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The study of maize (Zea mays L.) domestication has advanced from questions of its origins to the study--and debate--of its dietary role and the timing of its dispersal from Mexico. Because the investigation of maize's spread is hampered by poor preservation of macrobotanical remains in the Neotropics, research has focused on microbotanical remains whose contexts are often dated by association, leading some to question the dates assigned. Furthermore, some scholars have argued that maize was not introduced to southwestern Ecuador until ~4150-3850 calendar years before the present (cal 8.P.), that it was used first and foremost as a fermented beverage in ceremonial contexts, and that it was not important in everyday subsistence, challenging previous studies based on maize starch and phytoliths. To further investigate these questions, we analyzed every-day cooking vessels, food-processing implements, and sediments for starch and phytoliths from an archaeological site in southwestern Ecuador constituting a small Early Formative village. Employing a new technique to recover starch granules from charred cooking-pot residues we show that maize was present, cultivated, and consumed here in domestic contexts by at least 5300-4950 cal B.P. Directly dating the residues by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon measurement, our results represent the earliest direct dates for maize in Early Formative Ecuadorian sites and provide further support that, once domesticated ~9000 calendar years ago, maize spread rapidly from southwestern Mexico to northwestern South America. ceramic residues | microfossil analysis | AMS radiocarbon measurement | crop dispersals | agricultural origins

A Geographical Information System for Tungurahua is an ideal tool to assess the danger of natural hazards, especially volcanoes in the area, allowing communities to reduce potential risks and increase their preparedness.

Environmental change plays a large role in the emergence of infectious disease. The construction of a new road in a previously roadless area of northern coastal Ecuador provides a valuable natural experiment to examine how changes in the social and natural environment, mediated by road construction, affect the epidemiology of diarrheal diseases. Twenty-one villages were randomly selected to capture the full distribution of village population size and distance from a main road (remoteness), and these were compared with the major population center of the region, Borbon, that lies on the road. Estimates of enteric pathogen infection rates were obtained from case-control studies at the village level. Higher rates of infection were found in nonremote vs. remote villages [pathogenic Escherichia coli: odds ratio (OR) = 8.4, confidence interval (CI) 1.6, 43.5; rotavirus: OR = 4.0, CI 1.3, 12.1; and Giardia: OR = 1.9, CI 1.3, 2.7]. Higher rates of all-cause diarrhea were found in Borbon compared with the 21 villages (RR = 2.0, CI 1.5, 2.8), as well as when comparing nonremote and remote villages (OR = 2.7, CI 1.5, 4.8). Social network data collected in parallel offered a causal link between remoteness and disease. The significant and consistent trends across viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens suggest the importance of considering a broad range of pathogens with differing epidemiological patterns when assessing the environmental impact of new roads. This study provides insight into the initial health impacts that roads have on communities and into the social and environmental processes that create these impacts. community study | developing country | diarrheal disease | environment | humans

Prestack depth-migrated seismic lines provide accurate images of the convergent Ecuadorian margin, where the southern flank of the Carnegie Ridge subducts. The margin is fronted by a 5-7-km-wide compressional sediment prism. Beneath the slope, margin thinning is accomplished by gradual thinning of the lower part of the basement, accompanied by pervasive seaward-dipping normal faulting, indicating basal subduction erosion at a low-friction plate interface. Along the plate boundary, a thin subduction channel locally thickens to form low-velocity, ~600-m-thick lenses of under-thrusted fluid-rich sediment supplied by slope mass wasting. The contrast between the fluid-rich sediment and the surrounding thinner and drier sections of the subduction channel creates a three-dimensional patchiness across the plate boundary, implying variations in mechanical interplate coupling. The subduction channel patchiness modulates subduction erosion processes by alternately favoring margin basement weakening and material removal. Basement weakening would occur (1) at the base of the upper plate, where enhanced reflectivity indicates basement damage by over-pressured fluids from the subduction channel, and (2) at the basement apex, where basement breakup is caused by superposition of compressional and extensional fault systems resulting from time-variable interplate mechanical coupling. The detachment of rock debris in the higher coupled sections and the subsequent dragging of the fragments into the subduction channel cause tectonic erosion. Deeper in the subduction, the subduction channel patchiness may influence processes like earthquake nucleation and rupture propagation and material recycling in the mantle. Keywords: convergent margins, subduction-erosion, subduction zones, fluids.

