rodríguez,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 136

2006; Flores et al., 2012; Mena, 2010, Mena et al., 2008; Ortiz & Viteri, 2002; Pérez,

2012). They are spaces for the socioeconomic, cultural and identity development of

Andean societies that sustain thousands of urban and rural drinking water systems and irrigation networks, as well as peasant livelihoods and traditional practices

(Yasunidos, M. Quizhpe, personal communication, June 4, 2016; Armijos, 2015).

The functions fulfilled by páramos show how critical the ecosystem is and why it depends on appropriate management. Any disturbance may result in the loss of the properties that allow the provision of ecosystem services. Nevertheless, páramos have not developed in isolation from society, and social forces also shape a functional páramo. “It would be more fruitful to think of humans as biotic factors– part of the original páramo ecology and necessary to its function” (S. White, 2013, p.

910). Páramos are a vital part of the productive and cultural lives of the Andean population (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede et al., 2003; Mena, 2010). Thus, páramo and society have been co-produced by their multiple interactions in space and time and should be analyzed in conjunction. The following section unravels the “historical- geographical relations and processes“ of the co-production of the páramo of

Kimsakocha, introduced in chapter 1 (Swyngedouw, 1999, p. 445).

Historical perspective on the co-production of the páramo of Kimsakocha

There is evidence that the páramo has had an interaction with

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 137

society since the beginning of the occupation of the [American] continent by the human species (Hofstede et al., 2014, p. 44, own translation)

The present day territory of Kimsakocha in the province of Azuay is the result of

15,000 years of an indigenous past; 80 years of Inca domination, which subsumed aboriginal Cañari people (XV century); three centuries of Hispanic invasion and colonization (XVI century); and approximately two centuries of Republic life since independence from Spain (XIX century) (Cordero, 2007). In these historical periods the relationships between humans and Nature, land and property access, and social and power relations were strongly modified. Interestingly, a common feature in each of those phases is the modification of the interactions between the inhabitants and the páramo, and of the values, uses and meanings of the páramo by the incorporation of new actors who did not only dominate the population but also reproduced foreign perceptions of Nature’s use in these “spaces of life” (see Figures

21 and 22).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 138

Figure 21: Páramo of Kimsakocha or Kimsakucha, which means Tres Lagunas in kichwa language. In Spanish is translated as Quimsacocha.

Figure 22: Páramo of Kimsakocha, another of the Tres Lagunas (Three lagoons)

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 139

Páramos as spaces of worship

The Cañari people inhabited modern day Azuay and Cañar provinces. Far from representing one culture or homogeneous population, Cañari was the denomination for all the cultures present in these southern Ecuadorian provinces. Cañari social organization was based on ayllus (families) ruled by a kuraka (cacique). There was no notion of private property; instead, land, forests and water were under communal property, shared under reciprocity principles (Borrero, 1989; Chacón,

1986; Lasso, 2009).

Cañari cultures adapted to a diverse landscape in which páramos were not permanently occupied. They inhabited areas of montane forest under 3,000 m.a.s.l.

Páramos were used for occasional hunting, fishing, collection of straw for thatching their huts and provision of water. They were also valued as spaces of adoration of the gods (Borrero, 1989; Hofstede et al., 2003; Lasso 2009).

The identification of purely Cañari features is complex given that their culture adapted and mixed with Inca culture when they were conquered, and kichwa

(quechua or quichua in Spanish) language was adopted. As result, the Inca presence

“quichuizó” Cañari cultures as explained below (Cordero, 2007, p. 33).

Incorporation of páramos as productive spaces

The Inca domination brought profound changes to Cañari culture and to the spatial organization and use of páramos. The notion of family and community (ayllu) as the basis of Andean socioeconomic organization was strengthened. The ayllu is based

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 140 on common family ties, reproducing a collective identity, but at the same, it was the basic production unit (Gentes, 2002; A. Rodríguez, 2016). Among the cultural changes experienced was the adoption of kichwa and mixing other customs and cultures as a consequence of the forced displacement of population (mitimaes), which was an Inca policy for the control of dominated peoples (Hofstede et al.,

2003). In addition, the second capital of the Empire, after Cuzco, was created in

Tumipamba or Tomebamba in the valley between the Yanuncay, Tomebamba and

Machangara Rivers (Borrero, 1989). This is the present day city of Cuenca, founded further by the Spaniards as Santa Ana de los cuatro ríos de Cuenca (Santa Ana of the four rivers of Cuenca).15

Incas modified agriculture with the introduction of other practices and technologies, some of which persist at present, including: (i) terracing in order to start food production in the Andean mountains despite steep slopes; (ii) use of the chakitaklla

(foot plow) for tillage; and, (iii) construction of irrigation channels (Borrero, 1989), which continue to be managed through community water systems and irrigation users' organizations.

For Incas, the ecological features determined the agricultural uses of the land.

Cultivation took place at different ecological and altitudinal zones (Lasso, 2009). The higher cerros or páramos covered by grasslands were left untouched and inhabited by native fauna, while the lower parts were incorporated into production for animal husbandry for wool, meat and for transportation (Borrero, 1989). Incas also

15 The fourth river is Tarqui, born in Kimsakocha as well as the Yanuncay River (see Figure 1).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 141 introduced Andean camelids in the Ecuadorian páramos: llamas and vicuñas— alpacas are their domesticated version, which can graze in the páramo without environmental impacts given that they have soft pads instead of hooves (Cuesta et al., 2013).

Páramos also helped to consolidate Inca power. Hanan (the heights in kichwa language) were always associated with power. Páramos allowed the interconnection of the different latitudes of the empire and were the sites for pucaracunas or pucarás (defensive fortifications) and other infrastructure for the control of the territory like trails, strategic observatories and ritual centers

(Hofstede, 2003; Mena & Hofstede, 2006).

The active interaction between the páramo and the Azuayan communities started with the Inca domination, a period in which these landscapes became a space of production and power. Despite the great transformation in the uses of páramo for the survival of the communities and production of wealth for the Inca, the ecological limits and possibilities of the ecosystem were still considered.

Conquering the páramo

Besides the political domination of the Inca Empire in South America,

The Iberian occupation […] was fundamental in defining the settlements, land

ownership, productive structure, the formation of towns and cities, mestizaje

(cultural mix) of the population and economic organization, which partially

persist at present (Borrero, 1989, p. 66).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 142

Concerning changes in the spatial configuration, the arrival of the Spanish in the XVI century profoundly modified land use and patterns of occupation. The pattern of settlements, which is still visible at present, was delineated during the time of the

Colony. In the course of Inca domination (1438-1533), population was dispersed, living in huts built in their farmlands. Land occupation was determined by proximity to the productive lands of the ayllus (kichwa term that refers to family groups/community, which were also units of production.) This pattern was dismantled by the Colonial policy of reducciones de indios, which aimed at concentrating indigenous people in hamlets and villages in what are now considered rural areas. In addition, exclusive indigenous neighborhoods were created around

Cuenca to provide labor for urban households and the church. The policy included the formation of reducciones of approximately 400 people, located close to water sources and forests and provided by a community house and a church. They also encompassed an area (ejido) for livestock and community land for cultivation

(Cordero, 2007). This was the origin of the modern day urban parish of Baños, Girón canton and the rural parish of Tarqui. Seemingly, the parish of Victoria del Portete was originally formed by a caserío (hamlet) exclusively inhabited by Cañari descendants who are at present concentrated in the communities of San Pedro de

Escaleras and San Agustín. According to an elder of the parish in the XIX century,

‘gente blanca’ (white people) started to populate Victoria, which was formerly populated by ‘los naturales’ (people of indigenous descent) (personal communication, August 30, 2016).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 143

Furthermore, the city of Cuenca was founded in response to the gold fever that attracted the Spaniards to the Ecuadorian south, lured by the easy-access mines of

Santa Barbara in present day Gualaceo—located 40 minutes’ drive from Cuenca.

History repeats itself and the same gold fever is haunting the territories of Azuay at present, with similar results. The “mines more illusion than reality” - short-lived, and the minerals were of low grade (Cordero, 2007, p. 16). Despite new attempts to revive mining during the Colony and briefly in Republican times, the result was always the same: no more wealth available (Chacón, 1986). Reserves were soon consumed, wealth was accumulated by foreigners with no redistribution or investment in local communities, and there is a legacy of devastation of the environment, poverty and degradation of the social fabric, which persisted until today in the infamous mines of Zaruma—province of El Oro—that became the focus of exploitation once the Santa Barbara mines were depleted (various personal communications, 2016).

The decline of mining gave rise to other productive activities that transformed

Cuenca into a dynamic economic center in the south, including agriculture, livestock and craftsmanship. Páramos became active productive lands. The naming of páramos came from the Spaniards, who translated the European concept of moorlands to this neotropical ecosystem of high altitude (Hofstede et al., 2014).

Páramos continue to evoke nostalgia, associated with empty and inhospitable spaces. The Spaniards adapted their agricultural and animal husbandry practices, which had an enormous impact in an ecosystem not suitable for those activities.

They introduced cattle, sheep and horses that modified the landscape and the lives

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 144 of the inhabitants immensely (G. Chacón, personal communication, March 15, 2016).

On one hand, local fauna that was adapted to the páramo were displaced. Unlike

Andean camelids, cattle and sheep have hooves and are heavier, compacting the soil such that it loses some of its water storage potential (Mena, 2010). On the other hand, fire was used extensively to clear the forest for wheat, an introduced cereal, and to promote regrowth of pastures for grazing —there is evidence that paramización started in this period (Hofstede et al. 2014; Lasso, 2009; Mena &

Hofstede, 2006).

Since colonial times the province of Azuay has remained one of the biggest dairy producers of the country. According to the Agricultural poll (ESPAC), the province of Azuay is the second largest breeder of dairy cattle and the third largest producer by liters of milk (INEC, 2016). The parishes of Tarqui, Victoria del Portete, Girón and

San Fernando are notable for animal husbandry (see Figure 23). Livestock constitutes the main source of rural livelihoods, but also is responsible for the transformation of huge areas of arable land into potreros (pastures), and for expansion of the agriculture frontier to the páramo grasslands with the use of fire.

While these practices are highly criticized, it is important to understand them as a product of centuries of interaction between peasant communities and their landscapes, and as the legacy of practices introduced specifically since Spanish colonization.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 145

Figure 23: “San Fernando Livestock Zone”. Sculpture located at the entrance of the city showing their pride of being one the best livestock areas of the country

The occupation of the páramos and consequent marginalization of indigenous communities took place since colonial times as a strategy to escape from the

Colonial enforcement of:

Policies of social control and feudal and pre-capitalist productive systems of

mita, encomienda, concertaje, repartimiento and huasipungo […] that on one

hand, slaved the indigenous population but on the other hand, forced them

to organize and occupy new collective spaces in the slopes in the upper

valleys and below the páramos (Hofstede et al., 2003, p. 25).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 146

However, Cordero Iñiguez (2007) explains that in contrast to the experience of

Bolivia and Perú, in the XVI century Ecuadorian south, land was not greatly concentrated and latifundios (large estates) had not yet been created. The indigenous population in the province of Azuay was smaller compared to other areas of the country: the Cañari declined in the wars of succession for the Inca throne that coincided with the arrival of the Spaniards, and were decimated by the epidemics brought by Europeans (Cordero, 2007). In consequence, land and labor were not distributed through encomienda —a semi slavery colonial policy. Also, compared to other cities founded in the Colony, in Cuenca the indigenous urban population integrated through cultural and ethnic mestizaje and had an important role “not only in the construction of the city, but in the conformation of a new mestizo, pluriethnic and multicultural society (Cordero, 2007, p. 135). Cuenca is particularly known for taking pride of its Spanish past and this process of mestizaje tends to be overlooked (Poloni-Simard, 2006).

To sum up, several features characterizing the current culture of ‘la gente del campo’

(the inhabitants of the countryside) and their relationship with the páramo have their origin in the adaptation of indigenous conceptions of Nature, production and social organization to the implementation of foreign structures of power, privatization of land and water, and submission of the population enforced by

Spanish colonization. Several hybrid practices and conceptions can be traced to this period in history. Two are the arrival of 'community' as an organizational model in rural areas, resulting from a fusion of ayllus and Spanish comunas (Lasso, 2009); and the syncretism that characterizes the veneration of páramo as source of life through

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 147 rites assisted by Catholic priests. Figures 24 and 25 show a rite of purification with

Kimsakocha’s water and a pampamesa (communal food share) conducted in a visit to the páramo with members of the communities that resist mining exploitation.

Figure 24: The author in a rite of purification in Kimsakocha, May 21st 2016

Figure 25: Pampamesa, May 21st 2016

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 148

Exploitation of the páramo

Contrary to the situation in the Central Ecuadorian Andes, páramos are almost uninhabited in the South, where haciendas did not totally dispossess the peasant population or force them to inhabit the less productive lands of the páramos.

However, socioeconomic marginalization characterizes Azuay, which has the highest rate of outmigration in Ecuador, especially to the United States. Poverty, a lack of opportunities and poor soil fertility are the main causes of migration. It is a province characterized by marked inequalities. While its population is always perceived as being hardworking farmers, talented in craftsmanship, living from the land is also associated with hardship and poverty, and development strategies and land reforms established in the Republican era have done little to improve the condition of the peasantry. This partially explains why Azuay is one of the provinces with highest migration rates, especially to the United States, searching for better opportunities. Remittances sent to the relatives that remained in the country have immensely improved the living conditions of the inhabitants.

Land use changes promoted by government development policies in the 1940s and

1950s included planting the páramos with non-native vegetation like pines and eucalypts,16 under a failed scheme to make the páramo productive. Other policies promoted the intensification and modernization of animal husbandry and expanded the agriculture frontier into the páramos (Cuesta et al., 2013; Lasso, 2009).

16 As explained before, páramo vegetation is adapted for low water consumption contrary to exotic trees that desiccate the soil given their higher water needs.

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In the 1960s and 1970s agrarian reforms aiming at the division of haciendas and re- allocation of land to peasant farmers had limited results and failed to improve peasant conditions of ownership of land (Hofstede et al, 2003). The result has been a patchwork of land ownership commonly with large estates in the valleys, minifundios (small subsistence farms) on the slopes, and upland páramos mostly remaining as communal property.

A renewed interest in páramos started in the last decade with their inclusion as productive spaces for mining exploitation. Along with the decline of oil production, metal mining was declared to be the new engine for development by the government of former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017). Ecuador is experiencing significant commercial interest in its mineral reserves, especially from

Canadian and Chinese companies. Based on data from 2009, Velástegui (2010) estimates that 12.53% of 1,337,119 hectares of páramo territory in the country has been conceded for mining exploitation, concentrated mainly in the southern provinces (see figure 26). It includes 41.35% of the páramos of Azuay, Morona

Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe, being 37.83% within the Biosphere Reserve Macizo

El Cajas.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 150

Figure 26: Areas of páramo ecosystem under mining concessions

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 151

In consequence, the Republican era has seen conflictive interactions between development policies, local ways of life, and Nature. To summarize, the main relational transformations that have produced the páramo over time are: (i) ceremonial use during Cañari times (pre-Inca); (ii) introduction of Andean camelids and incorporation into the productive system at different altitude zones during the

Inca domination; (iii) overexploitation of páramos with the introduction of cattle and sheep, modifications in land ownership and increased occupation of páramos during the Spanish conquest; and finally, (iv) intensification of agriculture, animal husbandry, forestation with non-native trees as pine and eucalypt, and in the last decade, mining exploration and exploitation (Cuesta et al., 2013). The implications of the latter are discussed in the concluding section, which understands mining as a hydro-territorial project with potential of reconfiguring the processes explained in this scientific and historical overview of páramos.

Discussion and conclusion: Understanding mining as a driver for the reconfiguration of páramos as hydrosocial territories

Budds and Hinojosa (2012a) propose that the involvement of the mining industry in the territories shapes waterscapes, modifies the power balance and transforms livelihoods. Mining produces other types of territories, with dynamics of water use and land rights that compete directly with the agrarian and rural landscapes present in the Andes, therefore, analysis of the incursion of mining companies as new actors should focus on their ability to reconfigure existing relationships within the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 152 territories; in other words, their ability to produce new “hydrosocial territories” through their involvement in broader economic, social, ecological and political arenas (Boelens et al., 2016).

In the Ecuadorian case, not only do the mining companies begin to play a role in the reconfiguration of hydrosocial territories, but so does the government as a sponsor of mining ventures. Under neoextractivism, explained in chapter 3, along with state discourses that legitimate fair mining as a means to achieve Buen Vivir the government of former president Rafael Correa adopted an active role in supporting foreign-owned mining projects and has intervened to appease and even criminalize protests against mining since 2008 (Harris & Roa-García, 2013; Hernández, 2013;

Ospina, 2015).

In consequence, communities inhabiting the areas of influence of mining projects find their lifeways potentially modified by a coalition comprising the government and transnational mining companies. I argue that it is the attempt to modify or recreate current hydrosocial territories that people resist, not mining itself, in the case further explained in the following chapter. On one hand, local communities exhibit a deep understanding of the impacts of mining on their livelihoods, which include threats to their sources of income, to the health of the ecosystems to which their wellbeing is attached to, and to the ways they have traditionally organized their community life and managed natural resources. On the other hand, there are concerns about their own survival given the interdependencies between their lives and Nature, which does not only provide ‘gifts’ or ‘blessings’ for their existence but is also the place in which their culture is exercised, as has been explained throughout

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 153 this chapter. This is particularly relevant in rural areas where peasant culture is co- produced by the everyday interaction with Nature and reflected in their first-hand knowledge of how ecosystems work.

In conclusion, resistance to mining projects in the páramo of Kimsakocha may be fostered by fears over the erosion of the socionatural networks that configure locally constructed territories, and the imposition of divergent hydro-territorialities by the mining industry and the governments that support it under a neoextractivist logic.

The following chapter explains and uses the concept of hydrosocial territory to analyze the overlapping of hydro-territorial projects from the government, mining company and local community in the páramo of Kimsakocha.

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Chapter 5: Neoextractivism in the hydrosocial territories:

Unequal valuation languages in the páramo of Kimsakocha

Abstract

In Ecuador's uplands, the new wave of mining exploitation for development defined as neoextractivism, is altering hydrosocial territories through competing land uses and imaginaries that embody páramos as a space of life, of extractive production and of centrally governed natural resources. Power structures reproduced by the state- led model of ‘fair resource extraction for development’ impose territorial overlap, reshaping territories in ways that virtually exclude opposition to state-led development and encouraging passive compliance with these dominant projects. It is not mining per se that local communities resist, but this modification of socionatural configurations. It is based on assumptions that fail to fully understand the relationships that co-produce the socio-ecosystem of the páramo.

I will argue that development strategies based on neoextractivism reconfigure divergent hydrosocial territories not by physically altering landscapes and ecosystems, but through the reproduction of visions of natural resource governance and territorial development from certain actors while marginalizing others from decision-making.

Keywords

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 155

Political ecology, hydrosocial territory, páramo, Latin America , mining

Introduction

The current expansion of the mining industry in Latin America has been driven by increasing demand for metal ores and corresponding high market prices, as well as by the incentives offered to attract direct foreign investment. While large-scale mining in the Andes has been developed since the XVI century Spanish colony, in particular in Peru and Bolivia, it remains a controversial industry despite attempts to move towards ‘fair and sustainable mining’ in the Latin American region (Sacher

& Acosta, 2012). Out of 748 socio-environmental conflicts reported in the

Environmental Justice Atlas project by 2018, 36% are mining-related (see figure

27). Arguably, the escalation of social conflict is provoked by one particularity of the new wave of mining ventures: the incursion of the industry into sensitive ecosystems and indigenous and community territories (Walter, 2014). The need to make productive those ‘remote’ or ‘uninhabited’ places is a narrative often used to justify resource exploitation (De la Cadena, 2010). This chapter aims at challenging this notion of unproductive or unused spaces often used in governmental and corporate discourses, and explains why the expansion of the mining frontier into these territories has ignited multiple conflicts in Latin America, specifically in the

Ecuadorian highlands.

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Chapter 3 explained neoextractivism as the convergence of an extractivist neo- developmentalist project and a model of resource governance designed to ensure the control of natural resources and the capture of rents from its exploitation by the state. In this chapter, I discuss the implications of this model by looking at how it is envisioned and discursively addressed by the actors interacting in the areas of influence of one ‘strategic project for development’ according to the Ecuadorian government: the Loma Larga mining project. In particular, I am interested in exploring how the location of the project in the páramo socio-ecosystem, explained in chapter 4, and the particular hydroterritorial vision that mining proposes interact with the current territorial configurations, which have resulted from myriad interactions over space and time.

I will argue that development strategies based on neoextractivism reconfigure divergent hydrosocial territories not by physically altering landscapes and ecosystems but through the reproduction of visions of natural resources governance and territorial development from certain actors while marginalizing others from decision-making.

