Patrick Robinson

"Lessons from Junín: Community-Based Water Monitoring as a means of Promoting Indigenous Environmental Resilience in Intag, Ecuador"

Advisor: Dr. Stefanie Graeter

The Andean cloud forests of Ecuador’s Intag valley are among the most biodiverse in the world. However, they also contain billions of tons of copper ore; consequently, the Ecuadorian state is allowing foreign mining companies to drill exploratory boreholes in multiple agricultural communities. Water quality data collected via a community-based environmental monitoring program in the village of Junín show increases in acidity, electrical conductivity, and heavy metals concentrations since the onset of exploratory drilling; however, most communities remain in the dark vis-à-vis the impacts of drilling on their rivers and streams. In collaboration with local leaders, I propose to institute similar community-based water monitoring programs in the Indigenous villages of Irubí and Buenos Aires. These will empower local people to understand the impacts of exploratory drilling on local surface waters—and, in the event of contamination, generate legal evidence with which they can petition for a halt to mining operations.