PhD project: Spatial Expansion of the Oil Amazon Frontier and

Environmental Conflicts in Ecuador

Università degli Studi di PadovaUniversità degli Studi di PadovaScuola di Dottorato in Scienze Storiche

PhD Student: Eugenio Pappalardo Supervisor: Dr. Massimo de MarchiDipartimento di Geografia “G. Morandini”

Indirizzo “Geografia Umana e Geografia Fisica

seminar structure

keywords

• theoretical and operative framework: SLoT and sustainibility

• the environmental issues

• biodiversity conservation and sustainable development

• introduction to the case study “Yasuni” in Ecuador

• geographical and territorial framework

• territorialization processes in Amazon context

didactic tools: • rainstorming• power point• videos• working group

• LD not just a growth of a productive sector or aggregation of enterprise • LD as a process of territorial development• based on sustainable use of the material and unmaterial resources• It involves the social and cultural sphere and the capacity of self-organization of subjects (Dematteis, Governa, 2005)

globalization and post-fordism historic phase

between actors, social structures and territory mutual complex relationships and ricursive processes:- tendency towards hyper-connection between places (short/long networks), (case study)- process of fragmentation: economy, politics, society, natural environment, territory (case study)

Territorialist perspective of Local Development:

Introduction

Introduction

• wider analysis on local territorial systems

• issue of the territorial and environmental sustainability

• relationships between local systems and ecosystems

Integrating the perspective of the SLoT model on the local complexity environment in its socio-economic components using a complex vision to represent “natural environment” as well.

Aim:

use of the ecosystem reading key

use the territoriality as synthesis category assuming the relationships between society, alterity and externality both at local and at global scale

(Dematteis, Governa, 2005)

Introduction

Using this new category allows to combine the global imperative with the local needs proposing a process of territorialization of the sustainable development, combining the interests to development and the priorities of sustainability

sustainable territoriality means assuming the awareness of the unmaterial and material relationships linking

• Society and Environment• local to global scale

Internationalization of the environmental issue:UNCED Earth Summit, CBD (Rio de Janeiro, 1992)COP and SBSTTAUNFCCC and IPCC (UN)

social-economical environmentpassive support

complexityenvironmentlocal territory

natural environment

green urban areas

mine and dump (Sacks, 1998)

ecosystems

complex network of ecosystems

(Dematteis, Governa, 2005)

Integrated components

trivial machine

summary ofcomponents

operative-analyticperspective

functionalist approach

political-normative perspective

epistemologicperspective

territorialistperspective

The territorialist perspective on LD

• the territory as epicentre of sustainability concept

• territory is a set of material and unmaterial complex relationships

• sustainability is not referred just to the economic-functional space neither to a non-humanized environment

sustainability pass through a territory definetely anthropized based on specific and contextualized relationships of coevolution between local socienties and natural environment

(Dematteis, Governa, 2005)

Local Territorial System (SLoT) and sustainability

- Natural environment the SLoT model refers to the relationships between local network, milieu and ecosystems

- sustainability as conservation of territorial capital - ecosystems as a “black box” (Dematteis, Governa 2005)

A SLoT is able of sustainable self-reproduction if:the collective territorial actor, interacting with other local systems and sovra-local levels, produces value without loosing the territorial capital both the local one and the other territories involved in the process

(Dematteis, Governa, 2005)

sustainability

territorial capital and ecosystems

Nature is not just an external “re-source” to be exploited as much and as faster as possible for human production and consumption

(Pignatti 2002, Rifkin, 2004; Tiezzi 2000)

- open system obeying to the thermodinamic principles- self-organizing system- actions, feedback loops (positive and negative)- non-linear relationships between components- non-predictable behaviour

Nature is a complex system (ecosystem, biosphere):

(Bertalanffy, 1968)

ecosystems properties and territorial complexity

spatial configuration – global relationships

- every ecosystem exchange energy, matter and informations with other ecosystems through a complex network of relationships from local scale to the global one. Appropriate analysis of the environmetal component has to consider local, middle and global scale

- at global scale emerging effects are not a merely sum of all the ecosystems, but they results complex interactions and sinergic relationships

i.e.: - atmosferic oxygen regulation- gas emissions- deforestation

In this theoretical framework the environmetal issue takes place

the environmental issue

Tra il 12% ed il 52% dei Tra il 12% ed il 52% dei taxataxa attualmente attualmente conosciuti sono al conosciuti sono al momento minacciati di momento minacciati di estinzione (IUCN Red estinzione (IUCN Red List, 2001)List, 2001)