The temperature anomalies throughout the water column are analyzed in order to better understand the inter-annual variability of the thermal structure of the water column off Ecuador associated with EI Nino events, that is when the thermocline deepened more than 80 m. The relation between these anomalies and equatorial Pacific variability is investigated.

This paper describes trends in population, household formation, fragmentation of landholdings, and changes in land use between 1990 and 1999 in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon (NEA)--one of the areas of highest biodiversity in the world. It also shows how changes in land use are associated with the duration (or age) of the farm settlement, which is also linked to the stage in the farm household lifecycle and household composition. The study is based upon data from two detailed household surveys, which result in a cohort of 246 farm households interviewed in 1990 and 1999 as well as 383 new farm households constituted after 1990. Distinct patterns of land use are linked with duration of settlement, independent of when settlement occurred in the region. KEY WORDS: Ecuador; Amazon; land use change; population change; fragmentation of farm plots; household lifecycle.

Recent decades have witnessed an increasing corporate access to and control over natural resources resulting in environmental degradation, inequalities and ill health. Since 1972, oil companies have extracted more than two billion barrels of crude oil from the Ecuadorian Amazon. During this process, millions of gallons of untreated toxic wastes, gas and oil have been released into the environment. Indigenous federations, peasant's movements and environmental groups have claimed that contamination has caused widespread damage to both people and the environment. This article tells the story of how the relationship between local organisations and research institutions developed around an epidemiological study constructed to address communities' concerns. Local organisations set the agenda of the research: they were involved in the hypothesis formulation, consulted in each step during the study and responsible of the dissemination of the findings. This process is known as popular epidemiology. Practical and personal issues and dilemmas faced during the research process are discussed with emphasis on the communication and dissemination of the findings. The article concludes the need of alliances between communities and researchers in order to protect health and environment. Popular epidemiology is an essential approach for public health researchers to reaffirm their roots in improving public health as a primary value. Keywords: Popular epidemiology; Oil development; Amazon; Ecuador; Environment

********** Cattle Ranching and Cash Cropping among Shuar and Colonists in Ecuador (*) Abstract: Observers have argued that as indigenous peoples become more acculturated and their reserves more populous, they [...], THOMAS K. RUDEL is a professor in the departments of Human Ecology and Sociology at Rutgers University. He wrote with Bruce Horowitz Tropical Deforestation: Land Clearing and Small Farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon. He is currently working on a book on regional patterns of tropical deforestation. An assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Sam Houston State University, DIANE BATES recently completed a Ph.D. at Rutgers University and a dissertation on emigration from old colonization areas in Ecuador. Her current research interests focus on issues in environmental sociology, with an emphasis on environmental refugees. RAFAEL MACHINGUIASHI works for the Programa Bilingue of the Federacion Shuar in Macas, Ecuador. A historian by training, he is interested in developing oral history pro grams for Amerindian groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The frog fauna on both sides of a boundary between wet Andean forest and agricultural lands is examined in northwestern Ecuador. The stepwise nature of the responses differs from results of studies in tropical lowlands and suggests that edge effects that might penetrate from highland agriculture into cloud forest may be of far less conservation concern than the absolute loss of habitat as the agriculture creeps upslope.

Tropical montane forests are known for their ecological importance. Most montane forests in Ecuador have been converted to agriculture, and those that remain are concentrated on the eastern cordillera. Understanding of land-use-land-cover change in this ecological zone is inadequate. Using remote sensing (Landsat TM, SPOT) and fieldwork, we document land-use-land-cover change in two watersheds on Ecuador's eastern cordilera (Canar Province). During the 1990s the region experienced a 0.58 percent annual rate of deforestation, but two areas within it show active signs of re/afforestation. Although conversion of forest to pasture for cattle grazing continues, human migration to the United States is likely to affect the trajectory of future land-use-land-cover change. Keywords: Andes Mountains, Ecuador, land-use-land-cover change, migration, tropical montane forests., Explaining how and why landscapes are shaped through human--environment interactions is a long-standing tradition in geography (Turner 1997, 2002). Researchers have recently sought to understand how changes in land use [...]

