For generations, humans across the globe have aggressively pursued natural resource extraction as a quick and easy path to wealth. In 2003, however, an independent panel of the World Bank released a groundbreaking report indicating that countries that relied on extractive industries actually suffered negative growth. This finding makes sense when one considers the short-term income mining provides, the inequitable distribution of benefits and costs, and its longer-lasting deleterious environmental and social impacts.

The extent of the damage inflicted depends on the type of industry. Copper mining, for example, almost always results in polluted waterways, eroded topsoil, denuded forests, diminished biodiversity, contaminated air and in the case of Ecuador, the displacement of indigenous peoples which all affect quality of life. Our goal is to confirm that copper mining in unique ecosystems like the Intag Region of Ecuador is uneconomic, ill-advised and that the preserved natural resources in the region are worth far more than the extracted resource could ever be. Intag straddles two of the world's most important biological hotspots, the Tropical Andes, and the Choco-Darien Western-Ecuadorian region.

Beyond identifying the negative consequences of mining, we also want to raise awareness in the local community and note the rapid shifts in the global market for copper. Technological advances have made it possible, for example, to replace copper in communications wiring with optic fibers which are made out of silica (or sand, an abundant and minimally damaging resource). In addition, optic fiber cables send information at 60% the speed of light, markedly faster than copper, while locating data centers near renewable energy sources reduces transmission needs and therefore will lead almost certainly to decreased copper demand over time.

Our research for this project will be useful not only in the Intag Region of Ecuador but to any community confronting copper mining and other extractive industries. Copper mines are now proposed in Peru, Chile, Congo, Angola, Zaire, Zambia, the Philippines, Bolivia, India, China, Russia and even in the U.S. With your help, we will be able to provide the technical research necessary to move stakeholders’ agenda forward and convince decision-makers in Ecuador and other countries that the myriad environmental and social costs of mining rarely outweigh the economic benefits.


Following the successful workshop in Ecuador on the Yasuní-ITT initiative, our work was requested by a small grassroots organization, DECOIN, based in northern Ecuador. DECOIN defends and conserves Intag’s natural capital and was founded in 1995. The cloud forests in the Intag region are currently being threaten by copper mining.

In English: An Ecological Study of Ecuador’s Intag Region: The Environmental Impacts and Potential Rewards of Mining (2011)
En Español: Estudio ecológico de la región de Intag, Ecuador: Impactos ambientales y recompensas potenciales de la minería