Sovereignty and subterranean resources: An institutional ethnography of Repsol’s corporate social responsibility programs in Ecuador

State mandated corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs emerged in Ecuador in the 1990s, following indigenous protests rooted in social and environmental impacts of oil extraction. CSR programs aim to deflect blame for a company’s operations, by providing development or infrastructural improvements in indigenous communities, including micro-credit projects, potable water systems, and electricity. Through an institutional ethnography of CSR programs of the Spanish owned multinational oil company, Repsol, I explore how companies intervene in transformations of social life challenging the roles of the state in securing its territorial sovereignty linked to subterranean oil resources. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and textual analysis of company and state documents, my analysis demonstrates how CSR programs allow companies to secure their presence in the region, even in the face of shifting regimes of governance. In this article, I provide more insight into Ecuador’s transition from neoliberal to post-neoliberal eras, by calling attention to social processes that seek to legitimize expansion of corporate capital in spaces of sovereignty. If state control over subterranean resources is still crucial to understanding forms of sovereignty, then the extension of that control via CSR programs represents new relationships of power that construct the company as an expert in the region. Exploring the everyday processes of these legal relationships of sovereignty through an institutional ethnography of CSR programs uncovers the programs’ impacts and effects that seek to consolidate power in the company, undermine indigenous rights, and discipline the state.     

Between a rock and a hard place: Ethical dilemmas of local community facilitators doing participatory research projects

Participatory research is supposed to involve participants in a collective definition of goals, and the co-production and sharing of research outputs. However, when articulated through an extended period of time involving a range of local, national and international actors, the practicalities of participatory research means that certain groups and individuals become responsible for taking leading roles, with subsequent ethical dilemmas. In the ‘Community-owned solutions for future environmental challenges in the Guiana Shield, South America’ (COBRA) project, the participatory research process involves a group of five Indigenous researchers – “the local team” – in charge of carrying out the research on the ground e.g. defining procedures, carrying out community engagement and supporting the communities in analyzing and disseminating the material. This local team is, in turn, supported by researchers from a national NGO and foreign academics.Considerable responsibility has been given to the local team for achieving project outcomes, and freedom in defining project tasks and activities. This paper analyses the multiple ethical dilemmas arising out of this situation, particularly the role of the local team as intermediaries between the wider community and project partners. We highlight the existence of significant mismatches between research expectations, and the ethical processes in operation at community level which are usually established on long-term, tacit and reciprocal relationships. We discuss how local community researchers are challenged with balancing the tensions between these two ethical polarities, while at the same time producing participatory research outcomes that are acceptable by everyone involved.     

Hana Pa'a: Challenges and lessons for early phases of co-management

This case study provides in depth analysis of an early phase of natural resources co-management, rule making. Co-management involves shared management responsibility between resource users or community groups and governmental agencies, and is recommended as a key management approach for nearshore marine resources. This article explores collaborative rulemaking based on traditional management practices for a small, rural nearshore Hawaiian fishery important for local subsistence. Legislation mandated the state of Hawai‘i's natural resource management agency work with community residents to co-create and enforce rules for the fishery. By selecting a model case in which rule making has taken seven years longer than predicted, despite the presence of many established enabling conditions, this study elucidates new factors for consideration in early phases of co-management. These include legal uncertainty regarding statutory mandates, the role of bridging organizations in capacity building, cross-generational leadership development, and connection of the co-management rule-making process to the target geography. Through in depth analysis of a model collaborative rule making effort and the delays it faced, this research reveals new critical challenges while also offering suggestions to address them to build lasting collaborative capacity in other fledgling co-management efforts.     

Co-management and protected area management: Achieving effective management of a contested site,lessons from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA)

Marine protected management has gained acceptance as a way forward to achieve enhanced biodiversity outcomes. Simultaneously, co-management has gathered momentum as a mechanism to incorporate indigenous cultural aspirations within environmental management domains. Each management process has its own methodologies; when the two models intersect, they present a number of challenges to overall management outcomes. We review the journey of an indigenous co-management initiative within a marine protected area (MPA), the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA), Australia, to explore how different management paradigms intersect with both negative and positive results. We argue that lessons learned from this initiative will help participants to adapt and innovate, so as to implement effective on ground management despite the region being a contested site.     

Effects of indigenous bacteria on Cr(VI) reduction in Cr-contaminated sediment with industrial wastes

Black, clay-like sediments have been obtained from the area of the pigment manufacturing factories in Dongducheon city, Korea. These sediments were contaminated by heavy metals, especially chromium (700 mg/kg). Indigenous bacteria in the sediments were isolated to investigate their ability to reduce Cr(VI) to Cr(III). The enriched bacterial consortium reduced over 99% of dissolved Cr(VI) in 96 h from the onset of the experiments under anaerobic condition, while there was no change in Cr(VI) concentration until 300 h in abiotic controls. Total amount of dissolved Cr decreased simultaneously when Cr(VI) was reduced, which was likely due to precipitation of Cr(OH)₃ after microbial reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III). Under aerobic condition, only 30% of dissolved Cr(VI) was reduced by indigenous bacteria until 900 h. The reduction of Cr(VI) did not accompany bacterial growth since the amount of protein did not show a significant change with time both in the presence and absence of O₂. These indigenous bacteria may play a role in the treatment of Cr(VI)-contaminated sediments.     

