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This chapter presents a typology of environmentalisms in Ecuador, with a focus on environmental organizations using Weber’s conception of ideal types. Using ideal types enables the analysis to transcend historical particularities to understand general patterns, trends, and relationships among environmental organizations beyond Ecuador. Four ideal types are delineated: ecoimperialists, ecodependents, ecoresisters, and ecoentrepreneur organizations. The primary sorting mechanism for groups is their funding source. Second level sorting focuses on their level of organization (transnational, national, regional, or local), their main agenda, types of projects, relationship to the state, public’s view of them, and their position on the trajectory of development. The characterization of environmental organizations is deductive–drawing on Lewis’ 2007 survey of organizations (Ecuadorian Environmental Organization Survey) and interviews with activists, and inductive–drawing on the work of sociologists and historians who have created classifications of environmentalisms.

This chapter examines international and national forces that shaped Ecuador’s environmentalism during the height of neoliberalism. It looks at how the international environmental discourse of “sustainable development” interfaced with the international economic hegemony of neoliberalism. During the boom years, international, national and local concerns coalesced to create growth in the environmental movement sector in terms of both the number and types of organizations. Ecoimperialist organizations used their transnational funding to grow ecodependent organizations (NGOization), which altered their structures to become more professional and to conserve important habitats. The negative impact of the ecoimperialist funding was that the local ecodependent organizations’ agendas were channelled by foreign forces and competition among Ecuadorian groups for funding weakened solidarity within the national movement, preventing a collective approach that would be critical of the extractive development trajectory. Nevertheless, ecoimperialists and ecodependents forged an alliance to fill the void left by the state, weakened by its own decisions and by international economic actors. The state took some token steps toward sustainable development, but overall, neoliberalism ruled the day and Ecuador resorted to natural resource extractive development. Under the radar, grassroots movements led by indigenous groups and ecoresisters generated alternative possibilities for the nation’s future development.

This chapter analyses the decline in transnational funding that began around 2000 and the consequent shrinking of the mainstream segments of the environmental sector (ecodependents). Grassroot and radical activists (ecoresisters), who had long been an overshadowed aspect of the movement, came to the fore. While these activists and their groups existed almost since the beginning of Ecuador’s environmental mobilizations, the decline of international support from ecoimperialists that caused the decline of ecodependents’ strength, coupled with a crisis of the state, created an opening for ecoresisters. Ecoresisters were independent of transnational funding and autonomous in their agenda setting. They had the capacity to set their own terms and resist the dominant environmental and development agendas. They had a radical critique of the extractive development model and they presented alternative visions for the future that were more aligned with ecology. Coupled with indigenous movements, they pressed for alternatives to development: buen vivir/sumak kawsay: “living well.” Ties are made to the literature on dependency and world polity. A fourth type of environmental group is explained and illustrated: ecoentrepreneur organizations, groups that are relatively independent from international funding structures and represent another alternative for organizing sustainably.

This chapter examines the sweeping changes that have taken place since President Rafael Correa came to power as part of the socialist “Citizens’ Revolution” to transform the state from a weak agent into a strong and effective actor. In this process, the environmental sector changed. First, international agents, such as USAID, lessened their involvement in Ecuador and others, such as Conservation International, shifted their focus from ecodependents to the state. Second, environmental leaders moved from the non-profit sector into the government. Third, ecodependent groups lost power and many closed due to fiscal concerns. Finally, many of the ecoresisters’ ideas were incorporated into the state, such as constitutional rights for nature and the Yasuní-ITT Initiative. However, as the state seeks to honor its promise to lift its people out of poverty, it has done so through resource extraction. Ecoresisters are now battling against the state rather than the transnational corporations they fought in the past and the state is limiting their civil liberties. This final case chapter looks at the role of various types of civil society groups in altering (or not altering) the state’s choices, and discusses the potential for democratic practices to slow the treadmill of production.