A Critical Analysis of the Bioremediation of Amazon Soils Contaminated with Petroleum

• In Event: Remediating Remediation: Imagining Alternatives for Assessing and Redressing Environmental Harm - II

Abstract

I will present the history of bioremediation of soils contaminated with petroleum in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1994 to 2018. Although there were some technoscientific “successes,” I argue that the opportunity to develop a process of scientific excellence was thwarted by lack of an institutional framework and the political will to oversee research and innovation. Dependence on foreign technology, insufficient internal coordination among research programs and institutions, corruption, lack of a national tradition of biotechnological innovation, the predominance of “biopeons,” and a dichotomy between oil and the environment all influenced this process. I discuss these issues in relation to science and technology on the periphery and examine what is needed to consolidate technoscientific processes of excellence in those territories. The theoretical approaches listed earlier were reflected in the applied techniques: textual analysis, time-lines, observation, maps of actors and interviews. Textual sources included bibliography on bioremediation (which is sparse, since there has been no research on this topic either from the history of science field or from STS studies); reports by an environmental consulting firm; notes in the press; academic theses; data about the state oil company (Petroecuador) and references to the oil industry in Ecuador. Interviewees included scientists and administrators at universities which carried out research on bioremediation, a civil servant at an agency handling remediation of petroleum contamination and another at the state oil company.The presentation will come as an update of the analysis published in CUVI, Nicolás and BEJARANO, Monserrathe. Inhibition halos in the remediation of Amazon soils contaminated with petroleum. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos [online]. 2015, vol.22, suppl. [cited 2019-01-09], pp.1693-1714.

Author

• Nicolás Cuvi, FLACSO Ecuador