The anthropogenic nature of Andean ecosystems is discussed in the framework of tree-line dynamics in selected sites in Ecuador. Indicators of human impact are evidence of the need for a scientific understanding of neotropical mountains that is better in tune with the special conditions of tropical Andean environments. Tropandean systems are neither tropical ecosystems nor midlatitude regions, and lessons from ecologically damaging activities in those ecosystems cannot be transferred readily to Tropandean systems. Better research from the ethnobiological and ecological fronts is needed if we are to comprehend the intricate functions of neotropical mountains, particularly the cloud-forest belt, which is regarded as the most threatened ecosystem when considering sustainability scenarios. Keywords: Andes Mountains, Ecuador, geoecology, paramos, tree-line change, tropical montane cloud forest., History--geological, archaeological, and agricultural-is a necessary main framework when delimiting the edge of the Tropandean ecoregion, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF). Landscape-level conservation planning must then acknowledge humans as [...]

A comparison is presented between Ecuadorian crop cultivation, pasture types and forest growth in production of soil carbon. While pastures contained and produced a higher level of soil carbon than croplands, forest growth showed the highest levels; a discussion on reforestation and sustainable agriculture is also included.

The most difficult challenge facing humanity is preserving forest ecosystems and their biological diversity while providing adequate standard of living for people living in those areas. Researchers in this study used participatory research and environmental education to affect forest preservation in southwestern Ecuador. Upon understanding the value of fog culture by Loma Alta community, they used their own model of governance to preserve the forest.

Three coastal zone management projects treat this as a learning process that requires constant evaluation and refinement. International donors sponsor shrimp aquaculture in Ecuador, coastal highways in Thailand, and shoreline construction in Sri Lanka. The greatest success was experienced when a participatory, issue-driven approach was utilized.

Nongovernmental organizations are increasingly influencing resource management and land use in areas of small farm agriculture in Latin America. A field study of NGOs working in upper Canar, a region in the southern highlands of Ecuador, documents the changing human-environment relations in an indigenous area and the influence of NGOs in the change process. Case studies of PLAN International and CARE indicate that the NGOs are helping marginalized producers shift land use away from traditional grains and tubers toward dairying and vegetables. Given current needs and resource constraints, the new land uses represent effective adaptive strategies. However, the NGO work is having notable consequences for land use intensity and labor utilization patterns. KEY WORDS: NGOs; Ecuador; land use; cultural ecology; indigenous people.

Over 20% of Ecuador's mangrove forests have perished since 1960. The Environmental and Societal Impacts Group at the National Center for atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, launched an international initiative uniting scientists, policy makers, and nongovernmental organizations representatives to understand the problems caused by environmental degradation.

This paper examines the regional dynamics and natural resource use strategies related to the deforestation of tropical rain forests west of the Ecuadorian Andes for the period 1983-1995. Research was based on regional level analysis of remotely sensed and secondary data and local level analysis of the ways local populations use the resources at their disposal. The process observed departs significantly from what has been described in the literature for Latin America and should be seen as a window into a broader environmental process occurring in most tropical forests on the Pacific side of northern South America. Deforestation in the Northwest Ecuador is primarily related to a complex productive structure, made up a countless number of timber producers and middlemen, ranging from fully informal to fully formal, and from small scale to large scale. A key finding is that local traditional populations play a critical role through productive coalitions between small primary producers and large timber firms. These have been shaped by the articulation of local conditions with external markets, settlement processes, and the convergence of local populations in an economic system which relies on the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. If deforestation rates in Northwest Ecuador remain at current levels, forests in the region will disappear completely within 30-35 years, a fate that is likely to be the same for most tropical rain forests west of the tropical Andes. KEY WORDS: tropical deforestation; commercial logging; traditional communities; Ecuador.

In Ecuador as in the majority of Latin American countries a profound crisis has significantly affected the productive base of the country. The deterioration of the environment, the living conditions [...]

