The Disruption of Ancestral Peoples in Ecuador’s Mangrove Ecosystem: Class and Ethnic Differentiation within a Changing Political Context

This article analyses the evolution of identity politics in the Coordinating Body for the Defense of the Mangrove Ecosystem (C-CONDEM) in Ecuador from 2009 onward, when a new political context of opportunities emerged. In 2007, the racially heterogeneous social movement for the defense of mangroves led by the organization C-CONDEM positioned itself as the ‘Ancestral Peoples of Mangrove Ecosystem’ and claimed the right to collective ownership of the Ecuadorian mangrove areas, including those that had been previously and illegally transformed into shrimp farms. This political strategy was aimed at increasing the power over the means they use to secure their own livelihoods. However, the refusal of president Correa’s government to acknowledge the existence of this political subject, combined with its policy of granting legal status to the majority of the illegal shrimp farmers, has contributed to the fragmentation of the social movement and the reshaping of its politics of representation. C-CONDEM has lost its main mestizo members on the southern coast, but is continuing to fight for mangrove collective titles by adopting a now hegemonic racialized ethnic discourse.