Oil in the Soil: The Politics of Paying to Preserve the Amazon

163 Pages·2011·1.64 MB·English

by  Pamela L. Martin

O I L I N T H E S O I L
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O I L I N T H E S O I L
The Politics of Paying to Preserve the Amazon
Pamela L. Martin
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham (cid:129) Boulder (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
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Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, Pamela, 1971–
Oil in the soil : the politics of paying to preserve the Amazon / Pamela L. Martin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-1128-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-1130-8 (electronic)
1. Environmental policy—Ecuador—Parque Nacional Yasuni. 2. Environmental
protection—Ecuador—Parque Nacional Yasuni. 3. Environmental degradation—
Ecuador—Parque Nacional Yasuni. 4. Petroleum industry and trade—Environmental
aspects—Ecuador—Parque Nacional Yasuni. 5. Parque Nacional Yasuni (Ecuador)—
Environmental conditions. I. Title.
TD171.5.E2M376 2011
333.78'309866416—dc22
2011010688
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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To Bill, Gabriella, and William
with much love and admiration
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Acronyms xiii
1 Saving Yasuní and the Planet: Toward a Global Politics
of the Good Life 1
2 Global Politics from the Canopy 13
3 History in Black, Green, and Red 33
4 Pay to Preserve: The Yasuní-ITT Trust Fund 59
5 Behind the Scenes: Agents, Norms, and Structure
in the Quest to Save Yasuní 79
6 The Future of Global Governance in the Amazon:
The Yasuní Effect 111
Bibliography 131
Index 139
About the Author 147
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Acknowledgments
THIS STUDY HAS BEEN a personal journey shared with many family and friends
since the inception of my research in 2006, and in many ways reflects
years of study of and travel to Ecuador as well. The Yasuní-ITT Initiative
and its actors are a constant inspiration to me and a symbol of the changing
global politics of our time. While global climate change talks, such as those
in Cancun in December 2010, labor slowly with few pathbreaking results,
the Yasuní-ITT Initiative stands out as a harbinger for change—one that is
not waiting until the world decides to agree on real solutions for the urgent
problems that impact our very way of life on this planet. The study of this
initiative is also a testament to the authority and power vested in individuals
in the global system. Given the pioneering nature of this proposal to leave
oil underground in a pristine plot of the Amazon, precedent and other case
studies are lacking. This manuscript is an attempt to analyze the challenges of
such work and document the processes for replication by other policy makers
seeking to enact innovative programs in the hopes of reversing the devastating
impacts of climate change.
Earlier versions of sections of this book are published with Global Envi-
ronmental Politics, entitled “Global Governance from the Amazon: Leaving
Oil Underground in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador,” and an International
Development Policy contribution entitled “Pay to Preserve: The Global Politics
of Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Proposal.” Many of the revisions and much of the
continued analysis that are found within this book are owed to exchanges
with María Laura Patiño, Grace Jaramillo, and William DeMars at the In-
ternational Studies Association conference in 2009, as well as a May 2010
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