Meaning Making and Membership in the Mangroves: Knowledge Production and the Politics of Participation in Coastal Ecuador

• In Event: Politics of Knowledge Production in Resource Conflicts

Abstract

In coastal Ecuador, the widespread conversion of mangrove forests for shrimp aquaculture since the 1980s has undermined traditional livelihoods and wellbeing in coastal communities that depend primarily on estuarine artisanal fisheries. While shrimp has been one of Ecuador’s most important industries and export commodities, the 1990s witnessed a burgeoning local resistance to shrimp farming, the growth of civil society, and eventual policy shifts in coastal management toward greater citizen participation. To varying degrees of success, grassroots social movements in the defense of local livelihoods and the environment have consolidated into new civil society organizations (CSOs) that have played a significant role in mangrove reforestation, conservation, and increased public awareness. The formation of these new CSOs have contributed to the production of new forms of knowledge that have challenged the power and authority of the shrimp industry and united diverse individuals within mangrove communities under a new collective identity, “ancestral peoples of the mangrove ecosystem.” I argue that solidarity among ancestral users has declined as the local movement is increasingly scaled up and articulated into larger national and global activist networks. This erosion of solidarity and trust results in precarious alliances between multiple actors, which ultimately threatens to undermine the potential of such movements to protect the environment and promote social justice. I conclude with a discussion about the role of researchers and the ethics of documenting such politically sensitive struggles.

Author

• Christine M Beitl, University of Maine