Plantations, Resistance and the Greening of the Agrarian Question in Coastal Ecuador

Worldwide, industrial tree plantations are at the origin of a growing number of conflicts between local populations and commercial planters. Such conflicts - which often turn out to be 'environmental'- have largely remained understudied. By focusing on the establishment of an industrial eucalypt monoculture in a coastal Ecuadorian canton, this paper investigates the effects of the penetration of capital into the rural sphere, emphasizing the resulting resistance campaign of a local NGO originating from a peasant organization. We analyse the evolution of land conflicts in the region - historically as well as operationally during the latest eucalypt campaign. We find that displacement of local peasants is a recurrent theme, while environmental issues have recently been incorporated into the resistance to landowners. We thus argue that the agrarian question also includes - now perhaps more than ever - an environmental dimension, thereby providing space for a fruitful dialogue between political ecologists and students of agrarian conflicts. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.