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

在过去的十年里，关注碳排放和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推动了对非洲棕榈树种植园在全球南部扩张的投资，以便在这些‘森林’中‘储存’碳，并生产以棕榈油为基础的生物柴油来替代‘化石’燃料。这项研究调查了厄瓜多尔沿海乔科地区圣洛伦索州大幅强化的非洲油棕榈树种植的动机和后果。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，雨林被单一种植的油棕榈园取代。该项目的研究问题涉及以下方面：1)全球气候变化政策；2)厄瓜多尔增加非洲油棕榈树种植的国家发展计划；3)扩大非洲油棕榈树种植园对当地人民的环境、社会和经济影响；4)该地区居民在扩大油棕榈树种植的情况下为确保生计而动员起来的战略。这些研究调查涉及政治生态文献，并与关于希望地理和民族发展的学术联系在一起。它们还被广泛的气候变化和替代燃料政策文献所框定。所采用的方法包括档案研究、政策分析、访谈和对圣洛伦佐两个不同影响的社区进行深入的定性研究。总的研究目标是产生和分析原始的经验数据，使人们能够更好地了解以下问题：第一，全球气候变化缓解努力以及国家一级的政策如何改变当地的景观；第二，当地社区如何制定战略，以应对这些正在进行的变化的各个方面，并产生自己的希望地理位置。这项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。对于那些直接受影响的人，例如生活在厄瓜多尔乔科地区的人们，这些都是非常紧迫的日常问题。这项研究侧重于两个受影响的社区，有助于一项创新的社会科学议程，该议程探索并突出了社区、团体和个人对多尺度经济和政治进程的各种反应方式。它认真对待这些历史上被边缘化的人的经历和观点。通过关注社区如何在大规模棕榈树种植园扩张的情况下潜在地控制自己的生活，这项工作质疑了关于全球资本和气候变化的宿命论言论。总体而言，这项研究将为审议当前全球气候变化缓解战略的当地成本和收益做出丰富的、经验确凿的贡献。

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.