When a Wind Turbine Flaps Its Wings in China. the Socio-Ecological Impact of Balsa Extractivism in the Amazonia Ecuatoriana for the Indigenous Communities of the Region.

Balsa (ochroma pyramidale), is a type of timber that is mostly produced in the Amazonia. In fact, Ecuador is the world’s largest balsa exporter and it has been so for decades. Apparently the demand for balsa has skyrocketed over the past few years, and balsa trade is -indirectly -responsible for some of the Amazonia’s illegal deforestation, also having serious direct social impacts for the Amazonia’s local communities. The – unlikely – reason is green energy: balsa is the core material used in the construction of wind turbin-blades, and since wind-farms have multiplied impressively all over the globe in the quest for green energy solutions, so has the demand for balsa. Therefore, as global market with powerful actors such as China and the European Union have competed for access to the Amazonia’s ‘wooden gold’: balsa. But what does that mean for the local indigenous Amazonian communities?

Drawing from a 10 month ethnographic fieldwork in the Amazonia Ecuatoriana this paper is analysing the socio-ecological challenges global balsa commerce has provoked in the Amazonia Ecuatorian, contributing to the literature on green energy, its contradictions, and its lived experience; adding to the genealogy of extractivism, in the Amazonia exploring how this case study adds/ challenges/ contradicts/ furthers what we already know. It is part of an MSCA Indiviudual research project I am conducting at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU Amsterdam.