Rural Landownership in South East Australia since European Occupation

This paper provides historical context for contemporary discourses on landownership, notably the changing scale of absentee landownership and foreign ownership since 1849. Trends in landownership since European occupation of one of the most agriculturally productive regions in south east Australia, the Lachlan River catchment, are examined at regional, shire and district scales. Evolution of tenure indicates that absentee landowners owned most of the land until after 1935, but between the 1860s and 1970 the proportion of landowners who were resident landowners increased. In 1970, resident landowners owned most land. Since 1970, absentee landownership has increased, the most dramatic increase occurring after 1990. By 2009, absentee landownership had reached the high levels of 1849. While most contemporary types of landowners have historical antecedents, new trends include changes in the country of origin of foreign investors, increased small property ownership by city-based individuals and the establishment of Indigenous incorporated ownership.     

Land tenure and forest cover change. The case of southwestern Beni,Bolivian Amazon, 1986–2009

As land use change continues to increase throughout the Amazon basin, there is a pressing need to accurately map, quantify and assess the effects of different factors on forest cover change (FCC). Land tenure may sometimes have important effects on forest cover, yet such effects remain poorly understood in Amazonia, particularly outside Brazil. In this paper we assess whether significant differences in trends of FCC can be partially explained by different land tenure arrangements, using a case study in southwestern Beni (Bolivian Amazon). We examine spatio-temporal dynamics of FCC across four land tenure systems (indigenous titled territory, protected area, logging concession, and private land) by classifying forests using a time-series of Landsat satellite imagery consisting of four dates (1986, 1996, 2001, 2009). Specifically, we unravel (1) trends in early growth and old-growth forest extent, including changes in total cover area, annual change rates, and spatial change dynamics, and (2) trends in old-growth forest fragmentation. To better understand the association between land tenure and FCC, we qualitatively assess the potential role that other underlying and proximate drivers may have had in FCC over the study period. We found that private lands underwent, by far, the largest FCC, that indigenous territories and the protected area had little FCC, and that logging concessions were responsible for the lowest FCC. Our findings suggest that land tenure played a key role in FCC except in private areas, where many other drivers had operated. Our study sheds light into the potential role of land tenure in FCC and has important implications for public policies aimed at socioeconomic development and environmental conservation in the Amazon. We give some policy recommendations drawn from a biocultural conservation perspective that could contribute to implement more inclusive conservation policies in the region.     

Oil pipeline construction in Eastern Siberia: Implications for indigenous people

Traditional economic activities, lifestyles and customs of many indigenous peoples in the Russian North, such as reindeer herding, hunting and fishing, are closely linked to quality of the natural environment. These traditional activities that constitute the core of indigenous cultures are impacted by extractive sector activities conducted in and around traditional territories of indigenous peoples. This paper examines implications of an oil pipeline development in Eastern Siberia on the Evenki community in the Aldan district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). It examines community concerns about potential environmental damage and impacts on traditional livelihood. The paper analyses the interaction of indigenous communities with the pipeline project through interrogation of elements such as impact assessment, consultation, compensation, benefits, communication and public activism. The paper discusses how state policy and industry’s approach towards land rights and public participation affects the position of indigenous peoples and discusses barriers for their effective engagement. The analysis shows a number of policy failures in the protection of traditional natural resource use of indigenous peoples and provision of benefits with regards to the extractive sector that leave indigenous peoples marginalised in the process of development. There is a need to involve indigenous peoples on the basis of dialogue and partnership, improve regulation and shift industry’s approach towards consideration and engagement.     

Forest protection and tenure status: The key role of indigenous peoples and protected areas in Panama

Using recent land cover maps, we used matching techniques to analyze forest cover and assess effectiveness in avoiding deforestation in three main land tenure regimes in Panama, namely protected areas, indigenous territories and non-protected areas. We found that the tenure status of protected areas and indigenous territories (including comarcas and claimed lands) explains a higher rate of success in avoided deforestation than other land tenure categories, when controlling for covariate variables such us distance to roads, distance to towns, slope, and elevation. In 2008 protected areas and indigenous territories had the highest percentage of forest cover and together they hosted 77% of Panama's total mature forest area. Our study shows the promises of matching techniques as a potential tool for demonstrating and quantifying conservation efforts. We therefore propose that matching could be integrated to methodological approaches allowing compensating forests’ protectors. Because conserving forest carbon stocks in forested areas of developing countries is an essential component of REDD+ and its future success, the discussion of our results is relevant to countries or jurisdictions with high forest cover and low deforestation rates.     

Macassan/Indigenous Australian ‘sites of memory’ in the National Museum of Australia and Australian National Maritime Museum

For over two centuries people from Makassar on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi came to northern Australia with the onset of the northeast monsoon winds. They came in search of trepang that, with the help of Indigenous Australians, they collected and traded on to China. Their impact on the Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land was considerable. Along with sharing language, technology and culture, they built relationships, many ongoing, that are celebrated in Yolngu art, song and stories. These stories of contact are well known to many archaeologists and anthropologists but for many Australians the only place where they come into contact with these stories is in a museum display. In this paper I examine the ways in which these stories are disseminated by two national museums, the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney and the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. As important ‘lieux de mémoire’ or ‘sites of memory’, they tell of Macassan visits to northern Australia as part of Australian history. In both cases not only are the stories situated in the past but both Macassan and Indigenous Australian voices are largely absent.