Las fases del ciclo de vida del hogar indígena y la dinámica ambiental: el caso de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana

Abstract

The objective of this research was to find out what has been the path of indigenous peoples’ livelihoods, their forms of access and prioritization of capital (natural, financial, social and human), the transformation of their assets and the capacity or not of act and satisfy your material needs during these last 20 years. In order to identify these changes, the life cycle of the indigenous household was analyzed, -and categorized into six phases, each one according to different demographic components-, where each phase leads to a diversification and choice of different means of life, but conditioned by mediating factors, which are those that influence decisions to prioritize or determine their livelihoods and their relationships with the environment. For this, quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used. Quantitatively with two surveys carried out in 2001 and 2012 and qualitatively with personal interviews in indigenous communities in 2019. The research was structured in three parts: (1) characterization by period 2001, 2012 and 2019; (2) measurement of changes between 2001 and 2012: and (3) characterization by cohort of 2001; longitudinal analysis of households according to phase in 2001 and see their situation in 2012, which represented an effective methodological alternative to know the evolution of behavior between livelihoods and environmental resources. (4) Another analysis developed was the construction of rates and indices to identify the reasons for the situations encountered, an innovative proposal for analyzing the reality of these populations. This moment implied the construction of an analysis methodology with the identification of what we called mediating factors, which were the ones that drove the changes between 2001 and 2012. The mediating factors were built under a system of variables and weighted indicators that allow us to see, identify and assess the new situations of these populations. (5) Qualitative work with the same variables and indicators for 2019. This analysis confirmed what was stated in the theoretical and methodological framework and in the previous results, regarding livelihoods, the new forms of prioritization and interrelation of these capitals and the role played by mediating factors for relationships with environmental resources. This section added the analysis by ethnicity, information that strengthened and made the investigation even more complex. The results showed that these populations have managed to maintain a certain heterogeneity in their livelihoods over the years without generating major impacts on environmental resources. However, mediating factors play a determining role in the new configurations and prioritization of livelihoods, where financial capital tends to be the one that directs and establishes the rest types of capital, its structural base being natural capital. Thus, the heterogeneity of the use of the different types of capital that occurred in the first year studied is becoming hegemonic, mediated by certain factors and leading to a high use of environmental resources without sustainable considerations, due to the way these same factors operate, which is not necessarily improving the living conditions of these populations. The results by period 2001 and 2012 indicated that, in households, whatever the household phase they are in, they tend to change, although each to a different extent in each of the variables analyzed. All the household phases presented the possible tendencies of these populations. Those of households in phases 6 and 1 are highlighted: for phase 6 it will be a greater use of land and, therefore, deforestation, and for those of phase 1 less use of their land and search for greater access to work / paid employment, a situation that is not easily achieved in the Amazon region. The 2001 results by cohort also presented the new trends in these populations 11 years later. High fertility is a critical element that drives livelihoods and the use of environmental resources. It should be noted that the households in phases 1, 2 and 3 in 2001 increased the use of environmental resources and, specifically, their use of land, because their number of members increased and, therefore, their needs increased and because their member can become laborers as they get older. Hence their focus on agro-productive activities, although activities such as hunting and fishing are reduced because the labor force is being used for activities such as education, an activity that is directing the imagination of these populations to improve their living conditions. Phase 6 households, due to the fact that they are in the final stage of the household cycle, are a sign that life patterns are still maintained without substantial changes, as for the other phases. The section carried out in 2019 qualitative and by ethnicity, validated what was found in the previous two years of analysis, but also allowed us to understand the complexity of the situation in which each of the analyzed ethnic groups find themselves. The shuar specifically with the presence of oil companies, the kichwa because of the urbanized areas that surround them, the siekopai with the new forms of land use in the area - palm cultivators - and the cofan with the public policies implemented. Different mediating factors that created unique situations and realities that modified the relationships between the livelihoods and environmental resources of these populations. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the situation in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and by recognizing these populations, interventions can be more effective and respond not only to economic interests, but also allow the exercise of the rights of these populations as human and as indigenous, but above all under a comprehensive perspective of situation and action that responds to superior interests, which in this document has been defined as the environment, with all the complexities between actions and actors that this entails.