The chapter starts by analyzing why resource-based development led by the

Ecuadorian neo-developmentalist state has the potential to reconfigure or induce overlapping hydrosocial territories, a concept that is also explained. Drawing on the analysis of languages of valuation, the following section contrasts the different narratives of extractivism from the government, the mining company and local communities with the objective of unveiling the interests, values, relationships and especially, the power structures that they reproduce towards the reconfiguration of

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 157 the territory. Next, the chapter locates the findings among the literature on territorial pluralism and discursive legitimization advanced through empirical work applying the concept of “hydrosocial territories”. It concludes by examining the implications of favoring certain hydro-territorialities by marginalizing others when pushing forward the governmental neoextractivist project.

Neoextractivism in the hydrosocial territories

The Loma Larga project is considered by the Ecuadorian legislation a large-scale mining project (daily ore production of 3,000 tones) and it is one of five strategic mining projects, fully integrated in the strategy for development of the country since

2013 (Fitz-Henry & Rodríguez, forthcoming). Even if mining projects did not start in the government of former president Rafael Correa it is in his Revolución

Ciudadana (citizen’s revolution) that mining is intensely promoted as a temporary stage towards the achievement of Buen Vivir (Good living) in the long term. The criticism is that large-scale mining is not harmonious with nature like the regime of

Buen Vivir demanded, and it also violates the rights of communities, indigenous peoples and nature itself, especially because these projects are mainly located in protected areas or community property (Acosta, 2011, 2012; Dávalos, 2013; Sacher,

2012).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 158

al conflicts associated with mineral ores and building extractions

Environmental Justice Atlas https://ejatlas.org/featured/mining-latam Source: Figure 27: Mining conflicts in Latin America and Ecuador

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 159

Furthermore, justified by the coupling of mining with development— neoextractivism—the former government directly intervened to favor mining investments through the modification of various legal frameworks:

i) The new mining law issued in 2009 was modified in 2013 17 to

incorporate a new category of mining—medium-scale mining for projects

with production up to 1,000 tones per day—that will not need to

negotiate exploitation agreements nor include compensation to the

communities;18

ii) The category of ‘special mining zones’ has been used to allow exploitation

in protected areas, as mentioned above;

iii) The Mining Mandate issued by the Constituent Assembly in 2008 that

banned mining activities in headwaters, has not been applied;

iv) The public company Ecuador Estratégico was created in 2011 to

compensate local communities through the investment of royalties from

strategic extractive projects in their areas of influence; and

v) Laws included in the penal code, issued during the military dictatorship

in 1971 were used to disproportionally incriminate nature defenders

with charges of terrorism and sabotage for their participation in

demonstrations (Articles 158, 160, 161 and 165). In 2014, this

17 Organic Law amending the Law on Mining, the Reform Law for Tax Equity in Ecuador and the Organic Law of Internal Tax Regime, published in the Official Gazette No. 36 on July 16th 2013 18 The obligation of exploitation agreements between the State and the companies was established in the article 41 of the Mining Law of 2009. These contracts should include the obligations of the companies in terms of environmental management, payment of royalties and guarantees, relationship with the communities, closure activities and payment of environmental passives

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framework was revisited and now includes 29 articles typifying crimes

against the Constitutional State, which are currently used with the same

purpose (Articles 336 to 365).

In this chapter I use the concept of hydrosocial territories to analyze neoextractivism as an inherent hydro-territorial project, which incorporates a new actor: the mining industry. Corporate interests entwine with the governmental ones due to the notion of fair and responsible mining for development. Hydrosocial territories are defined as,

The contested imaginary and socio-environmental materialization of a

spatially bound multi-scalar network in which humans, water flows, ecological

relations, hydraulic infrastructure, financial means, legal-administrative

arrangements and cultural institutions and practices are interactively defined,

aligned and mobilized through epistemological belief systems, political

hierarchies and naturalizing discourses (Boelens et al., 2016, p. 2).

The concept of hydrosocial territories allows to focus on the implications of divergent hydro-territorial imaginaries and the power structures, interests and discourses that they privilege in the (re)configuration of existing territories

(Boelens et al., 2016; Damonte, 2015; Duarte-Abadía & Boelens, 2016; Duarte-

Abadía, Boelens & Roa-Avendaño, 2015; Perramond, 2016; Rodríguez-de-Francisco

& Boelens, 2016; Seemann, 2016; Vos & Hinojosa, 2016). To understand these plural imaginaries, I recur to the analysis of the valuation languages deployed by the actors involved in the disputes derived from neoextractivism in Kimsakocha, namely the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 161

Ecuadorian government, INVMINEC and the inhabitants of the areas directly and indirectly affected by the Loma Larga mining project.

Unequal power of contested languages of valuation

Who has the power to impose particular languages of valuation? Who rules over the ways and means of simplifying complexity, deciding that some points of view are out of order? Who has power to determine which is the bottom-line in an environmental discussion? (Martínez-Alier, 2001, p. 153)

Socionatural values are situated, relational, contingent and contested (Ioris, 2012,

2013). They become “political statement[s]” by themselves according to Antonio

Ioris, who argues that

The valuation of socionature [emphasis added] ultimately reflects the

dialectics between individual and collective preferences, as much as

differences in worldviews, expectations and the perception of threats. […]. The

prevalence of some dominant, officially endorsed values reveals the

affirmation of a particular socionatural order, at the expense of the demands

and valuation of other, subaltern groups (Ioris, 2013, p. 323).

In the context of socio-ecological struggles, studies have used discourse analysis, both content and frame analysis, mostly to identify and categorize the languages of valuation deployed by different actors in conflicts generated by gold mining in

Turkey and by the strategic use of Buen Vivir discourses(Avcı, framing Adaman, the ‘mining & Özkaynak,-development 2010) nexus’ in the Ecuadorian Amazon (van

Teijlingen, 2016; van Teijlingen & Hogenboom, 2014, 2016). Also in Colombia by

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 162 coal extraction (Cardoso, 2018), palm oil (Marin-Burgos, Clancy, & Lovett, 2015) and, the delimitation of the páramo and the apparent conciliation of divergent interests through payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes (Duarte-Abadía &

Boelens, 2016). This methodological choice has aimed at elucidating competing and overlapping discourses over Nature as the source of socio-environmental conflicts as they reflect diverse and contested ontologies and value and knowledge systems

(Cardoso, 2018; Derman & Ferguson, 2003; Duarte-Abadía & Boelens, 2016;

Martínez-Alier, 2001, 2009).

I do no focus on the frequency or the plural languages used to value Nature in the context of neoextractivism. Instead I aim at filling the gap in the literature mentioned by Cardoso in relation to the need to assess “the ways in which power shapes the valuation languages” (Cardoso, 2018, p. 56). This aligns with the quote from Martínez-Alier that introduced this section. “[D]ifferent valuations are articulated according to concrete socionatural interconnections and the political trajectories of individuals and groups” (Ioris, 2013, p. 329); therefore, I excavate the imaginaries of hydroterritorial configurations disclosed in the narratives from the different actors involved and how they reflect particular power positions to impose those visions.

Narratives and plurality of hydrosocial territories in the páramo of

Kimsakocha: extractivism for development, responsible mining and peasant lifeworlds

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This section aims at understanding the vision of hydrosocial territories portrayed by the different actors interacting in the area once the territory became essential to the development model defined by the government. Each actor or groups of actors do not share a homogenized perspective; therefore, the diverse views within these groups will be also contrasted. The objective is to unveil the values, meanings and interests concealed in the narratives used to promote, comply with, resign to or resist neoextractivism in Kimsakocha.

1. “Water is more important than gold. Fake! Gold can help us to save the water”:

Ecuadorian government’s vision of natural ‘resources’ for development.

Of course, it hurts everyone to see that maybe a cerro (páramo or mountain) is cut with so much vegetation and biodiversity, but would not it be more immoral to leave [in the ground] those so needed resources for our development, our education, for our health? (Rafael Correa, presented in Abeshouse, 2010).

This construction of the governmental narrative is based on analysis of the speeches of former president Rafael Correa and interviews conducted with representatives of state agencies and Autonomous Decentralized Governments (GADs) of the parishes in the surrounding areas of the Loma Larga project. The aim is to develop an understanding of how economic development, natural resources, territories and people entwine from the governmental perspective, and how the area intervened is portrayed in order to justify extractivism and minimize resistance to the mining project. But, also ambivalence is noticeable, especially in the local authorities that

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 164 comply with state policies despite having different understandings of how local economies and wellbeing are linked to nature’s ecological integrity.

“We need mining”

The quote from ex-president Correa presented at the start of this section reflects the governmental vision of the relationship between nature and human beings and how the need of development justifies the modification of that relationship. A careful use of the language of nature versus resources, an instrumental view of nature, and, references to emotionality and morality are always present in the governmental rhetoric when referring to extractivism, with specific purposes.

In this vision, nature and natural resources are not used as interchangeable terms; instead, they account for specific socionatural imageries. While it remains as

‘nature’, an emotional connection between humans and nature is acknowledged that is disrupted by invasive mining techniques;19 but, when nature is transformed into commodities or ‘natural resources’ these become inert elements alienated from their natural origins and social roles, susceptible to be exploited and traded for human benefit (see Ey, 2016; Ey & Sherval, 2016; Ey, Sherval, & Hodge, 2017; Shiva,

2010). This commodification of nature through the use of the term ‘resources’ as well as a lifeless representation of the areas in which the mining projects intervene, purposely attempts to disrupt the emotional and social attachments to nature. One clear example is Rafael Correa’s insistence in the change of the name of the mining

19 In this case, Correa refers to open pit mining that was initially proposed for the Loma Larga mining project—at present it is planned to be an underground mine—and is actually being used in mining project Fruta del Norte in the Amazon.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 165 project, from Quimsacocha (three lagoons) to Loma Larga (long hill) in 2012

(INVMINEC, personal communication, September 2, 2016). According to various community members, by changing the name of the project there is an attempt to detach the mining conflict from concerns about the impacts on water sources and the socionatural connections to the páramo of Kimsakocha. A mining project on a

‘hill without life’ eases the pathway for its exploitation because it is virtually unoccupied or unused. It dismantles any concern over nature and human beings’ wellbeing or threats to water because there are not evident the potential affectations to human settlements (see figure 1 for the location of the project at the

Quiguahuayco Creek).

The reconciliation of nature’s protection with exploitation of its ‘resources’ for development becomes instrumental in this narrative.20 Despite the recognition that humans are part of nature, human needs are prioritized and extractivism is presented not as a rational choice but as a moral imperative where “if our natural resources are transformed into colleges, schools, roads, health centers, hospitals, of course we need mining” (Rafael Correa, speech of inauguration Unidad Educativa del

Milenio Victoria del Portete, October 20, 2015,).

Mining is thus, presented as a means for achieving Buen Vivir (Escobar, 2010a).

Governmental propaganda frequently relates mining revenues and infrastructure investments with community wellbeing, fairness and happiness. State agencies as

20 For instance, in his speech of inauguration of Unidad Educativa del Milenio, the former president Correa stated that “the human being is not the only important one, worse an obstacle in nature, but he is still the most important in nature. And to protect [nature] does not exclude to consider that it and its resources can bring Buen Vivir to human beings” (October 20, 2015).

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Ecuador Estratégico, the newly created Ministry of Mining and the Ministry of Non- renewable Natural Resources, use slogans like “the strategic project drive the Buen

Vivir of your community“, “fair mining for development” and “resources that construct happiness, which in many cases are purposely inaccurate and misleading to highlight the benefits of inhabiting the surrounding areas of the strategic projects (Figure 28).

For instance, banners publicizing the construction of a Unidad Educativa del Milenio

(UEM)—these are modern education centers built by Ecuador Estratégico with high investments in infrastructure and technology—in Victoria del Portete states “mining brings education to your community.” Nevertheless, this school was not built with mining royalties but with revenues from oil strategic projects.

An understanding of how extractivism is featured in the central government’s rhetoric permits a better understanding of the apparently narrow vision of the hydrosocial territory of Kimsakocha, discussed below. But this vision contrasts with the local governments’ position on extractivism, which is characterized by a multidimensional understanding of the implications of mining and reveals ambivalence in the support of ‘mining for development’.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 167

Figure 28: Governmental propaganda and information brochures associating mining and Buen Vivir

“We support a responsible mining with citizens’ oversight”

Particularly, all the authorities of the decentralized governments (GADs) in the areas of influence of the project highlight the social, ecological, political and economic implications of the exploitation of the páramo. While most of them

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 168 concede the possibility of mining exploitation with manageable risks, all the local representatives agree that a sole focus on the economic profits is insufficient. It neglects the local goals of a development that improves people’s wellbeing but that also protects the environment. Furthermore, the presidents and mayors of the GADs insist that mining for development could only be viable if local participation in environmental decision-making is guaranteed and if the government is accountable for the resources generated and its redistribution. The mayor in-charge of Girón summarizes it as follows,

I will support a responsible mining that cares for the environment; that protects

the water sources; that involves all the citizens so we can see and control […] if

they are doing wrong; that lets us to be active in that project [I will not support

a project] that segregates and does not allow us to go and see (public audience

with UNAGUA-Girón, September 9, 2016)

The notion of ‘responsible mining’ was always present in the authorities’ discourses, understood as an approach to mining exploitation that involves local people in the everyday management of the project, not one that only offers perks to the inhabitants of the direct and indirect areas of influence. As expressed by the president of the GAD of Chumblín,

We do not want to say that our only aspirations are the economic benefits and

that we do not care of anything else. We care! We care more about the

environmental issues and for that reason we are doing this, we are taking care,

we are guarding [the environment] (July 11, 2016).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 169

Accordingly, the authorities stated that they are eager to assume the role of environmental guardians, monitors of the compliance with environmental regulations and laws, denouncers of bad practices and overseers of both the government and the mining company. Nevertheless, the constant changes in the governmental rhetoric and prioritization of economic benefits over environmental protection have provoked skepticism and disillusion over the possibilities of fulfilling those commitments. According to the president of the GAD of Tarqui,

These matters of mining that are very delicate have to be addressed legally,

technically and socially but of course everyone is disenchanted. I am

disenchanted too. The government started with another discourse […] those

changes in the discourse do not allow to fulfill either the legal, technical nor

social [concerns] (August 30, 2016).

Finally, in terms of the role that in neoextractivism assumes the state as ‘fair’ distributor of extractive rents, authorities remarked strongly the need to demand and control that the government respects the law regulations over the allocation of those resources to the local GADs. 21 Support of mining for development was conditional on the accountability of the state, showing a growing mistrust in its management of public funds and fulfillment of promises. Little has been done to clarify how independent the local governments will be in the management of the

21 Article 86 of the 2012 Reglamento general a la ley de minería (regulation of the Mining Law) establishes the parameters for the distribution of profits and royalties from large and small-scale mining projects. It establishes that 60% of the royalties will be destined to productive and local sustainable development projects through the municipal governments and parish boards. And the profits—12% for large-scale projects and 5% from small-scale projects—will be paid to the State to invest in social and territorial development projects of the areas of influence of the mining projects. The State Bank is responsible for the allocation of both the royalties and profits to the Autonomous Decentralized Governments.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 170 royalties that the law assigns to the GADs in the areas of influence of the projects. It is also unclear how the investments of Ecuador Estratégico will be treated once the

Loma Larga project pays the royalties established in its exploitation contract. The public company has already invested roughly USD 17-20 million according to the representative of Ecuador Estratégico and those investments would probably be considered as anticipatory payments or debts to be paid once the project starts.

According to recent news published in INV Metals webpage, it will pay the government USD 15 million in advanced royalties—USD 5 million per year since the exploitation contract is signed, which might mean that no further investments or funds will be given to the GADs for development investments.

To sum up, at local level extractivism as a development model is not perceived as a moral imperative, as the government portrays it. Instead, local authorities see it as an option they might support only if stewardship of the environment, autonomy in the management of extractive incomes and transparency and accountability are ensured. For local authorities large-scale extraction became acceptable only if responsible mining guarantees that water will not be affected, that local livelihoods can prosper and that the risks are low and manageable.

The next section explores how the mining company addresses these concerns over social and ecologically responsible mining and explores further the interests and values of INVMINEC, expressed in its understandings of the ‘territory of influence’ of the project.

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2. “For a responsible mining we need synergy of the actors”: INV Minerales’ vision

The idea is to generate a synergy for mining as a factor of sustainability. Then you have the state, the communities and the companies in a totally intelligent management of the territory that enables all the interests to be accounted for, but the real interests and the real spaces (C. Carrión, Corporate Director and Social Responsibility Manager INV Minerales Ecuador, September 5, 2016)

From the point of view of the representatives of INVMINEC, mining is not conceived as a productive activity developed independently from the territory that it takes place in. Territory is understood in wider terms as involving physical space, communities and governance. Thus, the interviewees insisted on the need to articulate the industry with all the socioeconomic and political processes in the territory with the purpose of managing the space and coexistence with all the actors.

In this sense, three processes are privileged: 1) the delimitation of the area of influence of the mining project under social and environmental criteria; 2) the development of the territory to receive the mining project and to achieve sustainability over time; and 3) the incorporation of the company as a member or citizen of the community, which determines the extent of its intervention in the territory. Underpinning these processes are particular understandings of the entwining of industry, community and territory and the interplay of the different actors coexisting in the area.

The starting point is the definition of the space occupied and the territory of influence. The former is based on a spatial understanding of the intervention and the impacts associated with the specific activities developed in each mining phase.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 172

Under an environmental criteria of minimal intervention, the actual occupation of the mining project has been planned for less than 20 hectares in the surface and an underground mine of roughly 60 hectares. To define the areas of social influence

INVMINEC considered environmental and geographical aspects, spatial intervention, socioeconomic factors and proximity to the settlements (INVMINEC

Social Responsibility Manager, personal communication, September 5, 2016). They include four parishes and three cantons as shown in Figure 2 and have been adjusted over time, seemingly in correlation with the social and political acceptance of the project.22

The demarcation of these areas of influence is important because according to the mining law it determines the redistribution of economic benefits from mining activity. This might become a source of conflict especially when the parishes’ authorities are already disputing the ‘ownership’ of the mine and their position as legitimate recipients of the future royalties. But also, the demarcation of the territory of influence defines the degree of involvement of the company within the communities, with consequences in local power structures. Unusually, the social involvement of the company started from the exploration phase, even when the law

22 (i) The two parishes of direct influence have a Centro de difusión minera (Center of Mining information) and a social promoter that works directly with the presidents of the local governments (GADs)—both are openly in favor of the mining project. (ii) The urban centers of San Fernando and Girón that are located roughly 15 minutes drive from the two mentioned parishes are not considered as areas of influence. The mayor of San Fernando is against extractivism, as was the previous mayor of Girón. The current mayor of Girón favors mining exploitation and has started a permanent relationship with the social promoters of the project. (iii) Social resistance to the project has mainly come from the parishes of Tarqui and Victoria del Portete. The parish of Tarqui was initially considered as area of direct influence of the project but the Ministry of Mines removed it. The president of the GAD was initially in favor of mining but his position has changed. (iv) Some communities of the parish of Victoria del Portete comply with the criteria under which Chumblín and San Gerardo are considered areas of direct influence but it is not considered as such. The previous administration was against mining and the current remains ambivalent.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 173 compels to do it from the exploitation phase, when the projects are licensed to start operating. This early and daily interaction with the communities and authorities has modified the relationships between the different actors present in the space and their roles, and has blurred the limits of their domains of action and intervention.

“We are present in the community; we are a citizen of the parish”

Inhabitants and authorities of the Chumblín and San Gerardo, where there is a permanent presence of the company, repeatedly referred to INVMINEC as a member or part of the community. Accordingly, the 2015 INV Annual Report of Social

Responsibility the parish governments of Chumblín and San Gerardo “have invited

INV to participate as a citizen [emphasis added] with rights and duties in exercise”

(p. 4). This resonates with the vision of corporate citizenship (Aßländer & Curbach,

2014; Crane, Matten, & Moon, 2008) as explained by the Social Responsibility

Manager of INVMINEC:

Where you see a potential risk of rights that are not being fulfilled you can act

because you are living in that place. Before we used a concept called corporate

citizenship, in other words, the company is there with rights and responsibilities

but of course, if you are a citizen of the area and you see that things are not well

done you can intervene. [People] can say, “those are not your competences,” but

why not? I am in the area (September 5, 2016).

As a consequence, the company not only assumes an economic role but also a social and political one by becoming a local development planner, a first-hand resource to support local initiatives, a representative of communities’ interests in negotiations

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 174 with the state, and a coordinator and intermediary between local and central government’s agencies. However, in contrast with cases where central governments are absent and mining companies step in to replace them, INVMINEC representatives remark on the synergic planning and action between communities, government and company. Figure 29 shows one example of the principles for cooperation between the company and the parish of San Gerardo.