Anthropogenic direct Anthropogenic direct driversdrivers• cambiamento d’uso dei suoli (land use)• sovrasfruttamento delle risorse naturali• introduzione di specie alloctone invasive (alien species)• diffusione di agenti patogeni e contaminanti• cambiamenti climatici globali

- Frammentazione

- Perdita e/o degradazione degli habitat

(Primack, 2004)

ECOSYSTEMS – PRODUCTION SYSTEMS – ECONOMICAL SYSTEMS

ECOSYSTEMS PRODUCTIONSYSTEM

natural resources

ECONOMICSYSTEM

goods and services

capitalpollution

ecological crisis energetic crisis economic crisis(Tiezzi, 2005)

An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the nonliving environment, interacting as a functional unit.

Ecosystems

Humans are an integral part of ecosystems.

ECOSYSTEM APPROCH

CBD (UNCED, Rio de Janeiro, 1992) COP, SBSTTA (Montreal, 2000)

The Ecosystem Approach: a bridge between the environment and human well-being

- a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way.

- reach the 3 objectives of CBD: conservation; sustainable use; and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.

- it is based on the application of appropriate scientific methodologies focused on levels of biological organization, which encompass the essential structure, processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment.

It recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of many ecosystems.

Ecosystems services

ecosystems are not just a passive support, they are active agents that permanently play crucial roles in functions and services

Ecosystem Services: the benefits people obtain from

ecosystems

Ecosystem services are the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfill human life. They maintain biodiversity and the production of ecosystem goods, such as seafood, forage timber, biomass fuels, natural fiber, and many pharmaceuticals, industrial products, and their precursors (MA, 2005).

what is biodiversity?

• multiscalar concept of biological diversity

• genes, species, community, ecosystem, meta-ecosystems

• At every geographical scale: local, regional and global scale

biodiversity

Ecosystems services

E.S. include provisioning, regulating, and cultural services that directly affect people and supporting services needed to maintain the other services.

E.S. is a multiscale concept: from local scale to the global one

E.S. include both natural and human-modified ecosystems as sources of ecosystem services (i.e. agrosystems).

E.S. encompass both the tangible and the intangible benefits humans obtain from ecosystems, which are sometimes separated into “goods” and “services” respectively.

(MA, 2005)

Ecosystems services

provisioning services(products obtained from ecosystems)

regulating services(benefits obtained from regulationof ecosystem processes)

cultural services(nonmaterial services)

• Food

• Freshwater

• Fuelwood

• Fibers

• Biochemicals

• Genetic resources

• climate regulation

• diseases regulation

• water regulation

• water purification

• pollination

• spiritual and religious

• recreational and ecoturism

• sense of place

• educational

• cultural heritage

Ecosystems services

supporting servicesservices necessary for the production of all the ecosystem services

soil formation nutrient cycling primary production

They differ from provisioning, regulating, and cultural services in that their impacts on people are either indirect or occur over a very long time, whereas changes in the other categories have relatively direct and short-term impacts on people.

Ecosystems services

supporting

provisioning regulating cultural

Ecosystems and evolution of the SLoT Model

representing the “natural component” means taking in account:

• existence of ecosystems complexity

• plots between ecosystems at local scale

• network of relationships, feedback loops between local and global scale

Ecosystems services

Ecosystems and evolution of the SLoT Model

At local scale: what does the SLoT model see as “local natural component”? What does “local ecosystem” means?

• presence of different ecosystems

• mutual relationships between ecosystems

• spatial overlap and contacts with systems regulated by societies (agrosystems or part of it, antropized areas, urban areas, etc)

in the SLoT there are local network of “ecological agents” wich interact between them

(ecosystem or part of it, wetlands, woodlands, grasslands, Biotopes)

Ecosystems and evolution of the SLoT Model

At global scale: a global network connecting different local ecosystems, different local networks of “ecological agents”

It is the same role of the long mesh network extending at global scale, connecting different anthropic actor considered by the SLoT.

Representation of the “natural component” assumed as the socio-economic components having global and local networks of social and economical actors demandin, supplying and exchanging economic and social services.

How does this parralelism sound? Is that comparable?

Towards an environmental sustanability

ecosystem services do not dipend by static conditions

E.S. are results of permanent complex processes with they own rithms and velocity

Sustainability is not just a matter of quantity, but it refers to time-scales, rithms and carrying capacity of ecosystems.

one action is environmetally sustainable if the use of E.S. has a rate lower (or equal) to whom produced by ecosystem its own.

dangerous relationships