This report presents a broad analysis of the Amazon region within the framework of Ecuador's national economic development. This approach is based on the observation that isolated policy analyses that focus narrowly on a region of concern generally result in policies that are 1) wrong from a national development perspective and or 2) ignored, unless the region in question has decisive political influence. The Amazon region presents some very special characteristics, some of which may be considered constraints, others unique opportunities. The foremost characteristic that conditions the range of options for this region is the extreme fragility of the region's natural resources. It also offers unique biological diversity. This potential may remain unknown and lost forever if the tropical rainforest is permanently destroyed through inappropriate land use. The report will aslo examine the area's development issues and policy options.
Welcome to the wildest place on earth! Ecuador's upper Amazon Basin, referred to locally as the Oriente, awaits you. Spanning most of the SucumbA-os Province, this region is unquestionably one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet. Here, you can experience incredible wildlife viewing and bird-watching, nature photography, jungle hikes, dugout-canoe excursions, and a unique mix of native people adapted to life in the heart of the tropics. From bird-size butterflies to butterfly-size birds, from piranhas to vampire bats, from poison-arrow frogs to monster anacondas, and from spider monkeys to howler monkeys, the sky is the limit for the spirited soul. The area surrounding Tena and MisahuallA- is the most-visited rainforest destination in the country. One of the more developed regions of the upper Amazon, it is also the most accessible. Jungle excursions abound and there are still small patches of primary forest, mostly in the form of private reserves. Outstanding rafting, kayaking, swimming, tubing and hiking opportunities are available, as well as birding, botany, medicinal study, cultural and general nature travel. Farther down the RA-o Napo, the land becomes more pristine. In the south, especially along the eastern slopes of the Andes and around Macas, the rugged topography and lack of access have preserved some of the best wildlife-viewing opportunities and intact indigenous cultures in Ecuador. In this region, virgin rainforest and the communities of the unique Achuar and Shuar Nations await the true adventure seeker. As the Andes descend dramatically eastward into the Napo region, the true tropical lowland rainforest begins with the headwaters of the RA-o Napo. The Central Oriente offers ecological life zones similar to those in the northern region (see The Upper Amazon Basin), with many species that live here and nowhere else on earth. This is due primarily to the mixture of different microclimates created by drastic elevation changes between the Andes and the Amazon, resulting in small pockets of life that evolved separately from their close neighbors. Thus, biologically, the Oriente a€" with up to 5% of the earth's plant species a€" is arguably the richest place on the planet. This guide gives you all the details on where to stay, where to eat, what to do, how to get around, the entertainment and arts, the history and culture. Complete with maps and photos throughout.
This book provides the reader with a story that has been many years in the making. It is the story of the Runa, a Quichua-speaking Indian population in Ecuador's Amazon region. It offers a window onto another culture, an illustration of the relationship between ethnicity and culture, and a story of the mobilization of an indigenous group. And when the reader arrives at the book's end, he or she will understand why the story is not merely shelved and finished, but is rather an ongoing tale that will continue for years to come. The author has been following the Runa's adaptation to continuous changes around and amongst them since 1974. When he first met the Runa, they were practicing swidden horticulture, hunting, fishing, and living their created culture while also reacting to external pressures imposed on them by newly arrived colonists and changing national legislation. This book follows the Runa from a passive accommodating society to an active organized group. The Runa thus became one of the early standard bearers in what is now a hemispheric social movement -- indigenous ethnic federations. These organizations have changed Latin America by successfully thrusting indigenous identities and concerns into the middle of national political arenas that previously marginalized and stigmatized them. Anthropologists or anyone interested in other cultures. Part of the New Immigrant's Series.
The highly publicized obscenity trial of Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928) is generally recognized as the crystallizing moment in the construction of a visible modern English lesbian culture, marking a great divide between innocence and deviance, private and public, New Woman and Modern Lesbian. Yet despite unreserved agreement on the importance of this cultural moment, previous studies often reductively distort our reading of the formation of early twentieth-century lesbian identity, either by neglecting to examine in detail the developments leading up to the ban or by framing events in too broad a context against other cultural phenomena. Fashioning Sapphism locates the novelist Radclyffe Hall and other prominent lesbians--including the pioneer in women's policing, Mary Allen, the artist Gluck, and the writer Bryher--within English modernity through the multiple sites of law, sexology, fashion, and literary and visual representation, thus tracing the emergence of a modern English lesbian subculture in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on extensive new archival research, the book interrogates anew a range of myths long accepted without question (and still in circulation) concerning, to cite only a few, the extent of homophobia in the 1920s, the strategic deployment of sexology against sexual minorities, and the rigidity of certain cultural codes to denote lesbianism in public culture.
