Ecuador: Ireland McQuillan (Career Connections)

Program: UW Environmental Ethics & Indigenous Rights in Ecuador, Summer

As part of our program, we visited nature reserves battling mining projects in the region. One of these places was a reserve in Junín. There we learned about an endemic frog species and a species that was previously thought to be extinct. The activists at the sites used these animals to prove that these areas need to be protected and that the mining would violate the rights of nature as outlined in Ecuador’s constitution. We then visited Los Cedros, a reserve that thirty years prior had been completely covered by farmland. At each of these sites, I gained a broader understanding of scientific communication in politics and to local communities.

Listening to activists and researchers who live at and run these reserves gave me some insight into how I can be an effective communicator in my future career. I plan to work in agricultural policy, specifically with Native American tribal governments on food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture. I also hope to be able to research the effects of corporate agriculture’s hold on the U.S. economy and political climate as well as crop breeding programs that help boost independent farmers’ incomes. All these career goals intersect in a variety of ways, but I planned that intentionally. I currently work in a lab on campus, and I get to experience the research process every day.

Something that I have noticed not only in the lab but in my classes and in Junín and Los Cedros is a disconnect between the research and the community it affects. In Ecuador, I learned about the violence from environmental and political activists towards mining companies and government violence towards the affected communities. In Los Cedros and Junín they used research on frogs and other endemic species to justify the protection of each of the reserves. In Junín they also burned down the mining camp as an act of resistance due to a lack of governmental restriction on the mines and soil testing being done. In Los Cedros I also discussed with a researcher there on how they are trying to ethically implement eco-tourism on the reserve. All of these actions outlined how different groups involved in environmental protection interact.

I learned about the importance of understanding the environment that I want to protect as an activist. Sometimes, blind activism can lead to more tension surrounding the issue and backwards progress when protecting a space. Examples of this are the Junín mine fire or the Dakota Access pipeline in South Dakota. Both protests were acts to protect the land, however, a lack of knowledge on the situation and an incomplete understanding of the crisis led to violence and standstills. In my future career I hope to collaborate with all sides of an environmental conflict because scientific research is activism. When tourists, community members, lawyers, activists, and researchers can collaborate to understand each of their roles and needs in the effort, a more united front can be formed to protect the environment. In Los Cedros we discussed how all parts of the environment are interconnected, even parasites are necessary in every ecosystem.

This is a good analogy for how we should approach anything related to environmental protection. Everyone involved in policy, research, and on-the-ground action has a role, and they each rely on one another. Without collaboration, progress stalls. In the future I hope to emphasize these ideas in tribal food sovereignty cases and agricultural land management. Working with the tribes, federal and state governments, and NGOs is the best way to ensure protection of tribal members’ rights. Overall, Los Cedros and Junín taught me that research does not need to be separate from activism and policy, but instead should be actively incorporated to create a more holistic picture of an issue. At the same time, activists and policymakers should listen to research, as oftentimes those studies are what support the case to protect a specific area, such as the frogs in Junín.