Figure 29: Local government of San Gerardo. Proposal for a SOCIAL AGREEMENT for the MODERN AND SUSTAINABLE MINING PROJECT 200723

“We need to organize the parish having in mind that the mine will be here”

23 The plan was developed in 2007 between the authorities of the parish of San Gerardo and IAMGOLD that owned the project formerly named Quimsacocha, from 1999 to 2012. It included general principles of social responsibility in the areas of territoriality, participation, employment, environmental protection, culture, conservation of water resources, production and cooperation and participative budgets.

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The incursion of INVMINEC in the communities of influence at an early stage is portrayed as a way to establish bonds with the communities and to ensure a cooperative coexistence with all the actors in the area; but also, to prepare the territory for receiving the mining project and achieving sustainability over time. In this sense, infrastructure investments in roads and provision of basic services, health and education; social programs, and the relationship with the state aim at organizing the parish for the operation of the mine and to articulate the project with the life of communities. As a social promoter of INVMINEC explained:

We were involved in promoting that the government comes and organizes the

parish; first, because San Gerardo has rights over the mine and second, [because

the government needs] to organize the parish before the mining development

[…]. When the state is absent the mining companies assume its role and

everything disorders. [Instead] since 2013 we have urged the state to come

because if we do not ally with it this project is not viable. [The state] is the

responsible, the owner of the natural resources (March 16, 2016).

The implications in terms of power relations are twofold. On one hand, the discourse of mining for development is reaffirmed in everyday practice through the articulation of CSR programs and local development promoted by the state and the

GADs, but from the point of view of the population it is the company that is ‘bringing development’ given its long-term engagement with the communities. Only since

2015 has Ecuador Estratégico started to invest in the areas of influence of the Loma

Larga project, being the major projects the Unidad del Milenio (Millennium school) in Victoria del Portete and the health centers in Victoria del Portete and San Gerardo.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 176

By contrast, the mining company has been investing in the area constantly. Its contribution to development exceeds the usually expected offer of jobs. The company has become the main the executor of the development programs at local level, funding infrastructure projects and small-scale productive programs.

IAMGOLD since 2005, and then INVMINEC since 2012 have invested in the areas of influence before the mining project starts operations, even if the law has not compelled them to do so. Representatives of INVMINEC are proud of the company becoming a pioneer in establishing relationships and investing in the communities since the exploration phase. In words of a social promoter,

I compiled all the information since 2005 of the investments in the [social]

projects […] and we are speaking of USD 3 million invested in the parishes, in the

zones of direct and indirect influence of the project. Of course, sometimes it could

seem a little but they have been very well invested resources (personal

communication, March 16, 2016)

On the other hand, through the synergic actions with the local and central governments, the mining company is directly involved in the formulation of territorial development plans and infrastructure investments from the government.

It worth questioning what interests are privileged in those development plans.

Certainly, any kind of investment in the parishes of influence benefits the inhabitants but the remarks from the company’s representatives about the need for organizing the parish before the exploitation phase suggest that the drivers for the reconfiguration of the territory are, in reality, the operational requirements of the mine and communities. Thus, the investments in infrastructure and provision of

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 177 services are not ultimately planned according to the needs of the population but for the project itself. The president of the GAD of San Gerardo confirms this:

We have to improve the roads in our communities towards the project itsel; […]

well the health center is already built with projection to the project as well as the

potable water and sewage systems (personal communication, August 3, 2016).

A social promoter of INVMINEC also corroborated this, mentioning that for the construction of the health center in San Gerardo “it was also considered that this will be a mining zone then we needed a health center with capacity not for 1,200 people but with another category” (personal communication, July 21, 2016).

In this new territorial vision, while the inhabitants of the direct influence zone

(Chumblín and San Gerardo) are said to be empowered by the mining project, and thus, perfectly articulated, the role of the rest of the communities is more complex than the simplified vision of supporters or opponents to the mining project. The following section explores the communities’ vision of mining in their territory of life.

3. “We are at least surviving from nature, we have land, we have animals, we are healthy, what would we want mining for?” Extractivism and peasant lifeworlds

This section aims at understanding what it means to live in the territories of influence of a strategic development project and how its inhabitants have reacted to the different interests in dispute, but I do not attempt to create a homogenous

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 178 narrative for a population of roughly 29,290 people (Appendix 1). The concerns of campesinos regarding the incursion of mining in their territories of life are plural and interrelated. I have chosen to focus on two visions of extractivism that reflect the pressing concerns of the population: extractivism as a process that fails to comprehend how water and nature works, and as an economic activity favored by those who are not linked to the land. These are explained as follows.

“Even if a scientist says: but water is here and [the mine is] there. No! It is not that way! God did not create it that way”

Water is undoubtedly the main point of dispute in mining conflicts. Nevertheless, concerns cannot be reduced to matters of quantity and quality of water, especially when mining industry innovations aim at optimizing water consumption and treatment, and reduce their environmental impacts. Neither the mining industry nor water consumption are the causes of disputes, but the perceived risks of its location close to headwaters and the disruption of the socionatural processes supported by water. In words of a campesino from San Gerardo

If [the mining project] were located in that slope over there who would be

annoyed? But I know that gold and water are always together; that is the reason

of the war because gold is found where water is born (August 21, 2016).

The source of conflicts is not only the physical location of the mine close to water sources but the generally irreconcilable interpretation from different actors of water’s socionatural role, with implications to its management and associated risk perceptions. Usually, local people explain the ‘behavior’ of water resources with

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 179 analogies to the human body under which, water runs through veins in the subsoil becoming the bloodstream of nature. A campesino of San Gerardo wondered,

If those little water veins that God has made are cut, where would water go? It is

the same as cutting the veins of a person” (personal communication, August 21,

2016).

Nature is thus understood like an organic system where everything is interrelated and severe disturbances affect the functions of all the system as a whole, with people as a constitutive part of it.

On one hand, this argument contrasts with a scientifically supported vision of páramo as holder of superficial water and whose functions can be maintained by conserving the soil and constructing an underground mine. The mining company adopts these arguments to support the environmental feasibility of the project in the páramo. These debates between scientific and traditional knowledge over the páramo will be discussed further in the thesis, but generally local understandings are dismissed as mere beliefs, disregarding that cultural and place-based knowledge are a dynamic product of everyday interaction with nature. On the other hand, this holistic understanding influences perceptions of risk and trade-offs. While a fragmented vision of ecosystem functions supports assessments of manageable risks that are advocated by the mining industry, an integrated view assigns a heavier weight to risks versus potential gains of any kind of environmental intervention (D.

Rodríguez, forthcoming). This might explain the inclination towards an untouched páramo to protect water sources expressed by most respondents.

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“Peasants are used to hardship; pro-mining people might not have children, animals, anything”

It is not the aim of this thesis to analyze peoples’ positions towards mining but remarkably, when asked to interpret why part of the population living in the surrounding areas of the project favored mining, campesinos referred to those positions as a non-peasant attitude. Peasant culture is associated with hard work on the land or breeding livestock. As interpreted by a campesina from Victoria del

Portete,

I am sorry to say it but the people who are in favor [of mining] only want to avoid

working. They like it, they like that [the company] gives them ‘cuyes’ [guinea

pigs] and chickens. Instead we know how to work, we breed! [...] Our celestial

Father has given us arms, he has given us eyes, he has given us everything to be

able to grow. Others want everything so easy. It can never be easy; instead, we

need to suffer to be able to have (personal communication, June 15, 2016).

This particular view sheds light on how development based on extractivism might not be compatible with local understandings of wellbeing. The needs and desires of the rural population have not been properly considered when defining what kind and for whom that development strategy is designed for, exhibiting a disconnection between local and national development aims. The option of becoming employees or providers of goods and services for the mine; and, recipients of compensation for inhabiting the areas of influence of an strategic project might be appealing to part of the population but not to all campesinos, who would prefer government support for

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 181 their local economies based on dairy farming (Figure 30)(see Fitz-Henry and

Rodríguez, forthcoming).

Likewise, campesinos understand the multiple and interrelated impacts of modifications of the territory. Local views do not compartmentalize mining as a technical matter as both the government and INVMINEC mostly do. Community leader Carlos Perez explains that

In the understandings of the Original Peoples, nothing is fragmented everything

is integrated; is interrelated […]. We have to combine social, environmental,

political, ethical, spiritual, cultural and also technical elements (personal

communication, June 8, 2016).

For this reason, demands for participation in environmental decision-making have been justified as an imperative to counteract the powerlessness of being governed by actors that might fail to comprehend the multidimensionality of extractivism in socionatural territories.

The following section scrutinizes the visions of the territory concealed in the narratives explained above and discusses how they reveal multiple interests and values in dispute, but also how the discursive portrayal of the territory becomes in itself a strategy to impose over and even marginalize alternative understandings of the multiple hydroterritorial imaginaries coexisting in the páramo of Kimsakocha.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 182

Figure 30 Landscapes of Tarqui and Victoria del Portete

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 183

Discussion and conclusion: Overlapping of hydrosocial territories, legitimizing discourses and disruption of socionatural relations

The concept páramo is so complex that it is difficult to define it. The páramo is an ecosystem, a biome, a landscape, a geographical area, a zone of life, a space of production, even a climate state. Also the value and meaning of the same patch of páramo can be very different for a peasant grazing his sheep or to the biologist that studies a bug in the grasses (Hofstede et al. 2014, p. 14, own translation)

Overlapping territories

The previous section explained how páramos embody overlapping territories where different uses, meanings, relationships, natural ‘resources’ and actors are in constant interplay given páramos’ multiple perceptions and roles as expressed in the preceding quote. Páramos are also sites of clashing, multiple and conflicting interests, reinforced by particular valuation languages (Duarte-Abadía & Boelens,

2016). Thus, several contested hydroterritorial projects emerge based on particular visions of what the páramo is and how would it respond to modifications in the landscape. But also, these projects reproduce “political-economic, socio- environmental imaginaries […] understood as the socio-environmental world views and aspirations held by particular social groups” (Boelens et al., 2016, p. 7).

In concordance with literature on ‘territorial pluralism’ within work on hydrosocial territories, I argue that not just one hydrosocial territory emerges despite dominant

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 184 visions that portray it as a single and homogenous territory with established boundaries and knowable biophysical conditions, which deny the pluralism of

‘territories-in-territory’ (Hoogesteger, Boelens, & Baud, 2016, p. 92). From the interaction of different hydrosocial imaginaries, multiple competing territories overlap and interests prevail to shape the space, its conception and other actors. In the case presented in this chapter, there is a constant dispute between the portrayal of the territory as the provider of the natural resources needed to support the vision of national development based on modernization and progress pursued by the government and the mining company, and the territory where the lifeways of peasant population develops, which is in itself heterogeneous.

State-led development projects by themselves become a way of superimposing the governments’ vision of development and reshaping the territories but the imposition of interests and values is not usually coercive; instead, several discourses are used to predominate over and render invisible other socionatural configurations

(Duarte-Abadía et al., 2015), as discussed in the following section.

Legitimizing discourses

The study conducted by Duarte-Abadía, Boelens and Roa-Avendaño (2015) analyzes how a mega-hydraulic project in Santander, Colombia is promoted along with discourses of development and globalization that delegitimize local conceptions of the socionatural world and human-nature interactions. In their analysis of a hydropower development in southeastern Turkey, Hommes, Boelens and Maat conclude that under the paradigm of progress “imaginaries, counter-imaginaries

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 185 and endeavors to materialize [mega-hydraulic projects] go far beyond technical projects, portraying the dam to (re)configure the territory physically, ecologically, socioeconomically, symbolically and discursively” (2016, p. 9). Seeman’s (2016) work in the Bolivian highlands shows how the intervention of the state through seemingly participatory policies contradicts plurality by favoring hydrosocial territorial visions that comply with the government’s ‘inclusive recognition politics’.

And interestingly, Duarte-Abadía and Boelens’ work in the páramo of Santurbán,

Colombia, demonstrates how apparently technical apolitical mechanisms to reconcile different hydroterritorial interests aims at imposing one territorial view under the discourse of payment for ecosystem services (PES) (Duarte-Abadía &

Boelens, 2016).

The common feature in the projects studied in this literature is the intervention of the state, either as the executor of the projects (state-led hydropower projects) or through state-supported policies (inclusive recognition and PES). This has usually been accompanied by discourses of development, progress and participation, which have been analyzed through Foucault´s governmentality (1991) focusing on the alignment of actors through their adoption of the regimes of representation of the dominant system and their consequent subjectification (Hommes, Boelens, & Maat,

2016; Hoogesteger et al., 2016).

To contribute to this literature, I focus instead on the marginalization of competing hydroterritorial visions and passive compliance with dominant projects. I argue that through the notion of ‘fair resource extraction for development’ asymmetrical

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 186 power structures are strengthened and the territory is reshaped in ways that virtually exclude opposing views to state-led projects from the territory itself.

On one hand, dominant and apparently equitable discourses of mining for development reconfigure hydrosocial territories by appeasing other visions.

Progress and collective wellbeing are powerful unquestionable priorities and any opposing view—which commonly demands alternatives to development (Bravo &

Moreano, 2015; Lang & Mokrani, 2013) more than being a mere opposition to development—are deemed as backwards or anti-development. For instance, in the weekly report to the nation no. 299, called Enlace Ciudadano, former president

Rafael Correa said, “misery cannot be part of our identity and we cannot be beggars sitting on a sack of gold, that is irresponsible. And the greatest racism is pretending that misery is culture” (December 1, 2012), referring to mining opposition of peasant and indigenous organizations. Furthermore, the re-emergence of state-led development places the government in a privileged position of power to superimpose its interests for the sake of national progress. Plentiful and overarching resources and control and authority over natural resources allow the government to enforce a development strategy with apparent minimum resistance.

However, while part of the population might be satisfied with the economic compensation offered, minimal or lack of opposition to the reconfiguration of local socionatural relations is commonly a result of perceptions of powerlessness more than an adaptation or allegiance to the dominant views. As explained by a campesina of Girón,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 187

It is scary! Because in reality us poor are mice compared with papa Correa

[father Correa] because he is from the heights doing everything. He orders alone.

Imagine, [opposing] what for? So that he crashes us poor. We think in our

children, in the family (personal communication, June 23, 2016).

In consequence, the interests of the government prevail not by lack of opposition but instead, by heavily unbalanced power structures that result in people losing hope that opposition is feasible and effective.

On the other hand, the designation of ‘strategic projects for development’ does not only delimit the territories or ‘areas of influence’ where investments will be prioritized according to the redistributive policy of the Ecuadorian government, but it also defines which populations are legitimate beneficiaries and interlocutors of the interests of the population. Boundaries of these areas of influence have proven to be fluid and have commonly been reshaped according to perceptions of compatible or opposing interests in relation to the projects. In the case of Loma

Larga, the criteria adopted for the delimitation of the areas of direct and indirect influence of the project is not clear and it has changed over time. According to a social promoter of the INVMINEC, if only environmental risks were considered for the definition of the project’s influence area, there would be none. And solely under a social criterion, the area would only be circumscribed to Chumblín and San

Gerardo, under a purely spatial understanding of areas subject to being impacted

(INVMINEC, personal communication, March 16, 2016). Victoria del Portete was initially considered part of the direct area of influence as well as Tarqui. Presumably, their permanent opposition to the project might have influenced the decision to

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 188 modify their status areas of secondary influence, which according to the president of the Decentralized Autonomous Government (GAD) of Tarqui, was demanded by the Ministry of Environment (personal communication, August 30, 2016). The main opposition to the Loma Larga project has come from these two parishes, whose leaders according to the view of the mining company and some authorities, “do not represent the interests” of the population directly affected by the project. Thus, this delimitation has been purposely used to marginalize competing hydrosocial territories by deeming opposing views as ‘outside’ the territory and therefore, illegitimate.

Neoextractivism and the disruption of socionatural relations

Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories as páramos reveals the imposition of a development model that disrupts socionatural configurations that are a product of infinite interactions developed over time, and which are mostly misunderstood. In the Ecuadorian case, the government’s hydroterritorial project is based on an understanding of páramo as a fragmented ecosystem, which if non-inhabited and remote can be exploited with few socio-environmental and political implications.

This is evidenced in the portrayal of the area of intervention of the mining project as a ‘lifeless hill’ far from the lagoons of the páramo and the meanings ascribed to them. It becomes a useful strategy that detaches humans from the resources meant to improve their economic conditions and to alienate people from the management of the resources and territories that they do not inhabit.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 189

In terms of development priorities, while development based on natural resource extraction is designed to satisfy human needs, the relationships of society with nature as provider of those resources is commonly neglected and local dynamics are heavily modified. The burdens of development are therefore, unequally distributed and investments aiming at modernizing the areas of influence of the projects reflect a notion of “development as compensation,” with the government assuming the role of ‘fair’ distributor of extractive rents (Fitz-Henry & Rodríguez, forthcoming).

Currently, local decentralized governments begin to challenge the accountability and transparency of the government in the management of the rents captured and its ability to pursue collective wellbeing. Some authorities have even preferred to associate directly with the extractive industry that intervenes as a ‘citizen’ that shares the governments’ view of the need to ‘bring development’ to the communities of influence of the project.

The mining company understands the páramo as an enclosed ecosystem that can be scientifically knowable and technologically managed. People are perceived as related only in a limited way to the páramo, basically overexploiting it through unsustainable practices of fire use and livestock grazing. Interviewees from

INVMINEC frequently mentioned that agriculture is an economic activity that produces more environmental impacts while affecting larger land areas that the proposed mine. On the contrary, in the company’s view mining can be executed with minimal intervention in the páramo, spatially speaking, with appropriate hydrologic management and manageable hazards. Again, the delimitation of the areas of influence became useful to define who has a say in the governance of the area

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 190 allowing delegitimizing the concerns and demands of people ‘outside’ it, whose dissident voices were commonly characterized as non-pertinent or interest-driven.

Both understandings overlook the integrity of ecosystems, the role of humans as interdependent within those systems, as well as wider environmental, social, economic, cultural and emotional impacts of disturbances to the wetlands ecosystem. They perpetuate a compartmentalization of the economic, the social and the environmental - complicating a dialogue with other worldviews that conceive these realms as inseparable. Moreover, the vision of the state as rightful owner and manager of natural resources clashes with other forms of managing a territory, in which those resources retain alternative meanings associated with their socionatural roles, encompassing more than the vision of ‘natural resources’. In this context, place-based understandings and ways of life developed in close relationship with these socio-ecosystems find little space to influence decision-making because they articulate different languages and incompatible interests.

To conclude, governance based on local participation in environmental decision- making could ease the reconciliation of these views through mechanisms already recognized. In Ecuador as well as in other countries in Latin America, democracy models already compel consultation of the population over the use of the natural resources they depend upon, especially when their ways of life and culture depend on them. Referendums and “free, prior and informed consent” over resource management in community and indigenous territories are required, but are neither binding nor enforced. The notion of ‘strategic resources for development’ is used instead, to centralize decision-making and to marginalize certain actors.

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Conflict should then be understood as a consequence of the potential modification of socionatural relations and the silencing of voices that are not opposing mining itself, but instead are representing alternative ways of understanding the disruption of plural relationships that might be overlooked, and its impacts in everyday life. As a consequence, community groups have emerged to contest the role of the state as a fair natural resources manager and promoter of the people’s wellbeing. They also contest the notion of state-led development alienated from rural visions of wellbeing and sustainable use of natural resources. One of those movements is the water guardians of Kimsakocha under the leadership of the water users of the

Victoria del Portete-Tarqui community water system that since 2003 have opposed mining extraction in the páramo. This research does not cover the resistance led by this community movement, but it has been explored elsewhere (D. Rodríguez, 2016;

D. Rodríguez and Loginova, 2019).

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Chapter 6: Relational epistemologies and emotional

geographies of fear facing impending exploitation of the

páramo socio-ecosystem

Abstract

Chapter 3 explained the alienation of local voices attuned with the voices of Nature as one of the paradoxes of neoextractivism. This chapter explores the nature of that synchrony, and the risks of marginalizing those whose knowledge of how the páramo “behaves” emerges from the co-production of their lives according to ‘the rhythms and cycles of Nature’.