Welcome to the wildest place on earth! Ecuador's upper Amazon Basin, referred to locally as the Oriente, awaits you. Spanning most of the SucumbA-os Province, this region is unquestionably one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet. Here, you can experience incredible wildlife viewing and bird-watching, nature photography, jungle hikes, dugout-canoe excursions, and a unique mix of native people adapted to life in the heart of the tropics. From bird-size butterflies to butterfly-size birds, from piranhas to vampire bats, from poison-arrow frogs to monster anacondas, and from spider monkeys to howler monkeys, the sky is the limit for the spirited soul. The area surrounding Tena and MisahuallA- is the most-visited rainforest destination in the country. One of the more developed regions of the upper Amazon, it is also the most accessible. Jungle excursions abound and there are still small patches of primary forest, mostly in the form of private reserves. Outstanding rafting, kayaking, swimming, tubing and hiking opportunities are available, as well as birding, botany, medicinal study, cultural and general nature travel. Farther down the RA-o Napo, the land becomes more pristine. In the south, especially along the eastern slopes of the Andes and around Macas, the rugged topography and lack of access have preserved some of the best wildlife-viewing opportunities and intact indigenous cultures in Ecuador. In this region, virgin rainforest and the communities of the unique Achuar and Shuar Nations await the true adventure seeker. As the Andes descend dramatically eastward into the Napo region, the true tropical lowland rainforest begins with the headwaters of the RA-o Napo. The Central Oriente offers ecological life zones similar to those in the northern region (see The Upper Amazon Basin), with many species that live here and nowhere else on earth. This is due primarily to the mixture of different microclimates created by drastic elevation changes between the Andes and the Amazon, resulting in small pockets of life that evolved separately from their close neighbors. Thus, biologically, the Oriente a€" with up to 5% of the earth's plant species a€" is arguably the richest place on the planet. This guide gives you all the details on where to stay, where to eat, what to do, how to get around, the entertainment and arts, the history and culture. Complete with maps and photos throughout.
Governing Indigenous Territories illuminates a paradox of modern indigenous lives. In recent decades, native peoples from Alaska to Cameroon have sought and gained legal title to significant areas of land, not as individuals or families but as large, collective organizations. Obtaining these collective titles represents an enormous accomplishment; it also creates dramatic changes. Once an indigenous territory is legally established, other governments and organizations expect it to act as a unified political entity, making decisions on behalf of its population and managing those living within its borders. A territorial government must mediate between outsiders and a not-always-united population within a context of constantly shifting global development priorities. The people of Rukullakta, a large indigenous territory in Ecuador, have struggled to enact sovereignty since the late 1960s. Drawing broadly applicable lessons from their experiences of self-rule, Juliet S. Erazo shows how collective titling produces new expectations, obligations, and subjectivities within indigenous territories.
This book addresses the political ecology of the Ecuadorian petro-state since the turn of the century and contextualizes state-civil society relations in contemporary Ecuador to produce an analysis of oil and Revolution in twenty-first century Latin America. Ecuador’s recent history is marked by changes in state-citizen relations: the election of political firebrand, Rafael Correa; a new constitution recognizing the value of pluriculturality and nature’s rights; and new rules for distributing state oil revenues. One of the most emblematic projects at this time is the Correa administration’s Revolución Ciudadana, an oil-funded project of social investment and infrastructural development that claims to blaze a responsible and responsive path towards wellbeing for all Ecuadorians. The contributors to this book examine the key interventions of the recent political revolution—the investment of oil revenues into public works in Amazonia and across Ecuador; an initiative to keep oil underground; and the protection of the country’s most marginalized peoples—to illustrate how new forms of citizenship are required and forged. Through a focus on Amazonia and the Waorani, this book analyzes the burdens and opportunities created by oil-financed social and environmental change, and how these alter life in Amazonian extraction sites and across Ecuador.
Comprises maps and color photos together with information on each of more than 40 community ecotourism projects in some of the Amazon's most spectacular areas. Includes also chapters on the characteristics of community-based ecotourism, the cultural and environmental context, the role of the responsible traveller and tips for travellers.
From the author of Inca-tastic Tales comes a new collection of short stories: Jungle-tastic Tales! Are you brave enough to join Yacumama, the Amazon's most humongous and powerful snake, on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Amazon Region in South America? You are? Fab! Then grab your camera, mosquito net and raincoat, and LET'S GO! You're gonna travel through thousands of years of history and culture (a lot of which not many grown-ups know about!). For example, did you know...? - There were once huge cities in the Amazon rainforest. - The Amazon is home to millions of different species of animals and plants. - The first city in Peru to get electric street lights was in the Amazon Region. - A Premier League footballer grew up in the Ecuadorian Amazon. If that's got your interest, then jump in the canoe and we'll get started straight away. We'll start with the Ice Age and go right the way through to modern times. Oh, and Yacumama promises not to bite you! She'll be on her best behaviour. Praise for The Mysterious Helpers: "really exciting" "a good yarn" "I believe everyone should read this beautiful story."
