How to Make Them Hear : Challenging Transnational Oil Interests in Ecuador's Amazon Region

This article from 1997 discusses how oil development in the Amazon basin of Ecuador threatens to displace indigenous peoples through environmental contamination and colonization. It describes one of the main strategies that local organizations use to resist displacement and defend local communities. Drawing on participatory-action field research conducted with Ecuadorian environmental and human rights organizations, the author describes local approaches to capacity-building for indigenous and mestizo-settler communities. Capacity-building is identified by local organizations as essential for addressing threats to human rights and the environment that are linked to oil development. While the focus is on transnational oil operations in the Ecuadorian Oriente, many of the issues and empowerment methods that are discussed are transferable to other local/global conflicts around the world, especially where indigenous and peasant communities are adversely affected by transnational resource extraction activities (mining, forestry, and oil)