I argue that the definition of resource exploitation as an inevitable requirement for progress also empowers certain actors to define what kind of knowledge is valuable and pertinent, but this does not come without a cost. The privileging of technical and scientific evidence supporting resource-based development dismisses “other knowledges” that might be necessary to fully understand the impacts of this sociopolitical project. This chapter questions the risks of dismissing those knowledges in scenarios like the impending mining exploitation in the páramo, which despite the existence of multiple scientific studies demanded by the mining company, remains an uncertain business.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 193

Keywords

Socionatures, emotional geographies, relational epistemologies, emotion, political ecology

Introduction

A comprehensive recent publication on the páramo called “Los páramo andinos, ¿qué sabemos?” (Andean páramo, what do we know?) (Hofstede et al., 2014), implies that we are still building the knowledge about this socio-ecosystem. Páramo are still little understood, scientifically speaking. Interestingly however, in the Ecuadorian case analyzed in this thesis, the expansion of the mining frontier into the páramo is supported by claims that extractive companies and governmental agencies in charge of environmental protection “know enough” to affirm that mining in sensitive ecosystems like the páramo is feasible. Furthermore, that it is environmentally manageable and that communities’ fears over the incompatibility of mining, páramo’ health and peasant livelihoods are misled by disinformation.

Knowledge claims compete among the different groups of interest in Kimsakocha.

According to the Corporate Director and Social Responsibility Manager of

INVMINEC Metales Ecuador,

We made an agreement for hydrological monitoring with a [local] university

by our will more than eight years ago. [We have monitored through] 30

indicators each two minutes for four years. No one has a study of the páramo

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 194

like this in the world! Denisse, in the world! (personal communication,

September 5, 2016)

In the words of one of the “social promoters” of mining,

We know a lot of how water functions in the zone where the mineral is located

thanks to the studies conducted by the University of Cuenca…We do know the

hydrological processes and the water cycle in the uplands, we do; in contrast with

the opposition. They know nothing! It is false. They know nothing. They have

not investigated; we have scientific research, PROMAS and the Group of Earth

and Environmental Science [both research groups of the University of Cuenca]

have it…We also did an agreement with the Biology School of the University of

Azuay. We have hydrological, biological and social baselines. These allow us to

propose an environmentally responsible mine in the páramo (personal

communication, June 21, 2016)

In the same vein, governmental authorities have repeatedly claimed that mining is a technical issue that should be debated only in those terms. Specially, they have criticized opposition to mining by arguing that only political interests drive it and that it is informed by illogical and deceitful information. Former president Rafael

Correa in one of his weekly-televised activity reports insisted that

These are the absurdities with which we have to struggle; against the people who

do not want progress just to be faithful to their mental

fundamentalism...Ecuadorians, we have to be intelligent! Believe me, everything

that is said everyday by certain [mining] opponents is against all logic... “toda

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 195

mina contamina”(every mine contaminates), zero mines, then let us go back to

the Flintstones era! It is absurd! Why? Because they are deceiving us, their

reasoning is wrongly stated. Let us be intelligent and responsible to argue

because we are speaking of the future of the country... Let us raise the level of

debate. Do not allow yourselves to be deceived by the demagogues, by

charlatans...Please do not politicize issues that are technical and fundamental

for development (Rafael Correa, Enlace Ciudadano No. 262, March 10, 2012).

Nevertheless, every knowledge claim—scientific, technical and of any nature—is political as it is shaped by particular interests and embedded in social and cultural configurations (Jasanoff, 2004b). The praise of cutting-edge technology in the mining industry, which also serves the government in the de-politicization of the mining issue, places technical knowledge and technicians at a higher level. The positions exhibited in the quotes of mining representatives and Correa show an attempt to use the lack of technical expertise as a way to marginalize communities from debate. It also discourages the inhabitants from participating for fear that their experiences and non-technical knowledge are not valuable; however, they have started questioning the presumed inferiority of farmers’ knowledges when diagnosing impacts of impending mining. In San Gerardo, a seller in a veterinarian shop confidently said,

As far as I know there are no engineers here, we simply are people dedicated to

agriculture…we have not had the possibility of studying engineering, to be

technicians, people who tell us what is going to happen…[but] you do not have to

be a technician; you simply need to think about it...When they told me that they

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were going to build a tunnel over there, 10 meters below from where I was

standing and I saw that heaps of water were born there; I am sorry but they do

not convince me…The [mining social promoters] explain to me and I do my best

to know more but no one can take from me what I saw! No one can take from

me what I saw! …I am not a technician, I am not, we only know of animal

husbandry and agriculture and we do not know more but simply what I saw no

one can take it from me (personal communication, June 11, 2016)

Faced with ‘undebatable’ technical knowledge, the inhabitants of the surrounding areas of the project have acknowledged not only the need but also their capacity to contest those knowledge claims. For one of the main leaders of the resistance in

Kimsakocha, their strength is their holistic view of everything

In the indigenous worldview nothing is fragmented. Everything is integrated, is

related. We cannot be trapped only on technicalities. We have to link all the

social, environmental, political, ethical, spiritual and cultural elements; also the

technical ones. We are willing also to debate and to demonstrate through the

occidental or colonial science and technique that not even in that [fields] they

are right. We are willing to debate in any field and show them how wrong and

perverse is the extractive policy. To claim that [extractivism] is a mere technical

matter is a confession of hypocrisy; or are they intending to insult our

intelligence, to disparage the communities with their colonial understanding

that we do not know and that we cannot participate? (Perez, June 8, 2016)

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These narratives not only reflect a common aspect of environmental governance: the dismissal of non-scientific ecological knowledge; but they also show the privilege of technical and scientific evidence supporting resource-based development. Mining in this case is portrayed as an activity of low and manageable impacts, affecting a limited space (as explained in the previous chapter); whose costs are by far exceeded by the societal gains from neoextractivism. Nature is also entitled to benefits because ‘an environmentally managed’ páramo is better than an

‘exploited’ páramo by peasant communities.24

Nevertheless, this chapter questions the risks of dismissing “other knowledges” in scenarios like impending mining exploitation in the páramo, which contrary to the certainties exhibited in the narratives of the mining industry and governmental authorities above, is still an uncertain business, as further explained in section 2 of this chapter. Research has already focused on knowledge clashes in mining conflicts

(Buchanan, 2013; Conde, 2014; Li, 2015; Velásquez, 2012); but my analysis is differentiated by using Escobar’s (2016) understanding of epistemological disputes as ontological struggles in the context of extractivist conflicts. He argues that “simply said, multiple knowledges, or epistemes, refer to multiple worlds, or ontologies”

(Escobar, 2016, p. 13); thus, clashes of knowledge reflect ontological conflicts. My

24 In the interviews with representatives of INVMINEC there were repeated mentions of how the páramo will be left even better than before the intervention. Efforts have been made to restore the páramo vegetation in the exploration platforms, with very good results from the perspective of various experts; and water taken from a stream with very high PH (river Alumbre) will be restored to Nature in ‘the same or better conditions’ than before it is used in the mining process. This contrasted to the use of páramo by peasants and urban inhabitants. The former overexploiting it through unsustainable practices of fire use, livestock grazing and contamination of water sources by the feces of the cattle; and the latter, which have adopted the illegal practice of riding motorbikes in these uplands.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 198 use of Escobar’s argument however is partial, as I do not intend to deepen into such political ontological struggles but I aim at putting at the center of my analysis those

‘Epistemologies of the South’ that he refers to (Escobar, 2016; Santos, 2014). My aim is to uncover how and why the knowledges emerging from those conflicts offer more comprehensive ways of understanding resource extraction and its impacts. In this endeavor, I will explore relatively new approaches to understanding relational epistemologies without ignoring the role of power in shaping knowledge systems.

The chapter starts by explaining the main point of disagreement in Kimsakocha.

Resorting to the metaphor of the Greek mythological ‘golden apple of discord’—in this case it is represented by the existence of groundwater in this páramo—each group of actors dispute their truth with diverse knowledge claims, which at the same time support their arguments for the feasibility or not of constructing an underground mine in Kimsakocha. In the following section, I explore how emotions and extractivism have been studied in the literature on political ecology and emotional geographies in order to identify a gap in the understanding of emotions as knowledge and as ways of knowing. Then, based on the narratives of respondents reflecting on forthcoming mining in their hydrosocial territories I unearth their emotional geographies of fear—which are derived from the engagements between campesinos and their socionatures—to understand the myriad socionatural processes that mining might disrupt. In the final section I discuss why in uncertain contexts, where scientific and technical knowledge proves incomplete, the exclusion of the knowledges of the people whose lifeways are co-produced in interaction with the páramo socio-ecosystem is risky.

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The existence of groundwater in Kimsakocha: the apple of discord

In a more cautious tone than the quotes presented in the introduction, the Director of the university institution hired to conduct the studies for INVMINEC—the

PROMAS (Program for Water and Soil management of the University of Cuenca)— confirms that

Asked by the company [former IAMGOLD, now INVMINEC] along five years we

have built an environmental baseline that implies a series of environmental

parameters…overall of flow rates…We know how much rain falls here, how

much is deposited in one lagoon, how much runs down the little creeks and how

much is transported through the first layer, which is the little layer of páramo.

That is what we know and we know it very well. What we do not know, because

we have not done research, is what happens underground” (personal

communication, February 23, 2016).

It is precisely “what happens underground” that is the main concern of local populations, leaders of resistance movements and socio-environmental movements. Were aquifers found in Kimsakocha, not only the viability of the Loma

Larga mining might be jeopardized but also the páramo socio-ecosystem as a whole.

Not in vain, the ‘technical’ debates have focused mainly on this issue without any unanimous verdict because, as expressed above, there are no studies available.

When asked about the lack of hydrogeological studies, which would offer answers to the shared concerns about underground flows, the zone Coordinator of the

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Ministry of Environment, who interestingly holds a degree in mining engineering, responded:

How can I demand [the company studies] required for another phases in the

process of environmental licensing? How? …Kimsakocha or Loma Larga has the

license for advanced exploration, and then uniquely and exclusively they have to

fulfill the requirements expected for that phase. When they advance to the

exploitation phase they will have to meet the requirements of the environmental

impact assessment…[including studies of] hydrogeology, seismology,

groundwater levels.

However, most of the interviewees from the communities and socio-environmental movements would question the Coordinator about: i) how the activities are allowed to advance in the first place without full knowledge of the feasibility of the activity; and ii) what if ecological impediments were found by the studies provided at advanced mining phases? Will the licensing for mining exploitation be denied after all the investments already made by the company in the communities and in the exploration of the mine? Acknowledging the importance of these studies, during the fieldwork period various councilors of the city of Cuenca were lobbying to achieve a moratorium on mining until sufficient studies were made to disprove the existence of groundwater. The terms of reference for these studies—allocated to the two local universities that have already been researching for INVMINEC—were drafted in

May 2016 and received several critiques from social collectives in Cuenca, detailed in an audience with the Council of Cuenca on June. By September, the contract between the municipality and the University of Cuenca to determine the existence

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 201 or not of groundwater was signed. Likewise, the University of Azuay signed an agreement of technical cooperation with the Ministry of Mining and the Ministry of

Environment to develop several research projects in the areas of influence of the mining projects Loma Larga and Rio Blanco—both the first underground mining projects of the country, located in the province of Azuay. The predicted timeframe for these studies is five years but they will not be available before the expected date for the beginning of construction of the mine: the end of 2018 according to

INVMINEC, No moratorium was declared until the studies were fulfilled, nevertheless on January 22nd, 2017, with 75% of the votes of the Cantonal Council of Cuenca the territory of the city, its páramo and ecosystems were declared free from metal mining. This remains a political statement without enforceability and

INVMINEC is currently in the process of advancing towards the exploitation phase.

Despite the lack of hydrogeological studies, one mining promoter confidently affirmed

There is no underground water. We have studied it. We need to deepen in certain

details in one area from which we do not have information yet, but in general we

know that in the mineralized body there is no underground water. We have done

400 probe hole drillings, then it is definitive that there is no [underground

water]…As a company, we can confirm there is no underground water (personal

communication, June 9, 2018).

The mineralized body covers an area of 1,500 meters long 400 meters wide

(personal communication, June 16, 2016). This only represents 60 hectares out of

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10,226 (0.6%) identified by Torres and Maldonado in their community mapping of the territory of Kimsakocha (Torres, 2015, p. 17). Extrapolating to the whole territory is misleading and demands clarification. The ‘comprehensive studies’ executed by INVMINEC are in reality, circumscribed only to this area. This was also noted by the director of PROMAS. In addition, the existence of underground water in this area needed to be confirmed for economic purposes due to the high operation costs of pumping aquifers when constructing the underground mine (mining promoter, June 9, 2016). It appears that economic non-viability not socio- environmental impacts were identified as the main risk that might result from the presence of underground water.

In the midst of this void of ‘scientific’ knowledge however, interviewees from the communities of influence around the mining project coincided in affirming that it is unquestionable that in the páramo everything is interconnected. These claims are treated with contempt and deemed “myths” by the social promoters interviewed,

[People] say “no! Everything underground is woven and all waters join as little

veins in the body!” Lies! That is not how water works. Water here [in the

páramo] is superficial and sub-superficial it is not groundwater. In other words,

water is stored from rainfall and begins to fall when there is too much water

(personal communication, March 16, 2016).

Unearthing the knowledge enclosed in the communities’ claims is the objective of section 5 of this chapter. Clashes and overlapping of knowledge claims demand scrutiny, not only for their content but for the underlying values and interests they

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 203 encapsulate. Furthermore, this asymmetrical dialogue of knowledges is the cause of most of the anxiety suffered by the inhabitants of the surrounding areas of the mining project facing the uncertainties brought by mining to the páramo. For these reasons I identify emotions, power and knowledge at the core of the conflict ignited in anticipation of “the arrival of mining,” but first I will discuss how emotional geographies and political ecology have addressed the entwining of those three elements in the context of extractivism.

Political ecology, emotions and the extractive industry: A review of the literature

Emotions and the extractive industry

While researching if and how the “emotional” has been studied in the extractive sector a publication called Meaningful community engagement in the extractive industries: Stakeholder perspectives and research priorities from the International

Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) emerged (Wilson, Best,

Blackmore, & Ospanova, 2016). One of the recommendations of the authors for fostering those meaningful engagements succinctly summarized what I observed throughout my fieldwork and how emotion is mainly understood in the context of extractivism; it proposed “enhancing public understanding, ensuring debates are well-informed and not ‘over-emotional’ [emphasis added]…or politicized to the detriment of adequate discussion or fair representation of interests” (Wilson, Best,

Blackmore, & Ospanova, 2016, p. 16). In other words, it warns that the excessive emotionality associated with struggles around extractivism obscures the possibility

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 204 of relevant discussions and the need to inform and educate the population through

“rational” scientific and technical knowledge (Ey et al., 2017).

The contradiction is however that “rather than being erased [by promoters of the mining industry] emotion[s] [are] regulated in ways that privilege particular emotions and stances as ‘acceptable’” (Ey et al., 2017, pp. 163–164). For instance, the slogan of Ecuador Estratégico, the public company responsible for investing royalties in the communities where the strategic extractive projects are located is

“Recursos que traen felicidad” (resources that bring happiness). In this formulation, it is anticipated that resources generate joy in the beneficiaries of resource exploitation; but emotions bonding people with the places where those resources are located, are deemed as irrational, as explained in the previous chapter. As argued by Ey et al (2017), the act of attributing the abstract category of “natural resources” to the minerals in the subsoil is a deliberate strategy that detaches those “resources” from the relationships and the emotions they would otherwise involve. An example of how this strategy is deployed was explained in chapter 4 through the analysis of how in the narratives of former president Rafael Correa the area around the mining project is portrayed in order to justify extractivism and minimize resistance. But this strategy does not go unnoticed by the communities. The same chapter explained how various inhabitants of the surrounding areas of the project were aware of the intentions concealed by the decision of changing the name of the project from

Quimsacocha (three lagoons) to Loma Larga. As explained by community leader

Carlos Pérez,

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Now they call the project Loma Larga (long hill); of course, to say that

[Kimsakocha] is a hill. It implies that there is nothing [over there]. At a hill

generally there is not much vegetation nor water. But instead all that area is

water, it is páramo, it is life, it is biodiversity and it is the headwater of the rivers.

They cannot invent another name; next will they not name it Loma Larga but

desert to try to deceive us? (personal communication, June 8, 2016).

In the academic literature, the role of emotions in research of the extractive industry has been insufficiently explored. Abundant studies have focused on emotions and social movements (Brown & Pickerill, 2009a, 2009b; Cox, 2009; Della Porta, Diani,

& Flam, 2015; Goodwin & Jasper, 2006; Goodwin, Jasper, & Polletta, 2001; Jasper,

1998; Reed, 2014; Ruiz-Junco, 2013), which can be used to understand mobilization against extractive projects; but broader understandings of emotions in the context of resource extraction are very limited. These have been mostly conducted by applying emerging psychoterratic and emotional geographies.

Psychoterratic geographies are proposed by McManus, Albrecht and Graham (2014) to develop conceptual frameworks able to grasp the relationships between psychological states and environmental conditions. One of these concepts is

‘solastalgia,’ understood as

The pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one

resides and that one loves is under immediate assault (physical desolation). It

is manifest in an attack on one’s sense of place, in the erosion of the sense of

belonging (identity) to a particular place and a feeling of distress

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(psychological desolation) about its transformation… solastalgia is a form of

homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home’ (Albrecht, 2005, p. 45)

Solastalgia has informed studies on how environmental change is endured at the psychological level when ‘home’ has been threatened by human and natural- induced change (Albrecht et al., 2007; Ey et al., 2017; Tschakert, Tutu, & Alcaro,

2013). Applied to conflicts derived from extractivism, the concepts of solastalgia as well as topophilia account for the psychological impacts of mining proposals and therefore, McManus et al. (2014) argue for their incorporation into the social impact assessments (SIAs) of these projects. “Impact assessments would, then, genuinely be plural rather than being reduced to conflicting scientific interpretations of the biophysical” (McManus, Albrecht, & Graham, 2014, p. 64).

Among studies applying emotional geographies, there is the work of Ey, Sherval and

Hodge (2017), Pini, Mayes and McDonald (2010), Graybill (2013) and Murrey

(2016). The study of emotional geography emerged in the midst of what has been called the ‘emotional turn’ in the discipline of geography (Bondi, 2005; Bondi,

Davidson, & Smith, 2005). It situates the relationships between people and between people and place at the center of the analysis (Bondi & Davidson, 2011). Moving beyond criticizing perceptions of emotions as feminine, irrational and individualized, emotional geography understands emotions as relational, embodied and situated (Bondi, 2005; Sultana, 2015; Thien, 2005; Wright, 2012 Anderson &

Smith, 2001; Davidson et al., 2005; Sultana, 2011, 2015; Thien, 2005; Tolia-Kelly,

2006). It “recognizes the role of emotions in the construction of the world, and in interpretations of the world” [emphasis in the original] (Jones, 2005, p. 207).

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Through an emotional geography lens, Melina Ey has investigated unwanted coal and gas projects in New South Wales, Australia. She identifies in concepts like solastalgia “efforts to give voice and legitimacy to the emotional impacts of unwanted mining expansion” (p. 164) and calls for researchers in the extractive sector to validate the emotional and affective realities of the industry, which are normally dismissed alongside the connections between people and places. She argues that this marginalization of emotion, counterposed to rational scientific knowledge, contributes to partial understandings of the impacts generated by extractivism and to the formulation of inadequate policies and practices in the sector (Ey, 2016; Ey & Sherval, n.d.; Ey, Sherval, & Hodge, 2017). Pini, Mayes and

McDonald (2010) conducted another Australian study. Their work on the consequences of the sudden closure of a mine owned by BHP Billiton in Western

Australia, reveals “the ontological importance of emotions as a way of foregrounding and untangling notions of inclusion, home, community, work as well as both ‘place’ and being ‘out-of-place’” (p. 570). Their accounts of the emotional nexus fostered by the company with the whole community, not only with the employees, present various similarities with the approaches followed by INVMINEC, which is now perceived as a “member of the community” by the authorities of the parishes located close to the project, as explained in chapter 5. Jessica Graybill (2013) develops a methodology to map what she calls, the “ecological homeland,” examining the consequences of ecological change caused by oil extraction in Russia. Her aim is to identify the emotions and concerns associated with the different landscapes on

Sakhalin Island. She argues that “emotions about ecologies and resources matter because they shape perceptions about resource access, quality and longevity, which

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 208 may shape future availability of, access to and embodied use of resources” (p. 40).

While in her case those emotions might lead to overexploitation of resources, in the case study of this thesis they might instead inspire the need to protect the landscapes to avoid disturbances to prevailing “emotional ecological topographies”.

Finally Murrey (2016), concerned by ‘slow dissent’ to the Chad-Cameroon Oil

Pipeline in central Africa despite diverse and paradoxical narratives linking exploitation, extraction and structural violence, identifies continually shifting emotional geographies of anger, shame, loyalty, grief, and hope, among others.

Political ecology and emotions

As argued by Ey, Sherval and Hodge,

Without considering emotion, researchers generate tidy yet partial and lifeless

knowledges, devoid of the dynamism, contradiction and messiness that

constitute the world(s) we navigate. Researchers also run the risk of

perpetuating knowledges that undermine (or silence altogether) the lived,

breathed and embodied experiences of those whose places and lives we seek

to understand, value and represent in our work [emphasis added] (Ey, Sherval,

& Hodge, 2017, p. 155).

