MINING EXTRACTIVISM AND ECOSOCIAL TRANSITIONS IN ECUADOR: FUTURE SCENARIOS AND TERRITORIAL METABOLISM IN THE FACE OF THE POLYCRISIS
EL EXTRACTIVISMO MINERO Y TRANSICIONES ECOSOCIALES EN ECUADOR: ESCENARIOS FUTUROS Y METABOLISMO TERRITORIAL ANTE LA POLICRISIS
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/s0717-73562026000100514
Carlos Quizhpe Parra
Key Words: Mining extractivism, social metabolism, ecosocial transitions, polycrisis and political ecology
Abstract
This article analyzes the intensification of mining extractivism in Ecuador under the “Decarbonization Consensus” and its intersection with the global polycrisis. From a political ecology perspective, it examines how large-scale mining fractures socio-territorial metabolism, operating as a mechanism of accumulation by dispossession that exacerbates socio-ecological asymmetries and converges with illicit economies. Methodologically, a multiscalar prospective exercise outlines three scenarios for 2035: neoextractivist continuity, a market-regulated corporate “green” transition, and a post-extractivist horizon. The analysis demonstrates that the first two pathways deepen peripheral dependence and territorial conflict. In contrast, it argues that an ecosocial transition is the only rational alternative in the fact of metabolic collapse and systemic violence. The viability of this post-extractivist horizon depends on the prefigurative agency of socioenvironmental movements and requires activating specific structural levers: progressive fiscal reform, sovereign debt-for-nature swaps, and the recognition of community territorial jurisdiction. The study concludes that dismantling the extractive matrix demands reorienting metabolism toward the collective sustaining of life.
