MONOIL

The cross-disciplinary MONOIL Project ambition is to participate to the description of human vulnerability facing environmental changes due to oil activities in Ecuador. Usually, oil pollution is considered when environmental crises occur following transport or operating accidents, thereby giving rise to what is commonly called "oil spills". In the case of Ecuador, the issue of chronic contamination occurred decades ago with the arrival of private oil companies in the Amazon basin, even if its mediatisation began with the Texaco court trial in the early 90s. Since then, it takes part of the daily life of local communities. The main objective of the MONOIL Project is to improve the understanding, the monitoring, the reduction and the control of oil contaminations and their impacts on society and environment in terms of damage but also vulnerabilities, to enable the co-construction of strategies that reduce vulnerability and adaptation, ecologically sustainable, economically viable, appropriate sociologically and politically relevant. Facing the issue and the stakes within the sustainable development context, another challenge will consist in participating to the development of new governance tools on both environment and energy for supporting a better remediation and preventing capacity of the industrial actors and the public action institutions working on this issue. The specific objectives of the MONOIL Project consist to assess: 1) the environmental impacts in two study areas of the Amazon basin and along the Pacific coast, around the Esmeraldas refinery, 2) the social and economic impacts of oil exploration at a larger scale, regarding the regional development of the study areas, 3) the vulnerabilities and tendencies of riparian people to face the potential contamination of natural resources at different scales (national, regional, local and at the home scale), and 4) to develop technical and organizational solutions to face the risks. The scientific holistic position and the cross-disciplinary approach we adopted (the project combines researchers in sociology, geography, epidemiology, hydrology, geochemistry, toxicology, biology and Ecuadorian operational actors) will allow achieving the scientific objectives of the project and ensuring the transfer to local actors, as decision support tools. Through the transfer of operating knowledge and scientific tools to academic, industrial, political partners and the civil society, MONOIL will be part of the implementation of a policy that better integrates energy issues and society challenges as an environmental, health and sustainable development as a whole.