I would add that for a political ecologist giving voice to “the emotional” becomes an imperative congruent with the commitment to unveiling how different people experience the socio-ecological conflicts we analyze. If emotions are integral parts of how we experience and make sense of the world, paying attention to emotions is unavoidable. In this vein, the work of Sultana (2013, 2015) and Dallman et al. (2013)

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 209 has provided the first steps in bringing together political ecology with emotional geographies, which will be later explained; Singh (2018), on the other hand, is mostly concerned with bringing theories of affect into political ecology.

Farhana Sultana draws attention to “emotional political ecology” as an approach to understanding emotions, meanings and the habitual life experiences associated with resource struggles, and why “resource management can be conceived of as an emotional process defining everyday life” (2015, p. 633). The “political ecology of emotion” of Dallman, Ngo, Laris and Thien (2013) focuses on the convergence of indigenous sacred landscapes, their divergent views and the emotions associated with the politicization of cultural spaces. Their approach allows an understanding of the conflicts that arise when uneven power relations commodify those spaces while neglecting emotional and cultural attachments to sacred places. Adding to these approaches, based on relational ontologies Neera Singh proposes an “affective political ecology” in which affect and emotion theories 25 converge with

“postconstructivist political ecologies” (Escobar, 2010) to bring to the fore “affective socionature encounters” aiming at better understanding distinct ways of being and of engaging with the world (Singh, 2018, p. 4). These approaches have been applied by Hayes-Conroy & Hayes-Conroy who propose “political ecology of the body” as a framework able to synthetize how a PE approach “to emotion and affect can help to make sense of the complex and contradictory nature of food-body relationships” in research on health and alternative food (2013, p. 81). Not dissimilarly, Nightingale

25 Beyond controversial debates over the differences of affect and emotion (Bondi & Davidson, 2011; Curti, Aitken, Bosco, & Goerisch, 2011; Dawney, 2011; Pile, 2010, 2011) I find it more productive to understand both as non subjective individual recounts, emergent from and constitutive of relations between humans and socionatures. Throughout this thesis I prefer to refer to emotions.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 210 finds in “emotional socionatural interactions and assemblages” explanations of why some Scottish fishermen are willing to participate in sustainable fishing practices and government-promoted initiatives and some do not (2013, p. 2369). Finally,

González-Hidalgo uses “emotional political ecologies” to focus on overlooked emotions of trauma and anger deriving from environmental struggles in the forests surrounding indigenous Chilean territories, which can further inspire “political ecologies of healing” (González-Hidalgo, 2017, p. 30; Murrey, 2016).

This literature, analyzed through different lens combining emotional geographies, theories of affect and emotion and political ecology, lacks however another critical aspect of “what emotions do” (Ahmed, 2012, p. 191): Emotions fundamentally inform ontologies and epistemologies (Ey et al. 2017). According to Escobar, in the context of resource struggles certain knowledges emerge from relationships and not just about them;26 “those who produce them sentipiensan con la Tierra (they think- feel with the Earth)” (2016, p. 14, 29). Interestingly, Cepeda similarly (2017) proposes “Latin American ontological sentipensar” as a research method based on close, respectful and humble conversations to unveil quotidian wisdom and

“reasoning-with (with-everything-that-is and with-the-heart)” (Cepeda H., 2017, p.

26).

In what follows, I draw on Escobar and Cepeda’s 'relational ontologies.' I am concerned with the nature of emotional and embodied knowledge as both, producer and product of the multiple engagements between people and their socionatures. I

26 For an explanation of sentipensar (thinking-feeling) see Escobar, 2016, p. 14

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 211 argue that in the context of impending mining in the páramo these influence notions of risks and impacts, and how these are felt by the population inhabiting the surrounding areas of the planned projects. This is explored in more detail in the following section.

Knowing through emotions

Relational epistemologies

The contribution of this chapter is mainly epistemological as I place emotions not as the object of research but as a research method in and of itself (Cepeda, 2017). By letting emotions speak and through understanding what emotions both do and enable, my purpose is to bring to the fore of the discussions around neoextractivism the lived experiences (or “sentipensar”) of those whose lives this development model attempts to improve. I argue that no debate can be comprehensive if

“relational epistemologies” are dismissed, particularly in uncertain contexts where scientific and technical knowledge proves incomplete. Here, the knowledge and experience of the people whose lifeways are co-produced in interaction with the páramo socio-ecosystem might balance those shortcomings.

Through the study of hunter-gatherer cultures, Bird-David (1999) explains relational epistemologies as ways of knowing the environment, which are derived from intimate engagements with Nature. Tim Ingold (1999) and Kay Milton (2002) agree that Bird-David’s argument is applicable to other cultures. They further state that these “relational ways of knowing have lost much of their authority [;] but they

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 212 continue to operate nonetheless and remain deeply embedded in the experience of everyday life” (Ingold, 1999, p. S81). They are the “products of universal perceptual experience” (Milton, 2002, p. 48).

I find a link between relational epistemologies and emotions as both emerge from engagements with socionatures. Within psychology and philosophy, developments on situated perspectives theorize emotions as “dynamically coupled to an environment which both influences and is influenced by the unfolding of the emotion” (Griffiths & Scarantino, 2009, p. 437). Emotions “are induced when an organism interacts with objects in [the] environment”27 (Milton, 2002, p. 4); thus, they are relational, spatially bounded and represent embodied experiences that shape and are shaped by the relationships that co-produce socionatures (J.

Anderson, 2009; Nightingale, 2013). This suggests that the main way in which human beings engage with socionatures, and thus are able to acquire knowledge from them, is through emotions.

Accordingly, based on ideas from Neisser (1976) that explains “cognition […] as grounded in direct perception of the environment” Kay Milton (2002) in her

“ecology of emotion” proposes that what we know about the world emerges from our engagement with the environment. Emotions “operate primarily (though not exclusively) in ecological relations rather than social relations” (Milton, 2002, p. 4);

27 Milton and the other authors cited in this section refer to ‘environment’ not as Nature but as everything “other than ourselves” (Anderson, 2009, p. 124). Methodologically, it is useful to differentiate between the self and the ‘environment’ but indeed the relational ontologies that inform this thesis challenge the notion of ‘environment’ used to represent Nature as external to the individual, moreover the self is part of and constructed by the socionatural world, with which human beings interact (Nightingale, 2013).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 213 therefore, studies of emotions are better positioned than constructionist models28 to analyze how experiences of the world generate knowledge. Similarly, Anderson proposes that emotions, which he defines as relational sensibilities,29 “contribute[] to a knowledge that is both embodied and cognitive, producing an understanding that identifies relational interdependence and co-constitution in the post-natural world” (J. Anderson, 2009, p. 124). In conclusion, emotions do have a “constitutive role…in the generation of knowledge about the environment” (Whitney, 2013, p.

101).

Informed by these understandings research frameworks like embodied cognition are emerging in disciplines like psychology to challenge divisions between emotion and cognition and the body and the environment (Lewicka, 2011). All these notions can be related, in the Latin American context, to Escobar’s understanding of sentipensar. Human beings think-feel through their interactions with everything in

Nature. Applying these insights, it worth questioning then what knowledges emerge from the engagements between campesinos and their socionatures and why they have informed emotional geographies of fear facing impending mining in the páramo? But first, it is necessary to explore the nature of those engagements. This is explained as follows.

28 Constructionist models interpret knowledge acquired from interactions through the lens of cultural constructs; they restrict the production of and understanding of knowledge only to social interactions (Milton, 2002). 29 “Relational sensibility is the emotion registered within a human being, but produced through the co-constitution of that human within a transient convergence of postnature” (J. Anderson, 2009, p. 124).

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Engagements with socionature

Place attachment and sense of place are concepts developed mostly in the fields of

Geography and Environmental Psychology to define the relationships between people and the ‘environment.’ I find that generally these notions are restricted in their understandings of emotions between people and their places. Notions of place attachments are narrowly defined as bonds, mostly positive and emotional/affective, to meaningful places (Hinojosa, Lambin, Mzoughi, &

Napoléone, 2016; Jorgensen & Stedman, 2001; Lewicka, 2011; Relph, 1976). There is also a misleading tendency to equate place attachment with sense of place

(Vanclay, 2008).

Scannell and Gifford have developed the most comprehensive concept of place attachment,

[Their] person–process–place (PPP) framework [defines] place attachment

[as] a bond between an individual or group and a place that can vary in terms

of spatial level, degree of specificity, and social or physical features of the place,

and is manifested through affective, cognitive, and behavioral psychological

processes (Scannell & Gifford, 2010, p. 5).

I suggest that notions of place attachment that characterize engagements between people and their places only as a strong love for nature (Graybill, 2013) or

'topophilia'—defined as “human love of place” or “the affective bond between people and place or setting” (1990, p. 92, 4)—might not entirely grasp the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 215 magnitude of these interactions. It is not only love that connects people and their socionatures. Furthermore, people and places are interdependent but these notions reproduce visions of Nature as outside the self, inherently dissociated from people.

The concept of sense of place is more thorough as it “consists of knowledge, belonging, attachment, and commitment to a place or part of it” (Shamai; 1991, p.

354). It comprises identity, attachment and dependence (Jorgensen and Stedman,

2001). Nevertheless, I agree with Stedman’s warning that sense of place viewed under an extreme constructionist perspective misleads understandings of how place and people are co-produced. Indeed, spaces need to be experienced and filled with meanings in order to become places (Tuan 1977, Anderson 2015) but in this construction of places, the material aspects of those settings cannot be ignored

(Stedman, 2001). Furthermore, “the person gives the place its meaning, but in return receives the place’s meaning” (Shamai 1991, p. 255); in other words, the person is also shaped by that connection; for this reason I prefer to use the term

‘engagements with socionature.’

In chapter 1 I defined campesino as a self-acknowledged place-based cultural category. Deep rootedness explains the emergence of cultural landscapes, as the countryside, through the fusion of culture and ‘environment’ (Borrero, 1989; Relph,

2009), while the concept of place identity (Proshansky et al 1983) helps understanding why campesinos have defined their identity according to the places they dwell and where their productive and social life is reproduced. In Spanish, campesino literally means an inhabitant of the countryside (campo). Their engagement with the countryside has therefore become part of their self-definition

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 216 and “[come] to represent who they are” (Scannel and Gifford, p. 3). Notions that define their relationships with the countryside in terms of love can hardly explain the nature of those engagements. Implying how peasant farmers age faster given the hardship of working the land, in a joyful conversation a campesina from Victoria del

Portete mentioned,

I am already 60 years old senorita (young lady) ha ha ha. I am losing; I am

already finishing my life. Here [at the countryside] we live running, only running

[to attend] the cattle, the cuy (guinea pig), then to attend the pig, feeding the

dog, again to the cuyes; instead you are tranquilita [quiet] only in front of the

computer.

Another campesina of around the same age explained,

Us [campesinos] we know how to work. We breed! At my house I have a chicken,

a dog, a cat, a cow, a sheep; I have turkeys. Our celestial Father has given us arms,

he has given us eyes, and he has given us everything to be able to grow. Others

want everything so easy. It can never be easy; instead, we need to suffer to be

able to have (June 15, 2016).

But as explained on chapter 1, despite the hardship endured in everyday life, campesinos are proud of their relationship with Nature. Their lives revolve around the land, which needs to be taken care of to provide its ‘blessings,’ according to various interviewees. This reciprocity engenders a greater understanding of the interdependences between society and Nature; therefore it is not only love that connects people and their zones of life, but also, responsibility, awe and caring for

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 217 the socionatural world where lifeways are co-produced. As explained by a community leader,

Who can love Mother Earth this much? The ones that live in the countryside, who

are in the community stepping without shoes on the land and connecting with it

[…] It makes us value the management of the great house, of Mother Nature. That

is why I think that us [campesinos] are the first ecologists because we value so

much Mother Earth, we see that when Mother Earth is ill we fall ill. And we know

that anyone can spit in the sky, then if we hurt Mother Earth we are committing

suicide. (C. Pérez, Community leader and president of ECUARUNARI July 8,

2016).

It becomes logical to refer to the people who experience these landscapes in their everyday life to generate adequate knowledge to predict potential impacts of anthropogenic-induced changes. Their material, symbolic, emotional and metaphysical engagements depict and are constructed by that experience. I do not focus on the metaphysical aspect, which have informed understandings of indigenous ontologies because the campesinos who participated in this research hardly defined themselves as indigenous peoples despite sharing common beliefs derived from Andean cosmovisions. The Andean cosmology is rich with deities associated with Nature, including mountain gods. Literature on the cosmological and ontological dimensions of the relationships in the Andean world explores this, including Rutgerd Boelens’ concept of the hydrocosmological cycle (Boelens, 2014) and Marisol de la Cadena’s work on ontological politics (de la Cadena, 2010). By focusing on emotions instead, I am able to grasp the experiences and knowledges

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 218 derived from active engagement between Andean peasant communities and the páramo, which are not necessarily derived from metaphysical understandings of

Nature.

“Emotions are vital (living) aspects of who we are and of our situational engagement within the world” (Smith, Davidson, Cameron, & Bondi, 2009, p. 10); they are decisive in how we construct and interpret the world (Jones, 2007); and, they influence how so called ‘resources’ are perceived, used and preserved (Graybill,

2013; Sultana, 2011). Hence, based on understandings of relational epistemologies coupled with emotional geographies I suggest that emotions can be used as an analytical tool to know of, from and through relationships within the socionatural world. Perceived threats to the different engagements between Andean communities and the páramo mainly informed geographies of fear, which are the focus of the following section. By deconstructing them I aim at giving voice to peoples’ concerns and to answer the research question that has guided this thesis: why, faced with impending extraction for development, do the inhabitants of the areas of influence of the Loma Larga project fear the reconfiguration of their socionatural engagements with the páramo of Kimsakocha? I will argue that awareness of socionatural co-constitutions influence perceptions of acceptable risks and disclose overlooked impacts of environmental change, and how they are and might be experienced in everyday life.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 219

Emotions and mining: impacts and risks of a forthcoming activity

Researching peoples’ reactions towards a mining project in its early stages showed that conflict does not emerge with the operation of the mine, neither are its impacts associated with excavating the mine site. Mining impacts and socio-ecological change go beyond palpable changes in the mine site and are felt even before mining operations are initiated. This means that we do not deal only with ‘real’ impacts but also with foreseen and perceived impacts, which are equally significant and are consequences of the different meanings ascribed to the areas in which there are interventions, how actors get to know these spaces and how they experience their relationships with them.

Bebbington (2011) identifies that perceptions of risk and uncertainty differ among actors involved in mining disputes based on diverse weightings of losses and gains.

In this case, I argue that socionatural engagements influence perceptions of acceptable risks and disclose overlooked impacts of environmental change, and how they are experienced in everyday life. Fieldwork revealed that in a context of uncertainty and conflicting information, respondents mostly referred to perceptions of impacts through the emotions that imagined resource exploitation induced. These were mostly expressions of fear, which I suggest are derived from a closer understanding of the impacts of forthcoming resource exploitation over the interactions with and within the páramo socio-ecosystem. Fear escalates through common perceptions that risks and impacts are defined by actors living outside the territories of influence based on assumptions detached from place-based

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 220 knowledge of how the socio-ecosystem works; therefore the assumptions under which mining will operate might be flawed. This is aggravated by the dismissal of local knowledges about how the páramo ‘behaves’ in a model of resource governance in which participation is constrained. Thus, socio-environmental movements, which emerged within the potentially affected communities, have demanded participation in environmental decision-making as an imperative to counteract the powerlessness of being governed by actors who might fail to comprehend the multidimensionality of extractivism in hydrosocial territories.

The following section looks at the frequent emotional narratives of fear that emerged as respondents—inhabitants of the areas of direct and indirect social influence of the Loma Larga project—reflected upon foreseen scenarios of resource exploitation in the páramo of Kimsakocha: 1) to disclose broader understandings of how neoxtractivism disturbs the relationships between the inhabitants and their socionatures; and 2) to explain the risks of constraining social participation in environmental governance.

Emotional geographies of fear in Kimsakocha

Although mining representatives claim that the population has been amply informed of the processes, technology and risks of mining operations, the common perception among the inhabitants of the surrounding areas of the Loma Larga project is that uncertainty reigns and the information released is not trustworthy. A campesino from Chumblín warned about the need to be critical:

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 221

Well the miners tell wonders! They give talks, they have screened videos, and they

have called everyone. Yes, they have done that but we need to raise awareness

that not everything that they say is going to be true (personal communication

June 11, 2016).

A teacher who attended to several training sessions given at her school by

INVMINEC similarly narrated,

We received training. Then we went up there to the mines and we started asking

questions [based on what we learned]. They said that the information we had

previously received was not accurate…I asked about things they had already told

us and they avoided and ignored my questions! Thus, I was left doubtful because

if they did not answer it might have been something harmful what I asked about.

They really did not answer me. Then of course, their silence granted me that what

it was asking was true (personal communication, June 11, 2016).

INVMINEC’s information programs focus on describing and visually demonstrating how the project will be executed and technically managed; they use models and maps to reinforce their claim that the project is located far from water sources, but anxiety for the unknown is still common among the population.

Closer attention to fear as expression of and derived from knowledge and engagements with the páramo socio-ecosystem shows a disconnection between peoples’ concerns and the focus of the risk management measures planned by the company. These are mostly related to diverging definitions of socio-environmental impacts and underestimation of risks, which are discussed as follows.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 222

“They do not live here, they do not know, they do not feel these realities”: Diverging definition of socio-environmental impacts

While the mining industry delineates mitigation measures addressing impacts on water quality and quantity derived from its use in different mining processes since the exploration phase, these are insufficient to calm peoples’ fears because the definition of socio-environmental impacts differ (Li, 2015). As follows I discuss concerns raised by the population about impacts that were not considered by mining experts during our interviews: water and the socionatural roles of minerals.

“The little water veins will be cut”: reduction of ecological flows and disturbance in water’s socionatural roles

The denial of underground water, the interruption of water flows and the limited understanding of the roles of water were defined as the main sources of concern of the population. For locals, water moves horizontally as well as vertically. They explained the movement of underground water in the páramo through “veins similar to the ones in the human body.” Distrustful of the company, a senior campesino from

San Gerardo explained,

How can I believe that when they dig in water sources the superficial water will

remain, even though they dig underground, as they say? What will happen when

they dig 600-700 meters? Those little veins of water that God has created will

be cut, where will water go? It is the same as a person; if you cut one vein from

him, what will happen then? …Water will dry because of those veins that they

tore off. They say they will fill [the excavation] with concrete but water used to

flow through there, where will water go? If someone tears off my vein and then

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 223

they sew me, how will blood circulate again? How can I believe that when they

dig the páramo it is not going to go dry? (personal communication, August 21,

2016)

These understandings are congruent with a feasible scenario for the existence of groundwater implied by the Director of PROMAS during our interview. Indeed, páramo’ soils are popularly known as “colchones de agua.” Rainfall water is captured in this superficial layer covering up to 60 meters deep. Below this páramo layer, research to date has proven the existence of a silica layer up to 400 meters deep.

This “mineralized silica body” (IAMGOLD, 2009, p. 1-4) is one of the hardest materials on earth, waterproof and compact (INVMINEC social promoter, March 16,

2016). Nevertheless, the Director explained that current research has only targeted the specific area where the Loma Larga deposit is located, thus it is not enough to assert that the silica layer is not fractured at other locations. “What we know so far is that under the páramo soil there is a material called silica where the ore body is located. [The company] has only drilled to see if there is gold or not but we do not have more information than that” (personal communication, February 23, 2016). The zone is characterized by multiple geological faults also. Could these fractures be the venitas (little veins) that local inhabitants frequently mention?

The claims of the communities are not at all baseless. Despite using different language, technical and experiential knowledge do overlap. During the presentation of a Colombian geologist invited by the NGO Accion Ecologica to give a seminar and to support the water users of Girón, he explained,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 224

Another point that I want to clarify is what happens with the tunnels; overall

because this [Loma Larga] project is planned as underground exploitation. As we

all know, water moves from top to bottom, but underground water moves

differently. Underground water moves from higher to lower pressure and the

pressure in the walls of the tunnels is 0, there is no pressure. Then all the water

that is inside the mountain will tend to move towards the tunnel. If I drill a tunnel

in that mountain, all the water cycle will be modified” (participant observation,

May 22, 2016).

Both knowledges contradict the presumed certainty of the absence of underground water, which the government and INVMINEC use to support the feasibility of mining in the páramo.

