Ancestrality and Senses of Justice in the Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador

• In Event: Crime, Science and Politics WG Panel 7: Justice Across Cultures: Indigenous, Transnational, and Non-State Perspectives

Abstract

In the Gulf of Guayaquil, mangrove communities have a history of resistance against the expansion of shrimp farming between 1970 and 2000. When the Ecuadorian state eventually began granting mangrove concessions to ancestral communities through Sustainable Use and Custody Agreements of the Mangrove Ecosystem (AUSCEM), as an example of restorative justice, it marked a new chapter in the history of mangrove conservation. With AUSCEM, communities assumed custody and oversight of their delineated territories. Based on two case studies and using mixed methods, this article explores the communities' perceptions of justice concerning the access of other users to their territories. On this basis, it examines how the spectrum of fairness and unfairness relates to sociodemographic characteristics such as gender, age, occupation, locality, and self-identification and understanding of ancestrality.

Authors

• Wendy Chavez-Paez, ZEF Center for Development Research at University of Bonn

• Víctor Campoverde, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral

• Omar Ruiz-Barzola, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral

• Federico Koelle, NGO Fundación Cerro Verde

• Cynthia Jordan, Escuela de Puerto Roma, Comunidad del Golfo de Guayaquil

• Jean Carlo Cruz, Escuela de Isla Costa Rica, Comunidad Golfo de Guayaquil