Included within Ecuador’s buen vivir development model — promoted as a counter hegemonic discourse in which indigenous ancestral philosophy and respect for Mother Earth (pachamama) are an alternative to exploitative Western models of development — are efforts to diversify the country’s energy matrix away from oil through the Plan Maestro Electrificación: eight ‘emblematic’ hydroelectric energy projects that will contribute to the the achievement of buen vivir.

The UN has stated that modern energy services stand at the centre of global efforts to induce a paradigm shift towards green economies, poverty eradication and sustainable development. However, mega-projects involving natural ressource exploitation, whether for renewable or traditional forms of energy, involve a trade-off between the three pillars of sustainable development — economic, social, environmental and this research aims to understand how the trade offs have been enacted in socioenvironmental conflicts surrounding hydroelectric energy projects in Ecuador.

This lecture will explore how the Ecuadorian government, in response to global development model premised on demand for natural resources, has coopted the discourse of buen vivir, supplanting indigenous principles of reciprocity and harmony that underpin human interactions with nature with a modernist economic discourse of ‘ecosystem services’, premised on the human manipulation of natural resources and a race to the bottom of environmental and social protections. These are the doors through which neo-extractivism as well as the hydraulic mission have crept into national and international policies, programmes and politics, under the banner of sustainable development.

All are welcome to attend. However, if you would like a free sandwich, please email ceh@cas.au.dk and indicate any special dietary needs before 12pm on Wednesday, October 2nd.