Fears of “the páramo going dry” result from predicting the impacts that underground drilling might have given the interconnection of aquifers. For instance, when asked if San Fernando would be affected by mining, a middle-aged woman explained that when she received information from the mining promoters looking at a map, they insisted that the mining project was far away from San Fernando, nevertheless she wondered,

Well what happens is that she [the mining promoter] says that [the project] is

there and San Fernando is here, then, hmmmm. But I think, because I went once

up to the mine site that everything looks like one whole. I suppose that yes [we

will be affected] overall because of the underground water, because there is

underground water! (personal communication, June 9, 2016)

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 225

The remarks of limited spatial interventions that support the idea of an enclosed and knowable ecosystem and controllable and simplified risks portrayed by the mining company are therefore not congruent with local understandings based on the interconnectivity within the socio-ecosystem of the páramo, as explained in chapter 5. According to the population, environmental impacts cannot be reducible to concerns over water quantity and quality but instead, they entail all the processes in which water assumes a socionatural role. The construction of a mine in the páramo adds other complexities. For the peasant population, what is at stake is not a possible contamination of water sources, but an overall reduction of ecological flows, poisoning of livestock, the impossibility of securing food sovereignty and the loss of the properties that allow the páramo to capture water and maintain the ‘rich’ soils.

“And what about the richness of the minerals in the soil?” Páramo’ soils and underground processes

Science and local knowledge agree that it is the páramo soil that enables the provision of ecosystem services of water regulation and storage, as explained in chapter 4. For this reason the páramo soil and vegetation are commonly defined as

“colchones de agua” (water sponges) and will be protected by the choice of underground over open pit mining (personal communication, various respondents,

June 9, 2018). But one matter emerging from the interviews, which was never considered by mining experts, was why the socionatural role of the minerals located underground is ignored.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 226

According to community leader Rufina Zhagüi, the true richness of Kimsakocha lies in the gold beneath, but only while it remains untouched and is not exploited for human purposes. She explained,

Our grandparents, our ancestors considered Kimsakocha sacred. They never

wanted it to be touched. Of course there is gold, they always knew there was gold.

They used to say that it was the reason of the good production, they said [the

gold] attracted the [good production]...They always respected Kimsakocha

(personal communication, August 30, 2016)

An elder from San Fernando agreed,

We are not aware of what they are taking we only see earth; but that is what is

valuable! Us foolish people say: they are just taking earth, but it is there where

the richness of the terrain is! (personal communication, August 21, 2016)

Using analogies of the human body campesinos from Chumblín also wondered,

All those [minerals and metals] are part of the soil, are they not? I mean, if you

take a little bit of that soil it is left less rich, then it will not work anymore. It is

like they took a finger from my body, any part. I think that the páramo functions

in the same way and I wonder how is that substance that was extracted restored

again? (30 years old woman, June 11, 2016).

I mean, the soil produces minerals and if you unearth those minerals then what

is the remnant soil left with? It is like someone takes my blood and says: it is only

blood that I will extract! Since I was a child I was taught that the soil has its

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 227

minerals and that they support the production, everything we cultivate. They

[the miners] say: I am only going to unearth the mineral, but if they take the

mineral then the soil will be left empty! (46 years old woman, June 11, 2016).

By contrast, in the vision of the mining industry the need of filling the tunnels after ore extraction has the only purpose of avoiding subsidence of the soil. But a very worried peasant from Chumblín also questioned,

That is the fear. Of course, [the miners] say that there is not going to be anything

just a tunnel. That they will fill it with concrete and leave it hard so the land does

not [collapse]. But tell me, is that concrete going to produce everything that the

current soil produces down there? Is [that concrete] going to contain the same

minerals and [everything] that [allows the] soil to produce the water? (personal

communication, June 11, 2016).

Faced with these concerns, mining only replicates a conception of ‘natural resources’ that denies the role of metal ores as constituents of the soil and thus, as key elements for the maintenance of ecological integrity (Ey, Sherval and Hodge,

2017 Shiva, 2010); or in the words of local people, “what allows the páramo to produce water”. By neglecting socionatural interdependencies, mining is oblivious to the myriad processes that are disrupted when extracting those resources. Place- based knowledge is critical because as seen in these accounts, it understands those interactions that the mining sector is unaware of; thus it infuses fears that the assumptions under which mining will operate are flawed and risks are underestimated.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 228

“The risk is that the terrain is left worthless and we live from livestock and farming”: threats to peasant lifeways and intergenerational risks

Evidence showed that perceptions of risks were higher in the population inhabiting the rural parishes surrounding the Loma Larga project. Both the government and the mining company instead, assigned ‘minimal’ risks to the interventions, which were deemed manageable by cutting-edge technology.

On one hand, common among the respondents were desperate reflections of forced migration giving the risks of losing their sources of livelihoods, even when the underground mine design does not require displacement of the population. In

Victoria del Portete some campesinos, mostly foreseeing an impending doom, recounted:

We are speaking of the end of life! [Mining] is really a disadvantage, because it

weakens, because it [endangers] the guarantee of a better life and existence itself

(personal communication, June 9, 2016).

We could not live. We will have to abandon our land and leave. And where will

we go? (personal communication, August 31, 2016).

I say that all Victoria del Portete finishes. Dairy production, livestock everything!

[The president] should be conscientious of what we need. Where are we going

to live? (personal communication, June 15, 2016).

In the peasants’ imaginary, there was no point of being a campesino in a non- productive or depleted landscape as a consequence of mining operations. Their campesino lifeways would be threatened by the reorganization of economic

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 229 activities once mining operates because national and local authorities are prioritizing potential provision of goods and services for the mine over the support of local economies based on agriculture. An example of this is the constant struggle of dairy farmers to get authorities to assure producers a fair minimum price for milk; whereas common among the narratives of parish authorities is the need to encourage the inhabitants “to prepare themselves to provide [services and goods] to the people coming to work in the mines.” This includes the provision of services including catering, transport and hospitality and not only labor to the mine in order to make money from it and achieve sustainable development (personal communication, president GAD San Gerardo, August 3, 2016). But these options to

‘improve’ their conditions were not appealing to all the population who, as explained in chapter 1, are mostly proud of being campesinos. Through his personal story, a young man from Tarqui expressed during a focus group that the countryside is still a land of opportunities,

Some time ago I realized that I should drastically change my perspective of what

development and progress are. I quit my job because I realized that here [at the

countryside] is development and the future. One day when my mom cultivated

the chakra (small farm) milked the cows and we made cheese; I felt that just

earning money was something different [from these experiences]. Then I told

my mom that here was the future, this is what is worthy, this is what we need to

live, nothing else. I am helping my mom to think different too because at the

beginning when I quit my job she said I was wasting my future. I told her I rather

cultivate here with her, to me that is the future. And I realized that all this time

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 230

we have been wrong, that we are not backwards. People commonly think that

working the land at the countryside means backwardness while working in

offices is advanced. That is a lie; locking yourself in an office is more backward

(focus group Kimsakocha’s agroecology school, March 4, 2016).

On the other hand and related to intergenerational concerns, another commonly overlooked local viewpoint is the spatiotemporal understanding of mining risks. As explained in chapter 5, the portrayal of a bounded mine site in which impacts and risks are contained, manageable and controlled conflicts with local understandings of extended areas of social and environmental influence of the mining project as far as society and Nature are related to those spaces. Therefore, doubts are raised about how the mining company is going to respond to impacts in areas that are not even considered as potentially affected, spatially but also temporally. The mining industry establishes risk mitigation measures for the lifespan of the mine and currently they are also budgeting costs for mine closure, but the focus of the local population is on the long-term, worried by the world that their offspring will inhabit.

There is a shared apprehension caused by the possibility that the health, lifeways and happiness of future generations might be jeopardized by a project executed over

10 to 12 years. A senior campesina from Tarqui shared that her concerns increase when her daughter repeatedly asks her “Mom and what are we going to do when mining wins?” What will happen with us?” (personal communication, April 24) .

A particular relationship is also established between short-term economic benefits from mining exploitation and long-term possible risks, as explained by a librarian in

San Gerardo,

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 231

He [the president] says that nothing will happen but what if something did

happen? What after everything is contaminated or if something happened? He

does not live here. Of course, they are investing in projects; the president of the

GAD always remarks that they are investing in infrastructure and that benefits

us all, but what about later? Others say that if something happened it would be

many years later and we might not even be alive then; but we say our children,

our grandchildren, they are going to suffer! (personal communication, June 21,

2016).

That overly economic view, highlighting the current economic benefits from mining while downplaying long-term impacts and risks, is very common in the narratives of government officials. In general most respondents criticized this ‘effortless’ and short-termed vision. Their arguments were mostly similar to the following excerpt from a campesina from Victoria del Portete,

[The mining company] is not going to say sit down and we will give you

everything. It is not like that. If you do not make an effort, if you do not work you

do not get anything...About people in favor of mining I think that money changed

them. I do not know what mining has given them or if they will get everything for

free…I say that those in favor must not have children, or animals or anything;

that is why they favor it. That is the truth miss (personal communication, August

31, 2016).

In sum, development promises clash with peasant priorities. While infrastructure, health and education investments are attractive for the improvement in wellbeing

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 232 there is a remnant fear of what the population would jeopardize in order to receive those benefits. Agriculture is perceived as incompatible with mining and the option of working in the mine or becoming providers of goods and services for the mining industry is not appealing. Nor it will be possible for all the population—mining is a capital-intensive not labor-intensive industry. It is reinforced then, the notion of sacrifice of local lifeways for the national good and the provision of insufficient perks as compensations for their loss, due to the monetary incommensurability of those losses and the overemphasis of economic benefits from mining. These acccounts also evidence vital information about how the socio-ecosystem will respond to the modifications proposed, which have been mostly overlooked for two reasons: knowledge has been used to support resource-based development, and knowledge producers are valued—or dismissed—according to the interests they allegedly represent.

Discussion and conclusion

The connotations of mining as a matter of life or death held by local people are not misunderstandings of how mining operates. In the literature, higher risk perceptions in areas threatened by human-induced socio-environmental change have been interpreted as place-protective attitudes founded in place attachment (N.

M. Anderson, Williams, & Ford, 2013; Devine-Wright, 2009; Scannell & Gifford,

2014). Nevertheless, I argue that knowledge of those who “think-feel with the Earth”

(Escobar, 2016, p. 14) is the basis for the interpretation of the risks associated with mining if it is developed in the socionatural space in which their lifeways are rooted.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 233

These magnified risk perceptions are not based on simple love of place or an altruistic defense of Nature; they are reminders that by threatening socionatures

“we [might be] committing suicide” (C. Perez, personal communication). It is an act of self-preservation but not based on utilitarian valuations of Nature (J. Anderson,

2009). Instead, local people recognize that the socio-ecosystem as a whole can only bear certain trade-offs. These are influenced by place-based definitions of impacts, awareness of the interdependence between peasant lifeways and the páramo, and the spatiotemporal comprehension of risks. The notion of risk itself is redefined according to the relationships between the socio-ecosystem and the endangered

‘resources’.

Locally defined socio-environmental impacts in space and time, distrust over industry-defined risk definition and management and the search for intergenerational justice, offer insights for developing a broader understanding of resource extraction in socio-ecosystems, such as the páramo. First, ‘resources’ as well as landscapes are valued according to peoples’ relationships with them and those engagements cannot be fully understood from ‘outside;’ especially when knowledge is valued according to which interests it serves. Second, the circumscription of areas of intervention by mining using spatial criteria, fails to acknowledge that in the socionatural world people, ecosystems and ‘resources’ are interrelated and that risks associated to potential modifications of the socio- ecosystem are exponentially spread through the relationships that produce them.

And third, the concern mentioned by almost all the respondents about the plight of future generations cannot be dismissed. Mothers and fathers were too anxious faced

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 234 with the possibility that their children might suffer in the future from scarcity, precarious health or even that they could be forced to migrate and would miss the experience of engaging with the countryside.

Why are these concerns magnified by neoextractivism? Promises of economic benefits highlighted by the Ecuadorian government and notions of manageable risks stated by INVMINEC, are not enough to calm peoples’ worries because they do not address their deeper concerns, nor can they be expressed in monetary terms.

Resource extraction in the páramo produces a whole new set of connections and disconnections while neglecting current socionatural configurations that are a product of infinity of interactions over time and space. Mining companies and the governments that support them tend to compartmentalize. Authorities proclaim that “the mining issue is a technical matter, not a political one” (representative from the Ministry of Environment, personal communication), but the governments’ position towards mining is a political act. It marginalizes local visions that privilege relationships, interdependencies and co-constitutions and ends up suitably detaching locals from decision-making. It is also a convenient strategy to render controllable the mining interventions but it gives a false impression of manageable risks. Risks can only be managed to the extent that they are fully comprehended, but according to most respondents, that is the main problem: the public is not involved in decision-making. Spaces to share peoples’ views are reduced in applying a model of resource governance that understands participation only as information and education, but not as binding consultation.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 235

To conclude, this chapter has argued for a serious exploration of what emotions disclose about the engagements between communities and socionatures and the knowledges that derive from those, to show: i) that the emotions generated faced with impending socio-ecological change are by themselves legitimate arguments of the risks of exploiting partially known socio-ecosystems as the páramo; and ii) that emotions by themselves are also justifications for the necessity of revisiting a development model that neglects the everyday experience of the economic improvements it aims at achieving and the changes in the socionatural world it entails.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 236

Chapter 7:

Discussion: Emotional political ecology of resource extraction

Introduction

[A]ll ecological projects (and arguments) are simultaneously political-economic projects (and arguments) and vice versa. Ecological arguments are never socially neutral any more than socio-political arguments are ecologically neutral. Looking more closely at the way ecology and politics interrelate then becomes imperative if we are to get a better handle on how to approach environmental/ecological questions (D. Harvey, 1993, p. 25).

In words of Andrea Nightingale “economic development issues are always environmental issues, although this insight is not always explicitly acknowledged”

(Nightingale, 2002, p. 6). Accordingly, Harvey’s quote above points to the inevitability of coupling ecological and political analysis to understand the implications of economic projects, which are inherently socio-political and ecological. These projects include development interventions based on resource extraction like the one analyzed throughout this thesis. Political ecology (PE) was born with that aim, even when along its roughly 50 years of history, the approach has tended to privilege either the political or the ecological side (Walker, 2005,

2006; Zimmerer & Bassett, 2003). In order to respond to the increasing challenges of researching such topics, the approach has been enriched by developments in other disciplines, allowing for true interdisciplinarity in its analysis. This thesis has aimed to follow this path, integrating different approaches from environmental

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 237 psychology, human and emotional geography, and cultural and ecological anthropology.

Along with traditional PE topics like power, knowledge, access to and control of resources, the thesis has studied emotions, ontologies and meanings. This last chapter is focused on synthesizing the main contributions to the field, especially advancing what Escobar (Escobar, 2010b) has identified as ‘third-generation PE.’

The chapter starts with an overview of the findings, which respond to the research question presented in chapter 1: why, faced with impending extraction allegedly to support development, do the inhabitants of the areas of influence of the Loma Larga project fear that in reality there will be a reconfiguration of their socionatural engagements with the páramo of Kimsakocha? The following section discusses the main theoretical contributions of this research project. The third section explores the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are presented in the fourth section. Recommendations and conclusions follow.

Overview of findings: Neoextractivism and the reconfiguration of hydrosocial territories

This section discusses the main arguments developed throughout the thesis, which argued that neoextractivism is not only a development model,30 but it also has the power to reconfigure existing socionatural configurations—conceived as hydrosocial

30 By development model I do not only refer to an accumulation regime as stated in the Ecuadorian Plan for Good Living (PNBV) 2013-2017, where extractivism is understood in terms of "a new model of accumulation, distribution and redistribution" (SENPLADES, 2013, p. 37-38).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 238 territories—through asymmetrical power relations, legitimizing discourses and knowledge systems; while undervaluing its impacts on the interdependencies between peasant lifeways and the páramo.

“Power is reflected in the ability of one actor to control the environment of another

[but] there is much more to [unequal power] relations than `meet the eye'” (Bryant,

1998, p. 86). This is reflected in Ecuador, where under the neoextractivist logic a model of resource governance was defined, in part to ensure the authority of the state over natural resources. It also aimed to legitimize exploitation through the

‘repoliticization’ of resource extraction (Hogenboom, 2012), and redistribution of the rents generated, as explained in chapter 3. The government also wanted to define whose actors’ meanings and discourses are lawful (chapter 5), and whose knowledge counts in mining and infrastructure projects (chapter 6).

An apparently legitimate exercise in which the state as ‘owner and manager of natural resources’ (as assigned by the Political Constitution), has actually obliterated the rights of the populations of the territories where those resources are located. Understood in a broader sense, these rights should not only be limited to the right to access the resources in their localities but also include the right to decide the kind of development they prefer, the sustainable use of those resources, the right to water and food sovereignty, the rights of Nature, and intergenerational justice, among other aspects.

On the other hand, this appropriation of resources by the state is not coercive as it is legitimized by the Political Constitution, but also by the role of the neo-

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 239 developmentalist state as the one that allegedly ‘knows best’ how to profit from resource exploitation in order to secure economic growth. In this sense, inhabitants of the areas of influence of the projects are not dispossessed of their resources but instead, as Ecuadorian citizens, named as the ‘first beneficiaries’ from the exploitation of resources and the redistribution of their rents.

Acknowledging that material struggles are as important as struggles over meanings and knowledge (Bryant, 1998; Escobar, 2006; Murray Li, 1996), many strategies, which aimed at marginalizing other actors deemed as ‘illegitimate,’ have been unveiled during fieldwork, Among these:

Denial of territories-in-territories

It was argued that not just one hydrosocial territory exists, despite dominant visions that portray it as a single and homogenous territory with established boundaries and knowable biophysical conditions. This denies the pluralism of “territories-in-territory”

(Hoogesteger, Boelens, & Baud, 2016, p. 92). Each territorial imaginary reproduces the interests, values and perceptions of different groups, generating an overlap of diverse territorial projects. The government's development vision shapes the territory accordingly, and the neoextractivist model is accompanied by a redefinition that allows the government easy access and arguably, less socio- environmental conflict. In Kimsakocha for instance, the territory in which

‘resources’ of the subsoil assume a socionatural role is deemed to be a ‘lifeless hill,’ whose exploitation is not only a ‘moral’ imperative to alleviate poverty but that should affect the surrounding populations only in a small way, because the páramo

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 240 socio-ecosystem is understood as an uninhabited and fragmented 'eco'system (see

Rafael Correa’s discourses presented in chapter 4).

Fair mining for development and areas of influence of strategic projects

Discourses of “fair mining” from the government and INVMINEC’s “new mining” have aligned to create a coherent and powerful narrative of the benefits of extractivism for development, fostering the first development in the areas that host strategic projects. New policies and laws were developed since 2008, aiming at linking extractive rents, development and the territories where natural resources were located, whose inhabitants were defined as the first beneficiaries of economic compensation. But these compensations served also to redefine social participation and egalitarian notions. A review of the legal reforms concerning social participation in environmental management 31 evidenced that what was once conceived as an environmental principle ensuring mechanisms of consultation to potentially affected communities (Art. 20, Book VI, TULAS; Articles 395, 398, Political constitution 2008) has redefined participation as the right to be informed of environmental risks and mitigation measures of the projects and to be compensated through investments in development (Articles 1, 21, Presidential decree 1040,

2008).

Discourses of development, progress and participation are powerful and unquestionable tools to secure dominant interests. Maristella Svampa highlights how “Latin American progressivism, rooted in the developmental tradition […]

31 Included in the conference paper ‘Neoextractivism in the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador: CSR practices and legitimization discourses in the new geographies of resource extraction’ (D. Rodríguez, 2018).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 241 shares and promotes the productive ‘Development/Corporate Social

Responsibility/Governance’ [emphasis added] triad as the dynamic axis of neo- developmental discourse” (Svampa, 2013, p. 127). In Kimsakocha and other areas of influence of ‘strategic projects for development’ this tripartite agreement has implied: i) the alignment of corporate interests and state development priorities thorough the strategy of ‘bringing development to the areas of influence of the projects,’ ii) the redefinition of 'participation' as the provision of information and the receipt of compensation, and iii) the appeasement of resistance through egalitarian discourses.

I argue that egalitarian discourses as ‘fair resource extraction for development’ then, is used to induce passive compliance with a project ‘from above’ while strengthening asymmetrical power structures. On one hand, the articulation of compensation measures from the government and CSR practices aiming at bringing progress to the areas of influence of the project reaffirms in everyday practices the inevitability of the project, reinforcing sentiments of resignation and powerlessness. As interviewees commonly stated, they did not accept the project but regardless of their position, investments in infrastructure for the whole parish have already been made. It was also assumed that the company and the government—through

Ecuador Estratégico—would not be investing if there were a possibility of not executing the project. On the other hand, the notion of fairness and redistribution spatially associated to the areas of influence of the projects allows the manipulation of the fluid imaginary boundaries of those territories. This enables the reshaping of

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 242 the territories to exclude opposing views to state-led projects from the territory itself, as explained in chapter 5.

