Doctoral Dissertation Research: African Oil Palm Plantation Expansion and Geographies of Hope in the Ecuadorian Choco Region

在过去十年中，关注碳排放与气候变化之间关系的北方国家承诺增加生物燃料的使用和碳交易。诸如《京都议定书》的清洁发展机制等政策框架激励对全球南方的非洲油棕种植园扩张进行投资，以在这些“森林”中“储存”碳，并生产以棕榈油为基础的生物柴油，以替代“化石”燃料。本研究考察了厄瓜多尔沿海乔科地区圣洛伦索州大力强化非洲油棕种植的动机和后果。在那里，非裔厄瓜多尔人和土著人民面临着广泛的景观变化的影响，因为雨林被单一种植的油棕榈种植园所取代。该项目的研究问题调查以下交叉点：1）全球气候变化政策; 2）厄瓜多尔国家发展计划，以增加非洲油棕种植; 3）非洲油棕种植园扩张对当地人民的环境，社会和经济影响;（4）该地区居民在扩大油棕榈种植的情况下为确保生计而采取的战略。这些研究调查与政治生态学文献，并连接到希望和民族发展的地理学。它们还受到广泛的气候变化和替代燃料政策文献的框架。所采用的方法包括档案研究，政策分析，访谈和深入的定性研究在两个不同的影响社区在圣洛伦索。总体研究目标是产生和分析原始的经验数据，这将有助于更好地了解以下内容：一，全球气候变化减缓工作以及国家一级的政策如何改变当地景观;二，当地社区如何制定战略来应对这些持续变化的各个方面，并产生自己的希望地理。 这个研究项目的意义首先在于它的及时性。气候变化、生物燃料产量的增加以及《京都议定书》等政策框架对科学家、政策制定者和整个人类社会都至关重要。对于那些直接受到影响的人，例如生活在厄瓜多尔乔科地区的人来说，这些都是非常紧迫的日常问题。这项研究，集中在两个受影响的社区，有助于一个创新的社会科学议程，探索和突出社区，群体和个人应对多标量经济和政治进程的无数方式。它认真对待这些历史上被边缘化的人的经验和观点。通过关注社区如何在广泛的棕榈种植园扩张的情况下控制自己的生活，这项工作质疑了关于全球资本和气候变化的宿命论。总的来说，这项研究将为审议现行全球气候变化减缓战略的当地成本和收益做出丰富、可靠的贡献。

In the last decade, northern countries concerned with the relationship between carbon emissions and climate change have committed to increased use of biofuels and carbon trading. Policy frameworks such as the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanisms motivate investment in African oil palm plantation expansion in the global South to 'store' carbon in these 'forests' and to produce palm oil-based biodiesel to substitute for 'fossil' fuels. This research examines the motivations and consequences of greatly intensified African oil palm cultivation in the canton of San Lorenzo in the Chocó region of coastal Ecuador. There, Afro-Ecuadorian and Indigenous peoples confront the effects of extensive landscape change, as rainforest is replaced by monoculture oil palm plantations. The project's research questions investigate intersections of the following: 1) global climate change policies; 2) Ecuadorian state development plans to increase African oil palm cultivation; 3) the environmental, social and economic effects of African oil palm plantation expansion for local people; and 4), the strategies that the region's residents are mobilizing to secure their livelihoods in the face of expanded cultivation of oil palms. These research inquiries engage with political ecology literature and connect to scholarship on geographies of hope and ethnodevelopment. They are also framed by the broad climate change and alternative fuel policy literature. The methods employed include archival research, policy analysis, interviews, and in depth qualitative research in two differently impacted communities in San Lorenzo. The overall research objective is to produce and analyze original empirical data that will enable a better understanding of the following: one, how global climate change mitigation efforts, together with national-level policies, are transforming local landscapes; and two, how local communities are developing strategies to counter aspects of these ongoing changes and are generating their own geographies of hope. This research project's significance lies first, in its timeliness. Climate change, increasing production of biofuels, and policy frameworks like the Kyoto Protocol are of critical importance to scientists, policymakers, and human communities in general. For those directly impacted, such as people living in the Chocó region of Ecuador, these are very immediate, everyday concerns. This research, focused on two impacted communities, contributes to an innovative social science agenda that explores and highlights the myriad ways in which communities, groups, and individuals respond to multi-scalar economic and political processes. It takes seriously the experiences and perspectives of these historically marginalized people. By focusing on how communities potentially take control of their own lives in light of extensive palm plantation expansion, this work questions fatalistic discourse on global capital and climate change. Overall, the research will enable a rich, empirically solid contribution to deliberations over the local costs and benefits of prevailing global climate change mitigation strategies.