This article presents a detailed profile of colonists households that have settled in the Amazon region of Ecuador. It describes their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, the natural resource base they control on their farms, and the land-use patterns that are emerging in this part of the Amazon frontier. The existence of a generalized pattern of forest clearing over time constrained by a 'straitjacket' of natural resources (or the so-called peasant pioneer cycle) is challenged and attention is given to understanding the role of institutional and household-level factors in influencing the observed variation in land-use and forest-clearing strategies. The survey data which form the basis for the analysis were collected by the author in 1990 from a probability sample of 450 colonist households in the northeastern frontier region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The results suggest that although the natural resource base can act as a serious constraint on land-use options available to colonists, farmers inherit different production potentials in their land. The range of land-use options open to each is narrowed or widened depending on the household's demographic and socioeconomic circumstances as well as the local and national policy and institutional context. The results given here are exploratory and intended to stimulate further discussion. Key words - Amazon, Ecuador, settlement, land use, deforestation, households

The road from Lago Agrio to Shushufindi parallels the trans-Ecuadorian pipeline a structure which throbs with the pulse of Ecuador's liquid wealth. Sad fragments of what was once the richest [...]

An evaluation of an environmental nongovernemntal organization (NGO) in Ecuador is presented.There has been a noted increase in the number of environmental NGOs in the Latin American region. International organizations like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are examining the effects of NGOs on environmental policies in their respective countries. The Ecuadoran NGO Fundacion Natura has been noted to be quite influential and effective. Analystsattribute this to effective funding by organizations such as USAID.

Accelerating rates of resource exploitation in the developing world have added a sense of urgency to conservation efforts, and have reinvigorated the debate surrounding the immediate development needs of nations of the 'South' and the global need to preserve unique and valued natural environments. Colonisation of tropical forests is a particularly contentious issue and too frequently forces policy-makers to choose between environmental protection and grassroots development. This paper traces the development of a resettlement project in the upper Amazon at Sumaco, Ecuador. Here national and international agencies assisted a group of refugees displaced by the 1987 earthquake to establish a new community in an area of undeveloped tropical forest. Coincident with the founding and peopling of Sumaco, the Ecuadorian government designated the area as a protected region where development of any kind is prohibited. Analysis of these conflicting land-use schemes illustrates the complexity of co-ordinating and enforcing environmental preservation and zoning policies in the developing world and highlights the human dimension of such actions.

This paper reports a statistical analysis of the causes of agricultural colonization and land clearing in eastern Ecuador. The results bolster many of the arguments that have been made about the social forces driving tropical deforestation. In general, the prospect of capturing agricultural rents stimulates settlement of tree-covered hinterlands. Accordingly, the presence of roads and urban centers attracts rural settlement. Colonists also prefer to go where soils are suitable for crop or livestock production, all else remaining the same. In addition to being a function of population pressure, the extent of land clearing is shown to be a consequence of tenure insecurity. These results suggest that institutional reform is needed to encourage conservation of tropical forests.

Jatun Sacha is an excellent, accessible place to discover the biological megadiversity of Ecuador and its importance to Ecuadorians. The reserves rich plant life constituting about 222 species of orchids and 140 species of medicinal plants is supported by as much as 50 feet of rain per year, raining apparently 200 days out of 365.

An interview with Luis Macas Dr. Luis Macas, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), is a Quechua Indian from the Saraguro region in the Andean highlands. [...]

The article discusses the structural policies and their impact on Ecuador's Amazonian colonies.

An overview is presented on the negative environmental impacts of an oil pipeline construction project that will cross through Ecuador's rainforest. These include displacement of indigenous peoples, risk of pipeline accidents due to volcanic activity and landslides, contamination of soil and drinking water, and destruction of wildlife preserves and parks, and violent repression of public protest.

Technical measures and policy initiatives needed to improve environmental management in the Protovelo-Zaruma mining district of Southern Ecuador are considered. It is shown to be technically possible to confine mining waste and tailings at a reasonable cost.

Conservationists have long been concerned about the ongoing destruction of Ecuador's unique forest habitats. Now, a multinational consortium is proposing to build an oil pipeline through an area of supposedly [...]

As oil expands deeper into Ecuador's rainforest, the growing dialogue over corporate accountability brings new opportunities--and risks. In the fall of 1997, a tiny indigenous community deep in Ecuador's Amazonian [...]

The people of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands have joined the Mexican government in charging that Ecuadoran industrial-sized tuna boats are damaging the Pacific Ocean's marine life in and around the archipelago, [...]