Maneuvering of knowledge systems

Knowledge systems [are] something broader than science. Knowledge

systems are made up of agents, practices and institutions that organize the

production, transfer and use of knowledge…Relationships within knowledge

systems shape the flows of knowledge, credibility and power within those

systems (Cornell et al., 2013, p. 61).

Especially concerning power and credibility from the definition above, it was also argued that the definition of resource exploitation as an inevitable requirement for progress—translated into an “extractive imperative” (Arsel, Hogenboom, &

Pellegrini, 2016b)—also empowers certain actors to define what kind of knowledge is valuable and pertinent, but this is not 'cost free.' Technical and scientific evidence supporting resource-based development is privileged to back claims that risks are manageable, impacts controllable and that cost-benefits analysis accounts for ‘all’ the costs—asserting greater societal gains, despite the impossibility of translating all the externalities in monetary terms.

Nevertheless despite claiming otherwise, expertise can only offer partial solutions to what can be deemed as ‘wicked problems’ and it is not politically neutral

(Karvonen & Brand, 2009). The convenient strategy of compartmentalizing the economic, the social and the environmental complicates a dialogue with other

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 243 worldviews that conceive these realms as inseparable. It also permits the dismissal of ‘other knowledges,’ which has also served to marginalized certain groups from debate, but it has proven risky faced with the uncertainty of mining in a fragile socio- ecosystem like the páramo, and has exposed the limited understanding of the myriad socionatural relations that co-produce it.

These strategies play out in a context where the discursive legitimation of neoextractivism has to face the internal contradictions of the model itself, explained in chapter 3. The dependence on extractive rents triggers a new set of dependencies brought about by eroding the relationships between the state, society and Nature; but also, the lack of material resources, if there is a contraction of commodity prices challenges the legitimacy of the model and of the government itself. This reflects the shortcomings of a development model that resembles the neoliberal development model based on a dependence on primary exports and notions of infinite growth in a world of finite resources.

Through this thesis I have contributed to the literature on hydrosocial territories by recovering an element that has been lost in the politicization of socionatures: the broader understanding of relational approaches to water territories—or hydrosocial territories—building upon Swyngedouw’s concept of socionatures

(1999). Bear and Bull (2011) critiqued the emphasis given to the socialization of water in the conception of waterscapes over the materiality of water, which in turn was the only focus of the hydrological cycle. The concept of the hydrosocial cycle emerged as a framework to understand how society and nature make and remake each other, but there are methodological problems in the implementation of the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 244 concept (Bakker, 2002; Budds, Linton, & McDonnell, 2014; Schmidt, 2014;

Swyngedouw, 2009). And finally, the concept of hydrosocial territories allowed incorporating a spatial dimension—even if territories are contested and imaginary constructions—and politics in the analysis. Nevertheless, I would argue that the latter is overemphasized in the current literature.

The common feature in the projects studied in the literature on hydrosocial territories is the intervention of the state, either as the executor of state-led hydropower projects (Duarte-Abadía, Boelens & Roa-Avendaño, 2015; Hommes,

Boelens & Maat, 2016)—or through state-supported policies—inclusive recognition

(Seeman, 2016) and payment for ecosystem services (PES) (Duarte-Abadía &

Boelens, 2016). This has usually been accompanied by discourses of development and progress, which have been analyzed through Foucault´s governmentality

(1991). A focus is on the alignment of actors through their adoption of the regimes of representation of the dominant system and their consequent subjectification

(Hommes, Boelens, & Maat, 2016; Hoogesteger et al., 2016). By focusing on the subjectification of actors to align them to state-defined hydroterritorial projects, these studies overlook the basic definition of socionatures as a product of

“historical-geographical process of perpetual metabolism” of the natural and the social (Swyngedouw, 1999, p. 447) in the reconfiguration of socionatures. My study has aimed at combining the historical-geographical production of páramos as hydrosocial territories, the contested construction of those territories, the also contested imposition of diverging and overlapping hydroterritorial projects and how the voices from within those socionatures understand and challenge the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 245 potentially disruptive effects of those projects. Through this comprehensive approach that combines the socioeconomic, socionatural and socioecological, materially and discursively, I expect to be truthful to a relational approach to study the implications of neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories.

Contribution to knowledge

This section locates the theoretical findings in the political ecology literature and pushes the field towards relational ontologies and the study of socio-ecological conflicts through an emotional political ecology approach.

PE and knowledge

Scientific knowledge and positivist approaches to research used as the basis for environmental decision-making have been criticized by political ecologists for their restricted ability to account for the biophysical, social and political aspects of environmental problems (Le Billon, 2015). Also the presumed ‘neutrality’ of knowledge production by science has been challenged in many of its dimensions including: ontology (Carolan, 2004; Karvonen & Brand, 2009), accommodation to particular agendas and legitimization (Bixler, 2013; Forsyth & Walker, 2008), the fact that science is socially produced (Jasanoff, 2004b) and the exercise of politics through knowledge claims (Bryant, 1998; Nightingale, 2002; Peet & Watts, 2004).

To overcome this, two decades ago Batterbury, Forsyth and Thomson called for an integration of knowledges, to be achieved through

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 246

[H]ybrid research…[which] may consider knowledge claims from varied

sources, but also acknowledge that its subject (environmental degradation) is

variously constructed from physical and social viewpoints (1997, p. 128).

Without romanticizing this, people, context and local knowledge matter (Wisner,

2015). According to Enrique Leff, the emancipatory purpose of PE from ‘the South’ has made it more open to privilege different knowledges emerging from local people, affected or potentially affected by socio-ecological conflicts (Leff, 2015); in other words, it is more open to plural ontologies and epistemologies (Escobar,

2006). I would prefer to avoid separating PE from the North or South but I point out that in general, PE is tending to adopt critical ontological positions, in transition to what Escobar has called “postconstructivist political ecologies,” which have emerged since the second half of the 1990s (Escobar, 2010b). This approach differs from more traditional PE's attention to meanings and discourses (Escobar, 1999; Le

Billon, 2015; Peet & Watts, 2004) in that it acknowledges the existence of different worlds, not only different worldviews. This “…radicalizes political ecology, which ceases to be a discourse about the other, to become a dialog[ue] between different beings and their constitutional knowledge” (Leff, 2017, p. 242). Matters of knowledge are primordial in this third-generation of PE, which is open to discussions of relational ontologies, socionature approaches, and emotions and affect (Singh, 2018; Sultana, 2015; Ulloa, 2015). My interest is to contribute to this trend and illustrate how plural knowledges can co-produce knowledge about socionatures. First, I will explain the advancements in the third-generation PE and

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 247 then, I focus on my contributions to the field through the incorporation of relational epistemologies in PE analyses of socio-ecological conflicts.

PE and relational ontologies

In response to the debates questioning: 'where is the ecology in PE?' (Walker, 2005)

I suggest that the approach can be enriched by coming back to the basic concept of ecology as the “theory of the interrelation and the interdependence of all beings”

(Escobar, 2015a, p. 6, own translation). Relationships have always been at the center of research in PE given the co-production of society and Nature (Arias-Maldonado,

2015). But a third-generation PE distances itself from constructivist visions of the social production of Nature to focus on the relations or engagements that co- produce material or ‘real’ Nature and society, under a critical realist or postconstructivist ontology (Arias-Maldonado, 2015; Escobar, 1999, 2010b; Latour,

1993; Linton, 2010). The adoption of critical realism as ontology allows PE to

Acknowledge[] the ontological independence of the biophysical world while at

the same time recognizing that our understanding of the natural world is

partial, situational, and contingent ( Neumann, 2005, p. 10; see also Forsyth,

2001).

A current trend is the recognition of socio-ecological conflicts as emerging from ontological struggles among different worlds (Blaser, 2009; de la Cadena, 2010;

Escobar, 2015a). Here, multiple knowledges and meanings clash due to disregarding interconnections and relationships that are difficult to be comprehended ‘outside’ those worlds. For analyses from a PE perspective, relational ontologies concede the creation of plural worlds without denying matters of materiality (Escobar, 2015a);

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 248 and at the same time allowing the field to serve a future agenda, which is the

“political activation of relational ontologies” (Escobar, 2010a, p. 4). The aim of this thesis has been to contribute to the understanding of those struggles by focusing on the relational epistemologies emerging from those conflicts; and thus, local knowledges have captured my interest.

The nature of local knowledge

Positivism and objectivity in the generation of scientific and technical knowledge have mostly resulted in detached and disembodied knowledges that offer partial accounts of complex socio-ecological issues and reproduce power structures in the generation of knowledge (Haraway, 1988; Parr, 2014). To contrast these shortcomings, social researchers, especially geographers, have taken local knowledges seriously and they pursue research projects aiming at acknowledging them as legitimate (Hohenthal, Räsänen, & Minoia, 2018; Yeh, 2016). These studies have mostly focused on the combination of traditional and indigenous knowledges with scientific knowledges (Bryant, 1998).

The risk of identifying local knowledge as ‘indigenous’ or ‘traditional’ is that it is not only reductive—indigeneity in most parts of the world is a self-acknowledged category, thus, the knowledge of individuals or groups that do not recognize themselves as such would be excluded—but also inaccurate. Ingold and Kurttila

(2000) contend that traditional knowledge rooted in local practices (what they call

LTK) can be distinguished from the modernist view of traditional knowledge (MTK); nevertheless, I still find the term unfit, while I agree with their understandings of a particular kind of knowledge emerging from the interactions between local people

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 249 and the places they inhabit (Ingold & Kurttila, 2000). I would call this emplaced or simply local knowledge because as they rightly point out,

[K]nowledge is local because it inheres in the activity, of inhabiting the land,

that actually creates places. And in creating places, it also makes the

inhabitants people of those places—it makes them local [emphasis in the

original] (Ingold & Kurttila, 2000, p. 194).

Not only groups claiming traditional or cultural practices are able to generate these knowledges through the engagements with their ‘environments’. Local ecological knowledge (LEK) appeals for the recognition of tacit and local knowledge as expert knowledge (Ballard, Fernandez-Gimenez, & Sturtevant, 2008; Carolan, 2006). LEK is defined as

[L]ocal expertise of people who, different from indigenous peoples, may not

have a long-term relationship (i.e. hundreds or thousands of years) with the

local environment, but nevertheless have local wisdom, experience, and

practices adapted to local ecosystems (Bixler, 2013, p. 275).

For instance, in this study the local knowledge of campesinos is rooted in their dwelling in the countryside. These knowledges vary across the peasantry: subsistence farmers, livestock breeders and people with no contact with the land.

Nonetheless, most of them share common perceptions, for example, of how the páramo will respond to anthropogenic interventions. Through experience and engagement with socionatures—which include interactions with other inhabitants—these knowledges develop and reproduce.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 250

To explain the nature of local knowledge, notions of embodiment are important.

Cognition is rooted in the world and it is acquired by the individual through engagement with the ‘environment’—understood as everything that is ‘outside’ the self (Milton, 2002; O’Connor, 2017). “[D]irect perception of the environment is a mode of engagement with the world, not a mode of construction of it” (Ingold, 1992, p. 44);32 and, it is the body that allows this experiential learning, as explained in chapter 6. Thus, “[gi]ven that knowledge is shaped by experience, no distinction exists between cognitive and bodily knowing” (Craig et al., 2018, p. 330). In consequence, “embodied knowledge is not simply knowledge of the body, but knowledge dwelling in the body and enacted through the body” [emphasis in the original] (Craig et al., 2018, p. 329).

These developments in understanding cognition, perception and environments have been inspired by ecological approaches (Gibson, 1979) applied to theories of cognitive psychology (Neisser, 1976) and situated cognition (Griffiths & Scarantino,

2009). The latter, breaking with a dualism that separates thought from emotion brings to the fore embodied emotions as constitutive of cognition acquired through the engagements with the world.

[P]ractices not only generate emotions…emotions themselves can be viewed

as a practical engagement with the world. [E]motions arise as thoughts of the

body, as elements of the body’s knowledge and memory, as its appraisal of a

situation (Scheer, 2012, pp. 193, 206).

32 Ingold explains further, “perception is a matter of discovering meanings in the environment through exploratory action, rather than adding them on through some kind of cognitive processing” (Ingold, 1992, p. 52).

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I found this notion compatible with the relational ontologies that guided this thesis.

Therefore, I explored how PE can focus on relational epistemologies for the study not only of how impending environmental change is lived but also of the understanding of socio-ecological conflicts through the knowledges emerging from them.

PE and relational epistemologies

If “perceiving is, ipso facto, knowing” and through direct engagements with socionature knowledge is acquired (Ingold, 1992, p. 46), debates on how to characterize this kind of knowledge—as perceptual or technical skill, experiential, tacit, informal or non-expert (Ballard et al., 2008; Ingold, 1992; Raymond et al.,

2010)—seem futile and efforts should be directed to the recognition of these knowledges as authoritative accounts of environmental knowledge (Yeh, 2016).

This section explores the role of PE in this endeavor.

Environmental change is perceived first by the people directly or potentially affected by it. Individual perceptions resulting from engagements with socionatures become forms of authoritative embodied, situated and tacit knowledge informing of those changes (Fernández-Llamazares et al., 2016; Hohenthal et al., 2018). These perceptions are also embedded in broader knowledge, beliefs and cultural systems providing nuanced accounts of how ‘the local’ is produced (Fernández-Llamazares et al., 2016; Ingold & Kurttila, 2000). Resource governance models have failed to co- produce knowledge through dialogues between “disembodied ‘Science’ and embodied local knowledge” (Bixler, 2013, p. 274). Even when science itself is becoming more aware of its limitations, mainly through critiques from the field of science and technology studies (STS):

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 252

[T]heories of scientific change once tended to extract their object of

investigation from contamination by “the social”. The resulting austere vision

of science – as driven more by logic than interests and more by personal

inspiration than political economy – has long since been set aside in favor of

richer accounts that stress the multiple human commitments involved in the

production and application of knowledge (Jasanoff, 2004a).

The kind of science privileged to support interventions—in this case state-led development through extractivism—reflects dominant interests marginalizing opposing views or evidence, dismissed as ‘mere beliefs,’ as explained in chapter 6.

It is the role of PE to unveil how power is exercised by shaping knowledge systems and to give voice to those purposely buried knowledges. The former role— disclosing how knowledge used to support environmental interventions is produced is not only contextualized, but also politicized—has been prioritized by

PE through the deconstruction of environmental narratives (Bixler, 2013; Forsyth,

2003; Forsyth & Walker, 2008; Paulson, Gezon, & Watts, 2003). I find that more work needs to be done in the second role; especially when according to Enrique Leff the emancipatory mission of PE cannot be achieved without

The deconstruction of the dominant forms of knowledge and the

reconstruction, legitimation and establishment of other ways of

understanding life and being-in-the-world (Leff, 2017, p. 235).

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 253

With this purpose I propose emotional political ecology as an epistemological approach to gain insights of embodied knowledge through emotional narratives of forthcoming environmental change (explained in Chapter 6).

Emotional political ecology as epistemological and analytical approach: emotions and relational epistemologies

According to Flam, Kleres and Bergman (2015) to date the ‘emotional turn’ has been unaccompanied by explicit methodological debates. Attending to this gap in the literature, I argue that emotion is knowledge by itself and emotions can be used as an analytical tool to know of, from and through relationships. Beyond debates over representational or non-representational theories (O’Connor, 2017) I agree with

Craig et al. that “[n]arrative [is] the main vehicle through which embodied knowledge becomes revealed” (Craig et al., 2018, p. 330).

Narratives are a relational explanation for the way embodied actors in an

environment make sense of the world, constituting a psychological, social, and

linguistic framework often worked out through social interaction (Bixler,

2013, p. 276).

Fieldwork showed that narratives of impending transformation of territories and livelihoods due to resource-based development are charged with emotional content, which are shared in an honest way once trust has been developed between researcher and respondents. Exploring those emotions as subjective accounts and individual reactions towards imagined socio-environmental change would have fallen into what scholars of emotional geography have repeatedly warned against; the objectification of emotions (Bondi, Davidson, & Smith, 2005; Sultana, 2015;

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 254

Wright, 2012). In this subfield emotions are understood as “data about human– environment relations” (Flam, 2015; Parr, 2014, p. 755). In consequence, I understand the ‘emotional turn’ as a call for unearthing what emotions disclose about the engagements between people and their everyday experience of socionatures and how they perceive their potential modification. These emotions are rooted in particular geographies, and the emerging interest by scholars in matters of emotion and affect makes the approach sensitive to these understandings.

Chapter 6 discussed the advancements in emotional political ecology (Dallman, Ngo,

Laris, & Thien, 2013; González-Hidalgo, 2017; Hayes-Conroy & Hayes-Conroy, 2013;

Nightingale, 2013; Singh, 2018; Sultana, 2015). My focus is on the role that emotional political ecology can adopt not for the study of emotions per se but instead, I find that emotional political ecology can unearth the ‘data’ emerging from emotional recounts of environmental change—actual or potential—and at the same time, it can use the different knowledges emerging from them in the analysis of those conflicts from a relational ontology perspective. Through this study I propose a framework informed by an emotional political ecology approach to the study of socio-ecological conflicts derived from resource-based development. It is based on the following premises:

i) The territories of influence of projects of resource extraction are socionatures:

The territories where ‘resources’ are located are spaces where Nature and

communities have developed in close interdependence, thus, extractivist

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 255

projects are not bounded by physical limits of the mine site—in the case of

mining—but they expand as far as society and Nature are engaged in those

socionatures in general. For this reason, spatial understandings of the

territories of influence fall short when defining the scope of the areas

intervened and also the potential modification of socionatural

configurations.

ii) Development strategies based on resource-extraction are (hydro)territorial

projects that reconfigure the relationships within socionatures: Extractivism is

a political, economic, social and environmental project that interacts, even

overlaps, with other projects lived and envisioned in the same territory.

(Hydro)territorial projects reproduce the interests and values of all the

actors or groups of actors involved; while discourses and knowledge systems

are used to legitimize and impose dominant projects.

iii) Impacts on socionatures cannot be understood if relational epistemologies are

disregarded: The people actively co-producing socionatural configurations

feel their actual or potential modifications. Only by being sensitive to the

embodied knowledge emerging from the engagements between people and

their socionatures, which are threatened to be modified by extractivism, can

a PE approach get a deeper understand of socio-ecological conflicts.

Resource conflicts are not only struggles over control of and access to those

resources, or just over meanings and knowledges but they are struggles over

different relationships co-producing different worlds. Relational ontologies

and epistemologies offer insights over these multiple ways of living in and

co-producing plural worlds.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 256

Limitations

This study, based on a mining project that has not yet been developed, has allowed exploration of multiple issues that might have been eclipsed by actual modifications caused by the operation of the mine.33 But, it is limited in temporal and spatial understandings of the impacts of neoextractivism, focusing only on stages prior to actual exploitation and it is based mostly on perceptions—which are not less real— of socio-ecological change provoked by it.

This thesis also did not explore the various forms of resistance to the project in great detail, given that the literature on the 15 year old conflict over Kimsakocha has been ample. I also believe that a comprehensive analysis of resistance should include fieldwork at different periods of contention, which was not possible during my relatively constrained PhD research.

In addition, in terms of the political environment, this study began during the ideological project of former president Rafael Correa and his Revolución Ciudadana.

Even though the current government is from the same political party and many of

Correa’s collaborators remain in Lenín Moreno's inner circle since he took office in

2017, we do not know if his position towards neoextractivism will follow the same path as his predecessor. Moreno’s character, his apparent openness to dialogue with opponents' views and his organization and conduct of a popular consultation including matters concerning extractivism do suggest differences to Correa. But in

33 For instance, I weight perceptions of potential impacts and ‘real’ impacts in the same way because I am interested in the human experience of modifications of socionatures. ‘Actual’ impacts or lack of them during the operation of the mine would normally be used as ‘evidence’ to disprove those perceptions.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 257 practice Lenin Moreno maintains support of “fair mining.” In Moreno's speech at the signing of a mining agreement in Chile between the Ministries of mining of both governments, he stated,

In Ecuador, we support the development of [a mining industry that is]

responsible with nature, environmentally sustainable, economically profitable

and socially fair (Santiago de Chile, March 10, 2018, cited in Diary El Universo,

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2018/03/10/nota/ 6660199/lenin-

moreno-participa-firma-convenio-minero-codelco-empresa-minera)

This suggests that ‘mining for development’ might not only be a policy of the former government but a continuing state policy.

