QUITO, ECUADOR – Raul*, a biologist from Quito, has been leading conservation projects in the Chocó rainforest in north-east Ecuador for more than 20 years. It has not been easy, he says, recalling the threats he has received over the years for reporting illegal hunters and loggers in reserves, but he never considered giving up.ContinueContinue reading “‘Biologists were not part of the crime food chain’: why Ecuador’s scientists are facing violence, threats and kidnapping (The Guardian)”
Category Archives: Journalism Categories
‘I’m switched off’: frustration and fatigue as power cuts keep Ecuador in the dark (The Guardian)
QUITO, ECUADOR – It’s 6.30pm in Quito, and Anamary Mazorra Vázquez’sflat has fallen into darkness after weeks of government-mandated power cuts to manage Ecuador’s electricity crisis. She puts clothes away by the light of her phone while her husband, Roberto Vaca,seated on the bed by the window, uses the streetlights to help feed their two-year-oldContinueContinue reading “‘I’m switched off’: frustration and fatigue as power cuts keep Ecuador in the dark (The Guardian)”
Trapped in the Tide of Organized Crime (Hakai Magazine)
NARANJAL, ECUADOR – Marcos Ruiz is lying face down in the mud, legs splayed and one arm sunk up to his shoulder in a narrow hole. When he finally grabs the crab burrowing in the hole, he pushes himself out with his other arm and sits back on his heels to examine his prize. TheContinueContinue reading “Trapped in the Tide of Organized Crime (Hakai Magazine)”
From pristine forest to prison fortress: why Ecuador is sacrificing fragile ecosystems to build jails (The Guardian)
JUNTAS DEL PACIFICO, ECUADOR – Walking along a path his grandfather once used, Donald Cabrera, a villager from Bajada de Chanduy, on the coast of Ecuador, points out different trees and their uses. Talking about the imposing ceibo trees, he praises the fluffy white kapok fibre that falls from their branches, which his ancestors usedContinueContinue reading “From pristine forest to prison fortress: why Ecuador is sacrificing fragile ecosystems to build jails (The Guardian)”
The problem with people: how more tourists and a growing population are taking their toll on the Galápagos islands (The Guardian)
PUERTO AYORA, ECUADOR – In the humid Galápagos highlands, surrounded by tall scalesia trees, biologist Carolina Proaño has her head to the ground, checking nests for signs of new eggs or recent visits. She has long been trying to save the Galápagos petrel, a critically endangered black and white seabird known for making its nestContinueContinue reading “The problem with people: how more tourists and a growing population are taking their toll on the Galápagos islands (The Guardian)”
‘This is something that divides us’: Ecuador’s turbulent transition from oil dependence (The Guardian)
QUITO, ECUADOR – In a small corner of Ecuador’s Yasuní national park is the village of Llanchama. This Indigenous Quichua community is carved out of the dense Amazonian rainforest along the Tiputini River. But for nearly 10 years an entirely different development has been attempting to establish itself on the village’s borders: the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT)ContinueContinue reading “‘This is something that divides us’: Ecuador’s turbulent transition from oil dependence (The Guardian)”
‘Just by breathing we are contaminated’: schoolgirls fight to extinguish Ecuador’s gas flares (The Guardian)
LAGO AGRIO, ECUADOR – Fourteen-year-old Leonela Moncayo gets angry when she talks about the gas flares burning near her home. She grew up on the outskirts of Lago Agrio, a city on the edge of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, at the heart of its oil industry, where patches of tropical forest canopy are interspersed with oilContinueContinue reading “‘Just by breathing we are contaminated’: schoolgirls fight to extinguish Ecuador’s gas flares (The Guardian)”
Ecuadorians living in fear after presidential candidate’s killing (Al Jazeera)
QUITO, ECUADOR – It was business as usual on the streets of the Ecuadorian capital, as people made their way to work and students headed to school just hours after one of the country’s presidential candidates was fatally shot after a campaign rally. But it was hard to ignore the newspaper headlines, radio banter, andContinueContinue reading “Ecuadorians living in fear after presidential candidate’s killing (Al Jazeera)”
Understanding Ecuador’s violent turn // Entendiendo el giro violento de Ecuador (Ojalá)
QUITO, ECUADOR – Pedro is a 51 year old father from the city of Esmeraldas, a largely Afro-Ecuadorian city on the coast of Ecuador, which has recently been named one of the most violent cities in Latin America. Esmeraldas has long had its fair share of violence, but over the past year, Pedro says it’sContinueContinue reading “Understanding Ecuador’s violent turn // Entendiendo el giro violento de Ecuador (Ojalá)”
Will Ecuador’s illegal mining crackdown protect Indigenous people? (Reuters via Context)
QUITO – Kayaking down the Napo River in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, environmentalist Matthew Terry bemoaned how the once-lush riverbanks are now barren and full of dredges, excavating machines and bulldozers as illegal gold mining spreads across the region. In certain areas, miners have completely rerouted the river channel, while some smaller tributaries of the NapoContinueContinue reading “Will Ecuador’s illegal mining crackdown protect Indigenous people? (Reuters via Context)”
Kimberley Michelle Brown 