Areas of further research

One basic topic that was not fully explored in the thesis was corporate social responsibility (CSR). Following the neoextractivist logic, CSR does operate in the region and proposes that industry should not only be involved but should guide local development in collaboration with local authorities, communities and the government. But this depends very much on the relationship between corporation and the state. In Ecuador the state is represented by Ecuador Estratégico—the public company endowed with the investments of royalties from strategic projects in their areas of influence. Evidence from fieldwork suggests that in the case of Loma

Larga, the mining company has been empowered to ‘guide and supervise’ Ecuador

Estratégico’s investments given its relationships with the local governments and its presence in the communities (D. Rodríguez, 2018). Whereas in other areas, for

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 258 instance in the strategic oil projects in the Amazon, Ecuador Estratégico has taken over the role of corporations and their social responsibilities and limited the possibilities of direct negotiations of benefits between communities and extractive companies (Lu, Valdivia, & Silva, 2017; Valladares & Boelens, 2017).

Areas of further research include the workings of CSR and how the notion of

‘bringing development to the areas of influence of the extractive projects’ plays out in the territories. This is a promise and a policy, but how it will unfold around Loma

Larga is still unknown. Other questions are how the model adopted by EE may work as a mechanism of legitimation aligned to the CSR model of extractive companies, how royalties will be negotiated in this case, to promote direct investment in the development of the communities, how territories will be reshaped to prepare them for the operation of the mine; and to what extent passive compliance will be promoted 'from above' to permit mining to go uncontested.

Recommendations

If in the past the regions where resources were located, namely oil in the Amazon, were mostly neglected by previous governments, indeed it is more appealing a model that claims that the first beneficiaries of development will be the inhabitants of the areas of influence of strategic projects. But the main lesson from this study of neoextractivism as development model, which aims at making Ecuador ‘a mining country’ to support progress, is that the model continues to ignore fundamental questions: development for whom and under whose terms? And development at what cost?

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 259

The neo-developmentalist state persists in seeing development narrowly understood as economic growth, centrally planned and disconnected from local development priorities. Nature remains as a mere provider of ‘natural resources’ without other meanings and attachments to societies. Also, it disregards evidence- based literature pointing out the inherent flaws of a dependence on resource extraction and primary exports. Observations on resource-dependent economies in the Andes show that the resources themselves are not the problem and that a

‘resource curse’ derives from the particularities of managing extractives (Andrade

A., 2015; Bebbington, 2011; Humphreys Bebbington & Bebbington, 2012; Orihuela

& Thorp, 2011).

In the Ecuadorian case, since the 1970s the economy has depended upon oil exploitation but the country has not developed substantially from oil revenues, despite the diverse ideologies of the governments managing those resources and their rents, moving between a military dictatorship, to the neoliberal governments in the 1990s and the progressive government during the last decade. The relatively easy way of ensuring rents from resource exploitation of ‘the generous Nature’

(Acosta, 2011) incentivizes a short-sighted view of extractivism. Short-term planning, the illusion of unlimited economic and natural resources, a high degree of corruption and lack of accountability, dependence on international markets, unequal negotiations with global enterprises and a silenced civil society are the undisputed consequences of a model, which in Ecuador temporarily allowed the improvement of social conditions. But this improvement has not been achieved because resource-based development was better designed or managed, but due to

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 260 the abundance of rents in times of resources booms and the set of rules created to ensure the appropriation of those rents. I agree with social scientist Carlos Larrea that replicating that volatile model through mining as new engine for development and wounding fragile socio-ecosystems shows a

Dreadful capacity of reinventing the country despite interesting diagnostics and

institutions created by Correa in his first years of government… [This exhibits] a

huge lack of imagination or a tremendous international pressure to pay the

debts acquired [with China] (C. Larrea, personal communication, August 17,

2016 )

Current scenarios of constrained commodity prices should urge a rethink of alternative development strategies for our economies. And in consequence, new conceptions of the relationship between state-society-Nature. This has been demanded by numerous scholars and socio-environmental movements. I join them in challenging the political notion of development itself, and searching for alternatives to development and post-development (Bravo & Moreano, 2015;

Escobar, 2015b; Kothari, Demaria, & Acosta, 2014; Lang & Mokrani, 2013). These visions contest the role of the state as a fair natural resource manager, and indeed the state-led development model alienated from rural visions of wellbeing and sustainable use of natural resources. A change of paradigm is undoubtedly required to harmonize development as wellbeing with natural resource governance models that do not ignore the experience of development of the people whose lives they aim to improve.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 261

Conclusion: emotional political ecology of neoextractivism in Kimsakocha

Throughout the chapters, this thesis has i) investigated the emergence of neoextractivism as a development strategy and its implications for the relationships between the Ecuadorian state, society and Nature; ii) explored the interdependencies developed between Andean societies and the páramo and the socionatural construction of Kimsakocha; iii) unveiled the hydroterritorial imaginaries concealed in the narratives of extractivism in Kimsakocha; and, iv) unearthed the role of relational knowledges emerging from the diverse engagements between local people and their socionatures. To conclude, the conflict generated by impending mining in hydrosocial territories in Kimsakocha can be explained as follows through an emotional political ecology perspective:

The mining frontier has been expanding along the globe. Its particularity in Latin

America is that various progressive governments in the region legitimize this expansion into protected areas or indigenous and community territories through discourses that couple resource extraction with development. Governments have also adopted an active role expediting the path for foreign investments and have encouraged public’s support of projects (D. Rodríguez & Loginova, 2019).

Nevertheless, part of the population—in particular some inhabitants of the areas where the projects are located—understand resource extraction not only an economic activity but also one that endangers local lifeways and socio-ecosystems.

They openly express concerns and fears over the real costs of mining exploitation that are overlooked by privileging economic growth over wellbeing in a broader

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 262 sense, which characterizes progressive governments in South America despite the rhetoric of Buen Vivir in Ecuador or Vivir Bien in Bolivia (Gudynas, 2012).

Particularly, the wellbeing demanded by the population includes maintaining the ecological integrity of Nature, which is consistent with reciprocity as a coexistence principle. This is better expressed through the words of community leader, Lizardo

Zhagüi,

She [Pachamama] is tired of all this abuse […] I think that if this large-scale

mining exploitation happens in Latin America it will become the second

Occidental conquest, endorsed by the current governments. I am worried. If we

know that in the first conquest our Abya Yala (pre-Columbian American

continent) was devastated, it is madness to continue overexploiting it like that.

That is why our grandparents, our ancestors have taught us that we cannot

outsmart Nature. There must be harmony with land, defense of land, defense of

water […] and whatever happens our duty is to continue defending her because

she gives us life (personal communication, March 9, 2016)

Impending mining exploitation in Kimsakocha has become a contentious affair. It has triggered a shared state of uneasiness among the inhabitants. Worries of a doomed future, angst for the suffering the next generations might have to endure and commonly, hopelessness and resignation are common among the population consulted. Both the government authorities and representatives from INVMINEC disdain these reactions as exaggerations or responses to misinformation. Instead, by taking these emotional accounts seriously, metal mining is broadly understood as a process that reconfigures hydrosocial territories in multiple ways including: the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 263 incursion of new actors, new resource demands and redefinition of its meanings, delimitation of boundaries and property rights, disruption of ecological networks, among others. These have profound impacts on relationships within the territory.

For campesinos, in their scenarios of imagined exploitation, their material, symbolic and emotional engagements with socionatures are and will be reconfigured because these are misunderstood or even ignored by decision-makers.

According to Wright (2012) emotions, people, places and development agendas are interrelated. “Emotions matter in development” (Clouser, 2016, p. 321) because development is an emotional and affective discourse.

Development understood as a better life is a powerful emotive ideal because it

appeals to the best in people. What might be called the “discourse of

development” (the system of statements made about development) has the

power to move people—to affect us immediately and to change us forever

[emphasis added] (Peet & Hartwick, 2015, p. 1).

Nevertheless, development strategies have failed at centering the human experience and Nature-society relations. Questions are not asked about what resource extraction means to people engaged with the territories where resources are located. Despite this being a critical concern pointed out by the ‘beneficiaries of development’ living in the areas of influence of strategic projects, examination of these issues is overlooked, as exposed in my conversations with government authorities during fieldwork. The problem is mainly that “[r]esource-rich

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 264 landscapes are often regarded not as rich places of emotional engagement and attachment, but for their potential for economic output” (Dallman et al., 2013, p. 26).

There remains a notion of development as progress associated to economic growth; with the aggregated value of the redistribution of wealth through social projects funded by royalties and taxes from extractivism. The contradiction, as pointed out by various critics of neoextractivism in Ecuador and its conception as a transitional stage towards Buen Vivir, is that neither the population nor Nature are at the center of the development strategies adopted since the expedition of the new Political

Constitution (Gudynas & Acosta, 2010). The Constitution established Buen Vivir as a development regime in harmony with Nature. Instead, the experience since then has been, on one hand, the intensification of extractive activities, mostly located in sensitive ecosystems like the páramo, the cloud forest, and Amazon rainforest. On the other hand, peoples’ wellbeing has been narrowly conceived as socioeconomic improvement satisfied by the provision of one-size-fits-all infrastructure projects.

These include roads, education (Escuelas del Milenio), water and sanitation and health (Subcentros de Salud). I acknowledge that these projects cover the basic needs of the population and that they are reaching out to towns forgotten by previous administrations, but a closer look at how the projects are executed, where they are located and how transparent and accountable these investments are, raise questions over the visions of development these pursue.

Conflicts have arisen because the approach to resource governance adopted by the government conveniently compartmentalizes dimensions of resource extraction as separate spheres, while locals instead think through relationships. People resist the

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 265 potential modification of socionatural relations and the silencing of voices that represent alternative ways of understanding those overlooked disruptions and its impacts in everyday life. A model of resource governance that perceives opposing voices as threats to the authority of the state to manage resources and guide development—instead of legitimate claims over the impacts resource extraction in certain socio-ecosystems—further marginalizes these views.

Through the emotional political ecology approach, it is possible to unearth the engagements between campesinos and their hydrosocial territories and the local knowledge they engender. Change is felt beyond the material sphere and common emotions of fear, anxiety and angst are not reactions towards perceived change but reflections of how the relationships between people and their socionatures are, and might be, altered. These narratives speak mostly of locally defined socio- environmental impacts, struggles over resource governance, and intergenerational justice.

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 266

Appendix

Cuenca canton Girón canton San Fernando canton Victoria San San Tarqui del Girón Chumblín Gerardo Fernando Portete Extension (km2) 137,87 202,07 239,24 56,35 118,2 20,42 Land use and land cover Páramo (hectares) 1006 6365 7003 1397 3469 1143 Páramo (% of the 7% 32% 29% 25% 29% 26% territory) Demography Total population 10490 5251 8437 1119 3244 749 Population by gender

(%) Men 46% 46% 45% 46% 44% 44% Women 54% 54% 55% 54% 56% 56% Illiteracy (%) 12% 12% 11% 13% 9% 7% Average age of 27 29 31 28 33 30 population (years) Cultural self-identification (% of the population) Indigenous 11% 6% 1% 1% 0% 1% Mestizo 87% 91% 95% 97% 97% 96% Employment (% of the population) Economically active 45% 49% 53% 48% 60% 50% population (EAP) Employed population 40% 39% 41% 37% 43% 44% Occupation by economic sectors (% of the population) Agriculture, cattle breeding, fisheries and 25% 38% 44% 67% 53% 58% forestry Manufacturing 17% 10% 6% 4% 8% 3% Construction 20% 14% 11% 11% 7% 13% Wholesale and retail trade 12% 10% 11% 5% 7% 6% Others (transport, education, hospitality, 25% 27% 27% 11% 24% 19% health)

Appendix 1: Demographic and socioeconomic information: Area of influence of the Loma Larga gold mining project Source: Land use planning and development plans; INEC, VI Census of Population and Housing 2010

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 267

Year Events 1832 First water law. It recognized private and public ownership Community members from Tarqui, Victoria del Portete and El Valle acquire land in the páramo of Sombrederas, that includes Kimsakocha. More land is acquired in 1912 and 1945 for communitarias subsistence activities as 1891 sheepherding 1936 New water law. It includes centrality of the state, but in practice traditional management systems remained 1960 First mining explorations by the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) find gold in Kimsakocha 1962 Establishment of the first communal water system in Azuay province 1972 New water law that recognized the grant of water concessions 1974 Mining promotion Law 1985 Act 06 puts into effect the Mining Law Mining law 126. It was recommended by the World Bank during the 1991 neoliberal reforms Establishment of PRODEMINCA Governmental Project of Mining Development and Environmental Control. Adviced by the World Bank through the Project of Technical Assistance for Mining Developoment and Prospecting and Environmental Control exploration activities from 1994 1994-2001 COGEMA

CONAIE presents a proposal of new water law including prohibition of privatization, public control of the allocation of water, recognition of social and cultural rights over water and representation of water users and community organizations in the institutions for water management COGEMA-TVX-NEWMONT 1996 re-start deeper explorations and discover 350.000 ounces of low 1997 grade gold New Political Constitution. It established new models of water management. IAMGOLD acquires the Decentralization of concessions: Cerro Casco, authority and Rio Blanco, Cristal and San 1998 responsibilities Martin Option agreement between the French company COGEMA (current AREVA) and IAMGOLD to acquire its concessions 1999 (11.725 hectares) Mining Law Trole II for the promotion of investments and citizen’s participation. It included various articles 2000 favouring mining. IAMGOLD demands mining concessions to the Regional mining authority of Azuay. Concessions Rio Falso and 2001 New mining law Cerro Casco are obtained 2002 IAMGOLD starts diamond drilling activities 2003 IAMGOLD obtains the Cristal concession to expand the area conceded to 12.962 hectares The water user's Assemby of the Community Water system Tarqui-Victoria del The population becomes Portete resolves to protect Constitution of the aware of the mining the water sources of Committee of concessions granted by Kimsakocha and to Environment Defense of the Ministry of Energy and demand the revocation of Victoria del Portete Mine the mining concessions 2004 IAMGOLD discovers the Loma Larga deposit. It starts drilling program\

Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador 268

Water user's protests outside the Regional Delegations of Azuay authority of mining of demand the revocation of Azuay demanding the the mining concessions to revocation of the mining the Ministry of Mine and 2005 concessions Petroleum Presidential candidate 20 Kms march from Rafael Correa offers to Victoria del Portete to expel mining Cuenca to resist the Road blockages by industries located in water mining project Community water users sources The electoral tribunal of Azuay presents a penal demand against the Eduardo Matute, president Inhabitants of Victoria del community leaders and of the Parish board of Portete decide not to the Union of Community Victoria del Portete participate in the Water Systems (UNAGUA) presents a penal demand presidential elections, in for obstructing the against 18 community rebellion against the elections in the parish of 2006 leaders mining project. Victoria del Portete

26 leaders of the Coordinadora de Defensa Uprising organized by community water systems de la Vida y Soberania UNAGUA and FOA (June meet with president summons a new uprising 4th-8th) in defense of Correa, who offered to (July 8th-10th). Blockages water and against mining revoke IAMGOLD's of roads and in Azuay. Participation of Dialogue with Ministry of concessions if there is imprisonment of the water users of various Energy and Mines, Alberto proof that their concession approximately a dozen of water systems. Acosta is located in water sources protesters was the result. President Correa accuses ecologists and protesters Minister Galo Chiriboga of extortion, terrorism and requests IAMGOLD to cede infantile 3.220 hectares of their environmentalism during conceded area to protect his weekly Enlace IAMGOLD starts the pre‐ 2007 the regional watershed Ciudadano feasibility study

New Constitution. It recognizes diversity, collective rights, water as a human right, establishes Approval of the Mining prioritization of water Water users demand the Mandate by the uses. It also declares that Constituent Assembly of Constituent Assembly non-renewable resources IAMGOLD reveals having a Montecristi the approval (April 18th). It established can only be exploited in meeting with Correa and 7 of the Mining Mandate to 180 days suspension of all compliance with more mining companies to ban water sources from mining and exploration environmental principles discuss and negotiate the mining concessions projects (Art. 408) new mining law March of the Community Uprisings against the Water Systems demanding approval of the new Completion of the pre- the fulfilment of the mining law (December feasibility study by 2008 Mining Mandate 18th-19th) IAMGOLD Uprisings against the approval of the new mining law (January 5th- 8th). 30 people are imprisoned. Strong Approval of the new During a presidential visit repression from mining law. It is to Tarqui, Correa qualifies policemen and special promulgated by the the water defenders as forces (GOE and GIR) President on January 15th “crazy and cavemen” 2009 Amends to tax laws. Application of a non-recoverable 12% VAT to mining companies

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The Community Water Systems of Azuay demand the Municipality of Cuenca, GIrón, Provincial Council, Ministry of Community Water Environment and ETAPA, Systems of Azuay and their collaboration to CONAIE present a demand inscribe Kimsakocha in the of incostitutionality of the Starts in Cuenca a IAMGOLD presents its Ramsar weltands list and Mining Law to the mobilization against the water requirements to its declaration as World Constitutional Court project of water law SENAGUA Heritage of Mankind Road blockages in Azuay (May 4th). 3 communitarian leaders The Constitutional Court National mobilization are arrested under decides that is not viable Uprising summoned by the organized by CONAIE charges of sabotage and the demand of Community Water (April 8th) in defense of terrorism including unconstitutionality of the systems in Cuenca (April water as a human right President of UNAGUA, mining law 7th) and common good Carlos Perez FOA and UNAGUA present Protests against the water Road blockages in all the Water law is not approved a demand of breach of the law continue (May5th-7th) country (May 11th) for insufficient votes Mining Mandate UNAGUA and the Indigenous Federation of Azuay present a demand to the Inter-American Commission of Human Symbolic act in Rights (IACHR) for the lack Kimsakocha to declare the of consultation for the Virgen of the approval of the Mining law Kimsakocha's water as its and breach of the 169 ILO 2010 guardian Convention Ministry of Non-renewable Continental Meeting of Community referendum resources issued new Abya Yala peoples for Militarization of the against mining in requirements to maintain water and Pachamama Community Water plant Kimsakocha (92% of votes mining concessions (Art. 6 (June 22th) (July 2nd) against mining) and 7) 2011 Resumption of field activities granted by the Ministry of Non-renewable Natural Resources (February 14th) INV Metals establishes a share agreement with IAMGOLD and its 2 Case Los 10 de Luluncoto, subsidiaries AGEM Ltd and 10 students are arrested Repadre Capital (BVI). By under charges of terrorism November it obtained Plurinational March for and sabotage, later the 100% title to the property Water, Life and Dignity of charges changed to and renamed the project Diamond drillings by INV 2012 the peoples tentative of terrorism as Loma Larga Metals Amends to mining law introducing a medium scale mining category at 1.000 tones per day for underground 2013 operation Submission of the application for advanced exploration stage for 4 years. It was approved and Visit of the Canadian it is pending a reduction of Ambassador Pamela IAMGOLD SA was officially the property to establish a O'Donnell and the renamed INV METALS final area of 7.960 communities to 2014 Issue of the new water law Ecuador SA hectares Kimsakocha (March 1st) A collection of signatures starts in GIrón Canton to demand a Popular Referendum concerning the exploitation of gold in Kimsakocha (there are required On July 28th, 2.184 signatures were presented to the 1500 signatures to proceed to the referendum). The Electoral Council (CNE), which after a verification question will be: Do you agree in the implementation of approved 1.577 signatures, enough to continue with the mining activities in the páramo and water sources of the process that requires now a report of constitutionality of hydrologic system of Kimsakocha (Quimsacocha)? Yes or the question proposed, issued by the Constitutional 2015 no. Court Scientific studies are allocated by the municipality of Cuenca to two local universities: University of Cuenca to determine the existence or not of groundwater in Kimsakocha; and to the University of Azuay to develop several 2016 research projects in the areas of influence of the mining projects Loma Larga and Rio Blanco. January 22, 2017, with 75% of the votes of the Cantonal Council of Cuenca the territory of the city, its páramo and 2017 ecosystems were declared free from metal mining

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February 4, 2018, new President Lenin Moreno called a consulta popular (popular referendum) including a question related to mining exploitation: Question 5: Do you agree to amending the Constitution of the Republic to prohibit, without exception, metal mining at all its stages, in protected areas, intangible zones and urban centers, according to what is established in Annex November 19, 2018. CNE approves the request of 2018 5? The national results were Yes 68.62% and No 31.38% popular referendum in Kimskocha demanded in 2015. January 31, 2019. CNE decided that the popular referendum in Kimsakocha is included in the national elections of March 24. Three parishes from Girón canton (15.363 electors) will vote if they agree or not with mining in the hydrologic system of Kimsakocha. 2019

Appendix 2: Demographic and socioeconomic information: Area of influence of the Loma Larga gold mining project Source: Land use planning and development plans; INEC, VI Census of Population and Housing 2010

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Denisse Elizabeth Rodríguez Quiñónez

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Title: Neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: The case of the páramo of Kimsakocha, Ecuador

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